Veterinary students' perceptions of participation in a service-learning activity

Citizens worldwide are increasingly concerned about the animal welfare of farm animals but lack knowledge about animal production systems, as fewer and fewer people have a direct connection to rural environment. Veterinary students these days present low motivation for teaching subjects related to agricultural species because they are more focused on companion animals. The aim of this work was to evaluate the perception of veterinary students about the degree of utility for learing achieve, satisfaction and acceptability of participation on an service-learning activity integrated in a teaching innovation project. We choose the service-learning activity because learner-centered methodologies could be appealing to students to stimulate external motivation and, simultaneously, provide benefits for society. The participants reported increases in the awareness of lack of knowledge about food animal production aspects and the importance of university involvement in activities that provide social benefits. Together with a 94 % of high or very high self-reported learning increase about the specific topics of the curricula of the subject and an 80% of high or very high self-reported global satisfaction with the participation in the SL activity, despite some technical difficulties, led us to conclude that service-learning methodologies could be successfully integrated in the veterinary curricula.