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| The
SAT Program |
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Characteristics
The SAT combines a series of conceptual and practical
characteristics that make it an educational innovation:
- The
SAT awakens in its students a spirit of inquiry, which
encourages them to study their communities’
problems in depth, and to engage in a scientific search
for solutions.
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Theory and practice are repeatedly integrated, thus
fulfilling a school’s true role vis-à-vis
the community.
- Wisdom
is harmoniously blended, mixing traditional wisdom
with modern knowledge.
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Abstract and concrete activities are integrated.
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Different areas of knowledge are integrated, as required
by the capability or attitude sought to be developed
in the student.
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It strives to fuse together the intellectual dimension
of the human being with its spiritual counterpart,
a spirituality that is constantly reflected in the
practice of universal human values, and in the active
participation in the search for and construction of
a better society.
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The pedagogical relations are non-traditional,
consisting instead of a group of people who
work together towards a common goal. Students
and tutor tackle together practical problems
and engage in a kind of encounter that opens
the way for self-directed learning.
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Within a SAT group—which can be seen as
a group of neighbors who share ideas and problems—learning
to dialogue is both an educational objective
and a means of instruction.
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Its tutorial nature allows each student to advance
at his or her own pace, and is thus open and
flexible.
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Students at University Nursery
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- The
tutor comes from the same town or region, and his
or her commitment to, and knowledge of, the area’s
reality is greater.
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The System eliminates the need for the student to
travel long distances or disconnect from his or her
social and cultural environment.
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Study, work, and community development are integrated,
all within a spirit of service.
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It has its own texts—fruits of processes of
investigation-action with the rural reality.
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The texts are designed to help the student, under
the guidance of a tutor, engage in a simultaneous
process of knowledge validation and the construction
of new knowledge.
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It is easily appropriable by other organizations with
like-minded goals, organizations which secure its
incorporation into relevant governmental programs.
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It does not require complex infrastructure; existing
community structures are sufficient.
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The way the learning system is organized both responds
to the urgent need to expand coverage and restore
the communities’ right to a high-quality education,
and keeps the program's per student cost below the
standard level.
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