Service-learning as a teaching and learning strategy, which combines meaningful service in the community with education, has spread not only in the United States but also in South America, Asia, and Europe in recent years, with the pedagogy being applied at all levels of formal and informal education. In 2005, Matej Bel University, located in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, developed a servicelearning strategy, and by 2013 its usage had become widespread. This article presents the findings of a study that investigated the development of key competences of two student groups enrolled in courses that incorporated service-learning strategies during academic years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 at Matej Bel University. The findings of the study suggest that service-learning strategies have positive impacts on the development of students' key competences. The limitations of our study were conducted with a small research (experimental) group of students who passed service-learning course. Based on our research findings we can recommend service-learning as a suitable strategy for students' key competencies development.

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The transformation of education should originate in the school environment. Teachers, as actors of change, thus find themsel es in the position of transformational leaders. Keller (2006) identifies as transformational leaders those individuals who can succeed and fulfil a vision, inspire and activate followers who respond with en‑ thusiasm and determination to achieve goals. Part of a leader’s job is the co‑creation of the organizational culture being upheld in the educational setting. Organizational culture rep‑ resents the nature of the workplace, approach, unwritten rules of interaction and the values of the organization (Morcos, 2018). Organizational culture as defined by Cameron and Quinn (2011) points to the fact that aleader significantly participates in its formation. These claims are confirmed by various studies conducted in different types of organizations, including schools, worldwide (f.e. Daud et al., 2015; Berkemeyer et al., 2015; Yücel et al., 2013). Goal: The aim of the present paper was to find out whether there is a relation between the school organizational culture and the characteristics of transformational leaders in education in the Slovak context. Methods: The paper consists of two studies due to the use of two different research methods assessing transformational leadership factors. Study 1: the research group consisted of 107 Slovak teachers (N = 107; AMage= 43.72; SDage= 10.51; 18.69 % men). The data were obtained through the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI; Kouzes & Posner, 2013), assessing five types of practices – leadership practices: 1) Model the Way, 2) Inspire a Shared Vision, 3) Challenge the Process, 4) Enable Others to Act, 5) Encourage the Heart and 6) the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI; Cameron & Quinn, 2006), mapping four types of organizational culture – Clan, Adhoc, Market, and Hierarchy. Study 2: the research group consisted of 100 Slovak teachers (N = 100; AMage= 40.99; SDage= 7.79; 30.00 % men). The data for this study were obtained through the Czech Leadership Questionnaire (CLQ; Procházka et al., 2016) assessing eight subscales corresponding to four components of transformational leadership, three components of transaction‑ al leadership, and laissez‑faire leadership. Only the four components of transformational leadership were used. The second questionnaire was also OCAI. All tools were modified and adapted to local conditions. Results: Relation analysis between the observed variables in both studies showed statistically significant positive moderately strong relations assessed by LPI, CLQ to the Clan’s organizational culture of the school (LPI r = from.262** to.394**; CLQ r= from.222* to.420***). For Study 1: negative moderately strong relations between Market organiza‑ tional culture and LPI factors (r = from -.224** to -.421***) and Study 2: CLQ with Hierarchical Organizational Culture (r = from -.249* to -.437***). The Clan organizational culture dominates in the monitored Slovak schools, closely related to the characteristics of trans‑ formational leaders in education as potential actors of changes in education. Conclusion: According to the findings, transformational leaders in education, being an attractive example for others, are charismatic bearers of innovative ideas, they are progressive in their approach to their followers, strengthening the school team spirit and ap‑ preciating and encouraging them. They are the leaders of the Clan organizational culture. The positive finding in both studies remains that the researched Slovak schools show a prevalence of the Clan organizational culture.