IMPLEMENTING SERVICE LEARNING IN SPECIAL EDUCATION COURSEWORK: WHAT WE LEARNED.

TEACHER training; SERVICE learning; TEACHER training courses; TRAINING of special education teachers; INSTRUCTIONAL systems; GRADUATE education; GRADUATE study in education; EDUCATION; TRAINING

Service learning is an effective instructional strategy in preservice teacher education programs for engaging students more actively in the learning process. In spite of the extensive studies on service learning in teacher education programs and courses, few studies are devoted to investigating the implementation of service learning in special education programs. This study describes the implementation of service learning projects in graduate and undergraduate level special education courses over a nine year span by two instructors at a major university. Data were collected from course syllabi, permanent products, project and course grades, student course evaluations, and instructors' guided notes. These data from the six courses were analyzed to determine results of the service learning experiences. We found that service learning projects are a natural fit within courses offered in our special education teacher training program. At a time when education pedagogy emphasizes evidence-based practice our results suggest that service learning is an effective instructional strategy for teaching course content and social values. Further, the results of our analysis of service learning projects indicate that we have successfully embedded our conceptual framework of preparing knowledgeable, effective, and caring educators into the Strategies, Collaboration, and Families courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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