Service Learning for Disabled Students

Service learning incorporates students' learning goals that are tied to the service-learning project. Service learning increases the effect of academic learning and provides opportunities for students to advance skills and acquire new ones, think critically, work with others agreeably, and relate to others; includes preparation and reflection. Service learning “involves youth in the planning process; makes a meaningful contribution to the community; and connects the school and community in new and positive ways” (Alliance for Service Learning in Education Reform, n.d., as cited in Council for Exceptional Children, 2007, ¶ 3). Service learning also differs from volunteerism or community service activities in that students not only learn but also reflect upon what they have learned from the activity (Kleinert, McGregor, Durbin, Blandford, Jones, Owens, Harrison & Miracle, 2004). Different types of service learning projects that are suitable for students with severe or mild disabilities are also included, as well as steps required for implementing a service learning project for students with disabilities and how service learning projects can be used to help meet each student's individualized education program (IEP) goals.

Keywords Community Service; Disabled Students; Individualized Education Program (IEP); Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); Portfolio; Reflection; Service Learning; Service-Learning Projects; Volunteering; Volunteerism

Overview

Service learning is more than community service. Service learning incorporates students' learning goals that are tied to the service-learning project. Service learning strengthens academic learning; creates opportunities for students to learn new skills, think critically, work cooperatively, and relate to others; includes preparation and reflection; involves students in the planning process; makes a meaningful contribution to the community; and connects the school and community in a positive way (Alliance for Service Learning in Education Reform, n.d., as cited in Council for Exceptional Children, 2007, par. 3). Service learning also differs from volunteerism or community service activities in that students not only learn but also reflect upon what they have learned from the activity (Kleinert, McGregor, Durbin, Blandford, Jones, Owens, Harrison & Miracle, 2004).

Some type of service learning is used in over one-third of the nation's schools (Skinner & Chapman, 1999, as cited in Fredericks, 2003). Service learning can be used in every type of community, from small rural areas to heavily populated urban areas. Service learning can also be used for practically all subject areas and grade levels to connect the learning in the classroom to real-world, practical application and can be used across the curriculum because many service-learning projects will require the use of knowledge from many different subject areas (Fredericks, 2003).

Service learning enables “students to integrate and apply the knowledge and skills they learn in school to address significant needs in their schools or communities” (Yoder, Retish & Wade, 1996, as cited in Kleinert et al., 2004, p. 29). Since service learning is directly tied to the curriculum, for students with disabilities it is also directly linked to their Individualized Education Program (IEP) objectives. As such, service learning is being recognized as a valuable tool for all students, both those with disabilities and their non-disabled peers.

One survey of special education instructors whose students were “involved in service-learning projects showed that their students had increases in attendance, academic skills, and social relationships with their peers” (Brill, 1994, as cited in Kleinert et al., 2004, p. 29; Dymond, Renzaglia & Euljung, 2007). A study of “inclusive service-learning projects between seventh and eighth grade students with disabilities, students with limited English proficiency, and general education students” found benefits for all students involved with the projects, including increases in "self-esteem, self-knowledge, communication, problem-solving skills, and social skills" (Yoder et al., 1996, as cited in Kleinert et al., 2004, p. 29). Additional benefits that can be derived from participating in service-learning projects are:

• Enhanced student engagement in school,

• The opportunity to learn about new careers, and

• A stronger sense of being part of the community (Students in Service to America, 2003, as cited in Kleinert et al., 2004, p. 29).

In addition, service-learning activities can be linked to “the evidence of learning to meet each state's alternate educational assessment under the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA)” (Kleinert et al., 2004, p. 28).

Through the inclusion of students with severe disabilities in service-learning projects, students without disabilities gain additional benefits, too. In one high school service-learning project, non-disabled peers who participated in service-learning projects with disabled students showed “significantly more positive attitudes toward people with severe disabilities than they had before their participation in the projects, whereas high school students who only engaged in service-learning projects directed solely to helping students with disabilities” did not show any significant changes in attitude (Burns, Storey & Cerlo, 1999, as cited in Kleinert et al., 2004, p. 29; Dymond et al., 2007).

Students with disabilities involved in a service-learning project can gain a sense of self-esteem and self-worth by completing a project that has social importance. The project can also engage them in curriculum and school-related activities, and it can also help alter others' negative views of their ability to contribute to society (Muscott, 2001, as cited in Scott, 2006). Service learning can play a major role in the furtherance of academic, social, and civic abilities for students who are disabled; and children also get to enjoy the pleasure of contributing to others’ objectives and education, which can increase their motivation and provide the springboard for them to be more active with their own learning techniques and processes (Scott, 2006).

Applications

Implementing a Service-Learning Project

When beginning an inclusive service-learning project, it is important to remember to include all students in the planning process and not just have students with disabilities participate in the actual project. Students with moderate and severe disabilities rarely have the opportunity to plan their own learning activities, and how they would like to contribute to their community. Students with disabilities and their non-disabled peers can jointly talk with civic groups and school organizations” to try to determine the need they would like to address (Kleinert, et al., p. 29). Before selecting a project, students can attempt to develop community partnerships by seeking out the help of community organizations to identify the needs of the community. Students with disabilities can work with their non-disabled peers to meet with these organizations, which gives them “opportunities to practice communication, social, and problem-solving skills and also allows those in the community that they meet with to view people with disabilities in a new light” (Kleinert et al., 2004, p. 30).

A Project Example

Kleinert et al. (2004) describe a project using a monthly social and recreational event designed especially for senior citizens at a complex where students plan and cook a dinner as well as plan the entertainment for the evening as an example, the following steps should occur (Kleinert et al., 2004):

• Clear educational goals and curriculum are set. Instructors need to make sure that targeted service-learning skills can be linked to educational goals and IEP objectives. Examples of IEP objectives may include “initiating and sustaining social interactions; cooking skills; meal-planning skills; mathematics skills, such as planning a budget, purchasing items, measuring and counting items; and recreational skills, such as playing cards and participating in table or board games” (Kleinert et al., 2004, p. 30).

• Students with disabilities are involved with project selection and planning. Students with moderate and severe disabilities can be actively involved in all stages of planning, such as identifying the theme for each event, determining what each menu will be, and deciding what kind of recreational activities will occur.

• Students with disabilities help plan the project in detail. All students are involved in developing a specific action plan and timeline for completing their project. “They also need to determine a project budget, assign tasks for themselves, and work with any community partners to decide the activities the partners will assist with” (Students in Service to America, 2003, as cited in Kleinert et al., 2004, p. 30). This step gives students with disabilities and their non-disabled peers “opportunities to practice time, budgeting, and money management skills and learn to divide goals into a series of smaller, more manageable steps” (Kleinert et al., 2004, p. 30). All students are actively involved in all steps, but instructors should consider how each student with a disability could work with a non-disabled peer.

• Students implement and manage the service-learning project. As students begin the project, instructors need to assist them in continuously monitoring their progress to make sure they stay on track and can finish the project on time. “Students with disabilities can track their own performance on their key learning objectives on their IEP” during this time to see how they are progressing (Kleinert et al., 2004, p. 30). For example, for students whose IEP objectives included initiating and sustaining interactions, they can use the fact that they began to request their favorite tasks each month as an example of making great progress with that objective.

• Reflection activities need to be developed. Students need to be involved “on an ongoing basis in reflecting on what they have achieved and learned” (Kleinert et al., 2004, p. 30). For these activities, non-disabled students can help their disabled student peers compose their reflections. “Reflections and other documentation of student learning can be added to student portfolios and help promote students' sense of ownership and control over their own learning” (Ezell & Klein, 2003, as cited in Kleinert et al., 2004, p. 30).

• Students and instructors need to assess and evaluate the service-learning project. Instructors “can assist students in collecting data on their performance. Students can conduct interviews with the community organization and the recipients of the service to help evaluate the effect of the service-learning project” (Kleinert et al., 2004, p. 30).

• After the project is completed, students' achievements should be celebrated. Celebrations are an important component of all service-learning projects. For all the students who were involved in the project, it provides an opportunity to celebrate the results of their hard work. For students with disabilities, it provides a special chance to give back to the community and be publicly recognized for their achievement (Kleinert et al., 2004, p. 30).

With this monthly project, students really work on their social skills because they need to contact the senior center every month to inform them of the time, date, and theme for every event as well as participate in the actual events. They also need to come up with new ideas, decorations, food, and entertainment for each month. They work on planning, budgeting, and implementation each month, which can help reinforce educational concepts more than just planning one event during the school year (Kleinert et al., 2004).

Service-Learning Projects for Students with Mild to Severe/Multiple Disabilities

Service-learning projects can involve a few students, an entire classroom, or the entire school. The projects can include only students with disabilities, which may give the students a feeling they have done something really special on their own, or it can include general education and/or gifted students, which provides additional opportunity for inclusion (Council for Exceptional Children, 2007).

Projects for Students with Mild or Moderate Disabilities

Council for Exceptional Children (2007) illustrates that there are many service-learning projects that are suitable for students with mild or moderate disabilities, such as:

• Students can make a Freedom Quilt with their non-disabled and talented peers. In making the quilt, students learn about history and geometry and gain social skills by interacting with their peers.

• A high school business class for students with moderate disabilities can include a project to purchase presents to donate to Toys for Tots or children at a children's hospital over the holidays. In order to earn money to fund the project, students make and sell cookies, which includes many components of running a business.

• Students with mild disabilities can work on a voter registration project by conducting a voter registration drive at their high school.

• Students with mild disabilities can work on a service-learning project connected to both their math and science classes by working on a food drive. They raise funds to buy healthy canned goods.

• Students with mild or moderate disabilities can collect food or clothing for a homeless shelter or a shelter for abused women.

• Students with mild or moderate disabilities can grow vegetables for a food bank (Council for Exceptional Children, 2007).

There are service-learning projects for students of every age. The only limit is the instructor's imagination in how to connect a service project with their curriculum and students' IEP goals. A possible project for students in first, second, and third grades is to help a children's hospital by designing cards for its patients. This can be an ongoing project that meets curricular and IEP writing skills goals as students work on preliminary drafts, proofreading, revising, and eventually completing their cards. Students in grades three through six can decide on a community group or agency they would like to help and then decide on a product to make, market, and then sell and donate the profits to support the program. This allows students to learn measuring, how to make change, mathematics skills, and socializing skills. They also learn how to get along with their peers and students in other grades (Council for Exceptional Children, 2007).

Projects for Students with Severe or Multiple Disabilities

Instructors can decide what type of service-learning project is appropriate for their severely disabled students based on each student's IEP. The project cited below details how a service-learning project can be tailored to meet the needs of students with severe or multiple disabilities:

Students can work with the local Humane Society by socializing with the animals, walking them, and working on their biographies to help get them adopted. Having students with disabilities work with the animals can help determine if the animals need obedience training and can make it easier for families who may have a child with a disability to know if the animal would be a good pet for them to adopt. With “this program, students can learn a whole range of skills that are related to their IEP. For example, students who have difficulty tracking things visually can develop grasp and release skills by giving treats to dogs” (Council for Exceptional Children, 2007, ¶ 5). Other students can improve their reading and writing skills by working on each animal's biography. Students who cannot read can use pictures to help write the biographies. Students who do not want to interact with the animals can try to raise money to support the Humane Society, which can help them develop their social skills (Council for Exceptional Children, 2007).

Students can also perform service-learning activities with their non-disabled peers by making packages of necessary items for those in need, working on a recycling project, and visiting senior centers. The important thing is to make sure that students with disabilities are equally responsible for creating a plan, putting the plan into effect, and assessing the final result. Students can derive many benefits beyond just meeting their IEP goals. They can learn skills they would not normally have to do, socialize with people they may never normally meet, and have increased interaction with their non-disabled peers. Their non-disabled peers can also gain invaluable knowledge of students with disabilities by seeing them in a different light, which gives them a new appreciation of students with disabilities (Council for Exceptional Children, 2007).

Further Insights

Many positive student outcomes have been attributed to service learning. These include:

• Improved student attendance,

• Grade-point averages,

• Self-esteem,

• Leadership skills,

• Awareness of community and government issues,

• Communication skills,

• Personal and social responsibility,

• Career awareness, and

• Cultural acceptance (Billig, 2000; Brandell & Hinck, 1997; Choi, 1998; Clark, Croddy, Hayes & Phillips, 1997; Follman & Muldoon, 1997; Kim, Parks & Beckerman, 1996, as cited in Dymond et al., 2007).

Separate service learning projects for students with disabilities have usually been implemented for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (Frey, 1999, 2001, 2003; Ioele & Dolan, 1992; McCarty & Hazelkorn, 2001; Muscott, 2000, 2001, as cited in Dymond et al., 2007). However, students with learning disabilities (Abernathy & Obenchain, 2001; Jackson, 1996, as cited in Dymond et al., 2007) and moderate or severe intellectual disabilities (Everington & Stevenson, 1994; Krajewski & Callahan, 1998, as cited in Dymond et al., 2007) have also participated in separate programs.

As a result of the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and its subsequent 2004 reauthorization, there has been increased emphasis on educating students with disabilities with their non-disabled peers to ensure that every student with a disability should be able to learn from a general education curriculum in their school. Service learning has been promoted as a method of furthering all-encompassing learning because it is capable of meeting the needs of every student; disabled and non-disabled. Schools that subscribe to the idea that all students bring their own unique strengths to service-learning projects are more likely to promote inclusive service-learning projects over segregated ones (Dymond et al., 2007). Service learning also allows students with disabilities an opportunity to take part in community-based instruction with their non-disabled peers and helps develop a feeling of joined community that is experienced from student to student. In addition, it can help students develop their critical-thinking skills (Gent & Gurecks, 1998, as cited in Dymond et al., 2007).

Service-learning projects can provide useful evidence for student portfolios. Some states allow the use of alternate assessment portfolios to document the attainment of IEP objectives and their targeted goals. Service learning can also help improve “performance across school and community settings, a student's ability to work toward a group goal with peers,” and also provide students with an opportunity to explore career options (Kleinert et al., 2004, p. 31). Students can use diary entries and recordings, pictures, their performance information, thoughts about their peers and about their work and the contributions they made to the project, and letters from any partners detailing the positive results of the assignment (Kleinert & Kearns, 2001, as cited in Kleinert et al., 2004).

Conclusion

For many students with disabilities, being involved in a service-learning activity is the first time that they are not on the receiving end of a good deed and are instead the ones helping someone else. This can be very empowering for them and help them learn a multitude of skills that will be useful in the world beyond school. The preceding examples of service-learning projects for students with disabilities can be done with their non-disabled peers, which meets inclusion standards. The key is to partner students with disabilities with their non-disabled peers and to allow them to collaborate with each student using their own particular strengths. Students can be grouped by their complementary skills, which allows all students to learn that everyone has something special to offer while completing the project; yet another compelling reason why service learning works for all students regardless of ability.

Terms & Concepts

Community Service: Community service is a form of volunteering that community members choose to participate in as a way to help the society as a whole and better the conditions of the community.

Individualized Education Program (IEP): An individualized education program is a specific outline of the academic goals, evaluation methods, plans for managing behavior, and performance assessment of a child in need of special education services.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, formerly the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, requires all states receiving federal funds for education to provide students with disabilities a proper public education that will cater to the individual needs of the students and allow them to gain the skills necessary for future career opportunities and independent living.

Portfolio: A portfolio is a systematic collection of teacher observations and student work representing the student's progress and activities of a particular class or project.

Reflection: Reflection is the process of deriving meaning and knowledge from an experience and to consciously connect classroom learning to the experience.

Service Learning: Service learning combines classroom concepts with real-world community needs to help students understand the importance of what they are studying while fostering concern for the community and its citizens.

Volunteerism: The formal service of a community member that is a benefit in some way to the society at large. Payment or funding for the volunteer work is not received.

Bibliography

Carter, E.W., Swedeen, B., & Moss, C.K. (2012). Engaging youth with and without significant disabilities in inclusive service learning. Teaching Exceptional Children, 44, 46-54. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=74695067&site=ehost-live

Council for Exceptional Children (2007). Service learning - Students with disabilities give to others. Retrieved November 12, 2007, from http://www.cec.sped.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=6262

Dymond, S., Renzaglia, A. & Euljung, C. (2007). Elements of effective high school service learning programs that include students with and without disabilities. Remedial & Special Education, 28 , 227-243. Retrieved November 12, 2007 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=25928970&site=ehost-live

Fredericks, L. (2003). Making the case for social and emotional learning and service-learning. ECS Issue Paper. Retrieved November 12, 2007, from Education Commission of the States http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/44/04/4404.pdf

Kleinert, H., McGregor, V., Durbin, M., Blandford, T., Jones, K., Owens, J., et al. (2004). Service learning opportunities that include students with moderate and severe disabilities. Teaching Exceptional Children, 37 , 28-34. Retrieved November 12, 2007 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=14904635&site=ehost-live

Scott, V. (2006). Incorporating service learning into your special education classroom. Intervention in School & Clinic, 42 , 25-29. Retrieved November 12, 2007 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=22032013&site=ehost-live

Suggested Reading

Bartsch, J. (2001). Community lessons: Promising curriculum practices. Malden, MA:

Massachusetts Department of Education.

Berman, S. (2006). Service learning: A guide to planning, implementing, and assessing student projects. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Billig, Shelley (2000). Service-learning impacts on youth, schools and communities: Research on K-12 school-based service-learning, 1990-1999. Denver, CO: RMC Research Corporation.

Kaye, C (2003). The complete guide to service learning: Proven, practical ways to engage students in civic responsibility, academic curriculum, & social action. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing.

National Commission on Service-Learning (2002). Learning in deed: The power of service-learning for American schools. Battle Creek, MI: W.K. Kellogg Foundation.