Impact of Service Learning on Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD)

Service learning is an education experience that provides students with the opportunity to participate in community-based activities and integrated classroom experiences (Frey, 1999, p.337). Service learning is an approach that can be used to teach social skills in the real world setting to students with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities (EBD) (Seitsinger, 2005). This research examines the question, how effective is the use of service learning in teaching social skills to students with EBD? I piloted service learning projects in two of my social skills classes for students with EBD in a suburban middle school. Following the projects, I conducted in-depth interviews with four of the students who participated in the service learning project. Themes that emerged from the interviews were: (1) beliefs about social skills, (2) developing teamwork, (3) perceptions of service learning, (4) helping the community, and (5) remembering the service learning project. The project showed that service learning makes a long-term, positive impact on students with EBD