Service Learning and Raising Awareness About People with Special Needs

18 Pages Posted: 2 Feb 2012 Last revised: 14 Feb 2012

See all articles by Aida Koci

Aida Koci

South East European University (SEEU)

Date Written: 2012

Abstract

In the paper, I will describe how I put on a meaningful service learning for students in the course, "Needs Analysis and Course Design" The preparation of the students, all of whom planed to be future educators, went through 4 steps.The paper will describe the difficulties encountered in monitoring this experience, as well as the outcomes.The Southeast European University is located in an area of Macedonia where there are no special educational programs for students with special needs. One of the problems that we , the lecturers of the course Aida Koci and Sandra Bruno and students have identified in the course, Needs Analysis and Course Design, is the lack of knowledge for the people with special needs; actually there is no place in the community where this issue could be dealt with. Our students will be teaching next year and need skills to apply to a variety of situations and learning needs. As future teachers, our students were probably going to be faced with handicapped children in their classes. What did our students learn? With the service learning approach they learned or improved lots of competencies that will be useful all their life long (transferable competencies): better know the others while working in groups, and go further thanks to differences within the group.

Keywords: Service Learning, Special Needs, Civic Participation, Inclusion

Suggested Citation

Koci, Aida, Service Learning and Raising Awareness About People with Special Needs (2012). APSA 2012 Teaching & Learning Conference Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1997609 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1997609

Aida Koci (Contact Author)

South East European University (SEEU) ( email )

Ilindenska nn
Tetovo, 1200
Macedonia

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