Necessity the Mother of Intervention: Service Learning and Physical Education Teacher Education

Service Learning (SL) is a person-centered approach to education that links meaningful community service with academic learning. This phenomenological study was designed to explore the lived experiences of six physical education teacher education (PETE) students who participated in a 10-week SL project for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Semi-structured interviews were used to explore their experiences. Interviews were video recorded and transcribed verbatim for a line-by-line thematic analysis. Three themes emerged. The Where have I been theme suggested PETE students actively reflected on past student teaching, substitute teaching, and community work experiences to plan, conduct, and evaluate their SL instructional practices. The It's all about caring theme highlighted PETE student voices about their decisions to participate in the project and the patience they perceived to gain as a result. The Teaching to play theme revealed various benefits and challenges associated with participating in a SL project for undergraduate students.