Effects of a physical education program developed through service-learning methodology in students’ with intellectual disability

Abstract

The research aims to find out what learning of a declarative nature has been acquired by students with intellectual disabilities after participating in a Physical Education program through the Service-Learning methodology, and also to assess their perception of the impact that the development of this program has had on their relationships with other students in the Faculty. Thirty-four students with intellectual disabilities who were studying the Promentor Program in the 2019/2020 academic year at the Autonomous University of Madrid participated. The information was collected through students’ learning journals after each intervention and through assemblies at the end of each four months. The information was analyzed with MAXQDA v.2020 software. The results show that the curricular learning acquired specific to this area was related to the contents of water rescue, hockey and gymnastic skills and the transversal learning was related to teamwork and civic behavior. Learning that was useful for daily life was identified with the content of water rescue and first aid and, finally, the relationship with the university students in this experience was valued very positively.