Interdisciplinary teaching of ethics and translation to university students to provide social service to children with disabilities Academic Article in Scopus uri icon

abstract

  • Despite the advance in technology for educational purposes, there is still a need for students to have a real-life experience outside the classroom. This leads professors to look for associations or companies that need the voluntary work of students from different fields. Designing a course with a social service component is a complex task because of the administrative processes within the institution and the academic training that professors need to acquire in order to design the content and activities of their courses. This paper describes the social service experience of two professors conducting interdisciplinary teaching of ethics and translation at a university located in northern Mexico. Thirteen students majoring in Music Production participated in a special semester called Semestre i (Semester i) designed by this university to engage students in Experiential Learning. In this project, students provided community service to a local association devoted to improving the quality of life of children with cerebral paralysis and their families through a comprehensive care model that promotes their maximum level of autonomy and inclusion in their environment. The association required the translation of an American manual of instruments used for various motor therapies to improve the speech, feeding, and sensitivity of children with disabilities. Therefore, professors taught students the principles of ethics and basic translation strategies through tailor-made activities so that they were able to provide this social service. The results showed that doctors, therapists, parents, and children were able to understand and use these instruments properly. Besides conducting social service, students committed themselves to the project cultivating empathy and embracing inclusion, and the Association and the University integrated relationship-building into more social service projects. © 2024 University of Minho. All rights reserved.

publication date

  • January 1, 2024