Learning through teaching: analysis of the experience of tutors of students with sensory or motor disabilities, in a Higher Education context

Abstract

This article analyses the experience of being a tutor, within a peer tutoring system aiming to support the inclusion process for students with sensory or motor disabilities. An exploratory, descriptive and relational study was developed, with a qualitative approach based on Grounded Theory. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with ten students, who were working as tutors of students with sensory or motor disabilities. Results show that all student tutors experienced some type of change in the ways they represent people with disabilities, and in the way they relate to them. Besides, tutors acquired different learning results as a consequence of their participation in the tutoring program. These learning outcomes involved competences related to academic and professional work, as well as socio-emotional competences. Results are discussed in terms of the impact that this kind of initiatives might have in the construction of more inclusive contexts inside and outside of the university.