Computer-Assisted Learning in Occupational Therapy

Computer-assisted learning has application at all levels of occupational therapy education and in the educational roles which occupational therapists accept with respect to clients, the community and allied health professionals. In this paper, recent applications of computer-assisted learning in undergraduate allied health professional education are outlined, along with some exciting, plausible applications of this technological medium to occupational therapy. The need for caution in embarking on the use of the medium, and the importance of cooperation amongst computer-assisted learning experts, educationalists, the profession and health professionals, particularly in computer-assisted learning production and research endeavours, is justified.     

Concept Mapping as a Learning Tool in Occupational Therapy Education

This paper describes concept mapping and its use as a teaching and learning tool in an entry level occupational therapy program. In order for students to demonstrate their mastery of the concepts associated with a particular topic or body of knowledge, assignments involving concept maps were developed and used in two courses in an entry level occupational therapy program. Students were then surveyed about their perceptions and attitudes regarding the assignments. Students found the process of creating concept maps valuable to their learning of the content and the majority also enjoyed the process as a learning activity. The use of concept mapping as a way to encourage independent, individualized, and student-centered learning is discussed.     

Group Co-Leadership by Occupational Therapy Students in Community Centers: Learning Transitional Roles

SUMMARY

The experience of contact with community populations and settings at the beginning of fieldwork is essential in expanding the dimensions of non-traditional skills and roles for occupational therapy students. This article describes an initial fieldwork experience which builds on an occupational therapy group process course to enable students to supplement a community-based program with activities designed to meet a need of their group at the appropriate level of group interaction. Pairs of students select a receptive community site prior to the beginning of fieldwork to open dialog with the center's coordinator regarding performance areas, components, or contexts needed by the group. Working to assess the current programmatic offerings and desires of the participants for new activities and planning activities in collaboration with local staff, the students propose to conduct a series of five sessions addressing a theme desired or needed by the group. Upon immersion in the site's program, students are able to provide an in-depth assessment of the community group's psychosocial skill needs using the Group Level of Function Profile (Donohue, 2000).     

Bringing Interprofessional Case-Based Learning into the Classroom for Occupational Therapy and Speech-Language Pathology Students

Instructors are increasingly integrating interprofessional education (IPE) activities into academic programs to address curricular demands. IPE aims to increase the quality of collaborative services provided to patients. This article describes a case-based IPE activity designed for occupational therapy and speech-language pathology graduate students. This activity was designed as a small-scale integration of IPE to compliment large scale, multi-discipline learning activities. Students from two courses participated in an IPE activity that included one online and one in-class activity. The purpose of the activity was for students to gain knowledge of their respective roles in augmentative and alternative communication services. Students perceived increased knowledge and skills following this activity. Despite the somewhat small scale of this educational intervention, the instructors viewed the activity a valuable addition to their courses.     

Process-Oriented Guided-Inquiry Learning: A Natural Fit for Occupational Therapy Education

ABSTRACT

After a brief review of the major group cooperative learning strategies, this article presents the format and use of Process-Oriented Guided-Inquiry Learning (POGIL) as a recommended teaching strategy for occupational therapy classes. This recommendation is based upon evidence of effectiveness of this strategy for enhancing critical thinking, content retention, and teamwork. Strategies for learning the process and suggestions for its use are based upon literature evidence and the authors’ experiences with this strategy over 4 years in a class on evidence-based practice.     

Service Learning: Meaningful,Community-Centered Professional Skill Development for Occupational Therapy Students

The profession of Occupational Therapy advocates for new and emerging areas of practice that more fully embrace our moral responsibility to address significant social injustices that exist in our communities (Kronenberg, Algado, & Pollard, 2005). The service-learning pedagogy is impacted by the philosophical and theoretical influences of John Dewey, the mission and purpose of American higher education including Boyer's (1994) call for an engaged citizenry, and the social vision of occupational therapy. The pedagogy of service learning provides a natural context for students to experience community practice while contributing to reducing existing social injustices. This paper provides an overview of service learning (SL) as a philosophical and pedagogical approach in occupational therapy education, key processes in developing successful service learning experiences and community partnerships to support service learning. Characteristics of effective service learning, assessment of community and institutional outcomes of service learning and the scholarship of service learning are also discussed. Most importantly, strategies for developing service learning scholarship, an important but frequently neglected requisite to validate any educational practice, are delineated. The authors conclude that service learning provides educators with an opportunity to provide students with experiences in natural, community contexts while developing life-long commitment to civic engagement and social responsibility.     

The Need for Occupational Therapy Graduates in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory

The balance between the new graduates from a school of occupational therapy and the occupational therapy positions available for those graduates is a critical factor in the decision regarding student intake each year. Surveys of the occupational therapy workforce in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, and patterns of employment for new graduates are reported to support a recommendation to maintain the current student intake for the School of Occupational Therapy at the Cumberland College of Health Sciences in New South Wales.     

Occupational Therapy Students' Learning Styles and Application to Professional Academic Training

SUMMARY

Methods of optimizing students' learning have been a major concern of educators over time. If occupational therapy educators know the students' learning styles at the onset of their training, teaching can be designed to enhance students' optimal learning throughout their education. This study determined learning styles of 201 junior students (age range = 18–57, mean age = 30.9), enrolled in an urban occupational therapy program from 1990 to 1999. Kolb's Learning Style Inventory, a 12-item questionnaire, was administered to the students in the spring of their junior years. Their learning styles were determined using Kolb's criteria. Results yielded: variations in students' preferred learning styles in each class from year to year; higher percentage of convergers (mean = 35%), fewer divergers (mean = 18%). Overall, students were mostly convergers (mean = 35%) and assimilators (mean = 25%). Applications of the findings to teaching students are discussed.     

The Forensic Model of Occupational Therapy

In the past decade attorneys have increasingly sought the services of occupational therapists to serve as experts in legal and quasi-legal personal injury proceedings. This emerging specialty area of forensic practice is rapidly developing. The unique qualifications of the therapist enables him to assess and document functional assets and deficits of the individual and relate them to daily life tasks. This ability makes the occupational therapist an important expert on the forensic panel. The therapist provides reports and information to persons who are responsible for applying the law, but who are without medical backgrounds and therefore do not understand the problems or lack of problems which an injured person has in meeting the physical demands of work and daily life. Common proceedings in which the occupational therapist's expertise is called for include Social Security disability and Workman's Compensation hearings and personal injury litigation. The complementary group of forensic experts, of which the occupational therapist is one, frequently consists of physician, psychologist, vocational expert and economist. Information is provided through verbal and written reports as well as through testimony.     

Mindfulness in Occupational Therapy Education

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to explore the value of mindfulness and its role in occupational therapy education. The plethora of research on mindfulness-based stress reduction programs has shown consistent and positive results to enhance quality of life in clinical and nonclinical populations. Offering students the opportunities to learn and experience mindfulness could lead to enhanced self-awareness and care, focus and empathy, and a decrease of client judgment enhancing the success of clinical interventions.     

The Nature of Emerging Practice in Occupational Therapy: A Pilot Study

The profession of occupational therapy is responding to changes in the health care system by expanding the contexts and models for service provision, typically referred to as emerging practice. As a pilot study, a survey was completed by 174 occupational therapists to gather information and opinions about emerging practice. Results indicated occupational therapists hold diverse perceptions about emerging practice settings and services as well as the role and significance of emerging practice within the profession. Occupational therapists engaged in emerging practice described numerous rewards and challenges inherent within the process of developing and delivering services. The findings indicate continued professional dialogue and research are needed to support the development and efficacy of occupational therapy services in emerging settings and roles.     

Predictors to Private Practice Occupational Therapy Fieldwork Opportunities in Canada: New Evidence suggests New Solutions

Abstract

The study examined predictors to increasing and enhancing fieldwork education opportunities provided by occupational therapists working in private practice. A cross-sectional design that used a self-administered questionnaire was provided to Canadian occupational therapists in private practice. Participants receiving funding from the workers’ compensation sector, those with between 11 and 20?years of work experience, and therapists working full-time hours were more likely to accept a student in fieldwork placement. Respondents who indicated that physical space and resources were not barriers to taking students on placement were more likely to accept students. Therapists more comfortable with the criteria and methods for appropriate and effective student teaching and supervision were also more likely to accept a student for fieldwork placement. The study findings can inform academic programs on how best to support preceptorship and guide university fieldwork coordinators’ strategies for outreach and education for private practitioners.     

The Distance Learning Courses in Occupational Medicine--20 years and onwards

BACKGROUND: The first Distance Learning Course in Occupational Medicine was set up in 1984 at the Department of Occupational Health, University of Manchester. AIMS: This paper describes the progress of that course and developments within distance learning education in occupational health at The University of Manchester over the subsequent 20 years. It also looks at the future objectives and modes of teaching of occupational health at Manchester via distance learning. METHODS: Analysis has been undertaken of student demographics and matching between original forecasts and actual outcomes. RESULTS: Original forecasts of student uptake have been surpassed. There are indications of increases in the number of female and part-time students, and a corresponding decline in the number of general practitioners enrolling on the Advanced course. Response to developing circumstances has resulted in the Distance Learning Unit setting up additional courses. CONCLUSIONS: The farsightedness of those who predicted the need for academic training in occupational health by distance learning has been proved correct. Further evolution is essential to maintain and improve the value and success of the courses.     

Helping Hands for Healthy Living: A Collaborative Service Learning Project with Occupational and Physical Therapy Students

The purpose of this article is to describe the development of a unique interdisciplinary service-learning course and to evaluate the impact of this experience on allied health students' professional development. One hundred and twenty-seven students from occupational and physical therapy programs served medically uninsured individuals (n = 170) at a community health clinic through provision of direct patient care services, depression screens, and a health promotion program. Surveys and personal reflections were used to measure the outcome of the course. The results indicated that student cognitive skills, ability to work with diverse populations, social responsibility, beliefs and opinions about service learning, and appreciation of each other's discipline were enhanced by their participation in the class.     

On Arriving at the Destination of the Centennial Vision: Navigational Landmarks to Guide Occupational Therapy Education

ABSTRACT

The Centennial Vision for occupational therapy in 2017 is like a topographical map for the profession. It holds up a destination toward which practitioners, educators, administrators, and researchers collectively travel. Arriving at the destination will require a careful read of the map to identify suppositions about learning it contains; then a careful selection of theory and instructional processes that are tightly aligned with those learning suppositions. This paper examines learning suppositions within the Vision and offers subject-centered and self-authorship as two conceptual landmarks tightly aligned to the Vision's destination on which educators can set their sights, and take steps toward, each day in the classroom.     

Student Experiences of Learning Portfolios in Occupational Therapy Education

Learning portfolios are used extensively in general education; however, limited information is available regarding its usage and value in occupational therapy education. This article discusses the experiences of 30 senior-level occupational therapy students who used student-learning portfolios as a method of comprehensive learning within an upper extremity orthotics and prosthetics course. Results indicated that portfolios assisted students in structuring their learning environment, documented their learning journey, highlighted their achievements, and developed professional skills of organization, motivation, and higher-ordered thinking. Implications of this study lend support towards using student-learning portfolios as a teaching tool to facilitate more holistic and effective student-centered learning environments.     

Qualitative Evaluation of a Management Course Project: Creating New Job Possibilities for Occupational Therapy

SUMMARY

A qualitative analysis of a ten-step management course project in occupational therapy education demonstrates the students changed perception of future job possibilities. The assignment, designed using a student-centered approach, bridges individual skills and interests with the creation of an occupational therapy position in an emerging market. The thematic analysis indicated the outcomes of the assignment were: a changed perception in the importance of a good fit between practitioner skills and the agency or program needs, added confidence in the students' skills based on a review of the two years of academic education, and a positive, anticipated transition of the academic knowledge base into real world experience. Student presentations served to measure the ability to articulate the services of occupational therapy within arenas unfamiliar to the profession.     

Effects of Problem-Based Learning Curricula on Faculty Learning: New Lenses, New Questions

Literature on the impact of problem-based learning (PBL) in medical education has short-changed important questions about the effect of PBL curricula on faculty learning and on faculty knowledge of their subject matter. This paper opens up new questions about the impact of PBL in medical colleges and other health sciences by focusing attention on its effects on faculty learning, on collegial networks in medical colleges, and, consequently, on other scholarly work by faculty. A brief review of research on the effects of PBL on faculty and faculty development is followed by a synthesis of relevant research findings from research on teaching and faculty learning in other disciplines. A new conceptual framework, drawn from the educational paradigms, methods and empirical findings from those other areas of higher education research and research on secondary school teaching, is applied to designing, examining, and evaluating problem-based learning. Viewing faculty as learners prompts a new research agenda including questions such as: What do faculty members learn by participating in integrative, interdisciplinary problem-based learning courses? How? How is that learning related to or integrated with other aspects of their scholarly work?