TY - JOUR
T1 - A national survey of learning activities and instructional strategies used to teach occupation
T2 - Implications for signature pedagogies
AU - Krishnagiri, Sheama
AU - Hooper, Barb
AU - Price, Pollie
AU - Taff, Steven D.
AU - Bilics, Andrea
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank James S. Zoller, MHA, Ph.D., Dean Emeritus, College of Health Professions, Medical University of South Carolina, for his assistance with survey design, data management, and analysis. This study was supported through a collaboration between the Society for the Study of Occupation: USA and the American Occupational Therapy Foundation. Portions of the study were presented at the Society for the Study of Occupation: USA conference (2014).
Funding Information:
We thank James S. Zoller, MHA, PhD, Dean Emeritus, College of Health Professions, Medical University of South Carolina, for his assistance with survey design, data management, and analysis. This study was supported through a collaboration between the Society for the Study of Occupation: USA and the American Occupational Therapy Foundation. Portions of the study were presented at the Society for the Study of Occupation: USA conference (2014).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc. All rights reserved.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Importance: Occupational therapy practitioners' professional identities and distinctive contributions to health care connect essentially to their knowledge of occupation. Thus, the strategies educators use to convey occupation to students and the perspectives embedded in those strategies are critical topics for researchers. Objective: To generalize findings from a previous qualitative study of how educators in 25 U.S. occupational therapy assistant and occupational therapy programs addressed occupation to a national sample of educators. Design: As part of an exploratory sequential design, a national survey of U.S. occupational therapy and occupational therapy assistant educators explored activities and strategies used to teach occupation. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Setting: An online survey about educators' practices in the academic education setting. Participants: Occupational therapy and occupational therapy assistant educators (N = 1,590) from all programs in the United States. Of these, 634 returned surveys, 315 of which were complete and included in the analysis, for an overall response rate of 19.8%. Results: Respondents identified similar learning activities and instructional strategies as those identified in the qualitative phase of the design. Most instruction was active and experiential, requiring students to integrate various skills and content areas. Definitions of occupation, as a basis for teaching, varied. Conclusions and Relevance: The combined survey and qualitative results offered initial empirical support for occupational therapy's proposed signature pedagogies and the importance of attending to the deep and implicit structures within those pedagogies. Such structures are believed to support students' formation of a professional identity and an occupational perspective. What This Article Adds: This study provides evidence for the instructional strategies that educators use to convey knowledge of occupation to students. The predominant strategies support proposed signature pedagogies in occupational therapy: relational learning, affective learning, and highly contextualized active learning.
AB - Importance: Occupational therapy practitioners' professional identities and distinctive contributions to health care connect essentially to their knowledge of occupation. Thus, the strategies educators use to convey occupation to students and the perspectives embedded in those strategies are critical topics for researchers. Objective: To generalize findings from a previous qualitative study of how educators in 25 U.S. occupational therapy assistant and occupational therapy programs addressed occupation to a national sample of educators. Design: As part of an exploratory sequential design, a national survey of U.S. occupational therapy and occupational therapy assistant educators explored activities and strategies used to teach occupation. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Setting: An online survey about educators' practices in the academic education setting. Participants: Occupational therapy and occupational therapy assistant educators (N = 1,590) from all programs in the United States. Of these, 634 returned surveys, 315 of which were complete and included in the analysis, for an overall response rate of 19.8%. Results: Respondents identified similar learning activities and instructional strategies as those identified in the qualitative phase of the design. Most instruction was active and experiential, requiring students to integrate various skills and content areas. Definitions of occupation, as a basis for teaching, varied. Conclusions and Relevance: The combined survey and qualitative results offered initial empirical support for occupational therapy's proposed signature pedagogies and the importance of attending to the deep and implicit structures within those pedagogies. Such structures are believed to support students' formation of a professional identity and an occupational perspective. What This Article Adds: This study provides evidence for the instructional strategies that educators use to convey knowledge of occupation to students. The predominant strategies support proposed signature pedagogies in occupational therapy: relational learning, affective learning, and highly contextualized active learning.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071780560&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.5014/ajot.2019.032789
DO - 10.5014/ajot.2019.032789
M3 - Article
C2 - 31484032
AN - SCOPUS:85071780560
SN - 0272-9490
VL - 73
JO - American Journal of Occupational Therapy
JF - American Journal of Occupational Therapy
IS - 5
M1 - 7305205080
ER -