Elements of a subject-centered education model in occupational therapy education

For two decades, scholars have urged the occupational therapy profession to prioritize placing occupation at the center of curricular designs and educational activities in order to advance occupational science and therapy (e.g., Yerxa, 1998; Whiteford & Wilcock, 2001). Subject-centered education has been proposed as one model for occupational therapy education (Hooper, 2006, 2010). However, the elements of the model and their transactions required further empirical development. Elements included the subject of occupation, other topics, and a community of knowers (Palmer, 1998). Video data were collected from U.S. occupational therapy and occupational therapy assistant programs as part of a larger study by Hooper, Krishnagiri, Price, Bilics, Taff, and Mitcham (in press) and secondarily analyzed. The thematic analysis identified which elements of a subject-centered model were present and described the interactions between elements. A reconstructed narrative of each program's video helped to illustrate the major findings. All elements of the subject-centered model seemed to be present, however interactions were more prevalent than individual elements. For instance, occupation was most often taught in relation to topics and people. Perhaps because of its complexity, occupation was rarely taught on its own and seemed a challenge to teach. The model of subject-centered education provided a valuable conceptual framework for identifying how occupation was taught and learned in the classroom.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (M.S.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Occupational Therapy

Grantor dc:publisher

Colorado State University. Libraries

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Authors dc:creator

• Musick, Lauren M., author
• Hooper, Barbara, advisor
• Wood, Wendy, committee member
• Jennings, Louise, committee member

• occupation
• occupational therapy
• occupation-centered
• subject-centered education
• thematic analysis

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.

Language dc:language.iso

eng, English

Identifier URI

https://doi.org/10.25675/3.018628

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:mountainscholar.org:10217/170269