The Subject-centered Integrative Learning Model: A new model for teaching occupational therapy’s distinct value

Abstract

The concept of occupation-centered education has been used to describe what programs do when they infuse occupation throughout an occupational therapy curriculum. In describing occupation-centered education, educators often describe the strategies they use to help students learn occupation, including courses about occupation, direct experience with occupation, cases and questions that connect biomedical sciences and health conditions to occupation, assignments that require students to infuse occupation into therapy, curriculum threads related to occupation, and many others. While each of these strategies is important, no conceptual model exists that defines occupation-centered education, elaborates its concepts and principles, and guides the development of curriculum and instructional strategies, uniting them within a whole theoretical approach to teaching occupational therapy. Research has consequently demonstrated that occupation can remain hidden and implied in these and similar teaching and learning strategies. Further, the number of topics students must learn continues to explode and many are not profession-specific. Thus, students and educators alike need a learning framework that helps them intentionally relate multi-disciplinary topics to the distinct value of occupational therapy. The Subject-centered Integrative Learning Model (SCIL-OT) is a conceptual model that outlines the theoretical foundations, elements, and principles of occupation-centered education. This model thus offers a roadmap for curriculum and instructional design that seeks to place the concept of occupation at the center of all aspects of education.