Dr. Barbara Hooper originally launched the Center for OT Education in 2010 to support research and professional development in occupation-centered education. Over 400 educators participated in COTE workshops and consultations. The Center is now being re-launched at Duke University as a resource for educators who seek ever refined ways to connect teaching and learning to occupation and its role in health, healing, and well-being.
Occupation-centered education is defined as a process of “designing all learning—from micro-learning tasks to macro curriculum designs—in such a way that students cannot escape except by making explicit links among the topic of the day, occupation, and associated reasoning processes” (Hooper, Krishnagiri, & Price, 2017).
Engagement in everyday occupation is a powerful determinant of health and well-being for individuals, families, and communities—this is occupational therapy’s core contribution to health care teams. The core contribution of OT is, however, often obscured or misunderstood. To increase students’ clarity about their central contribution requires precise instructional designs and learning assessments. COTE @ Duke promotes practical, precise instructional and assessment strategies to focus learning on how participation in occupation promotes health and well-being.
The SCIL-OT Model
The Subject-centered Integrative Learning Model (SCIL-OT), a conceptual framework designed to address a critical challenge in occupational therapy education: the tendency for the concept of “occupation” to remain implicit or fragmented within curricula. The model provides a roadmap for educators to systematically place occupation at the center of all learning, thereby teaching occupational therapy’s distinct value.
