RELATIONAL LEARNING AND ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT IN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

This chapter reviews occupational therapy’s signature pedagogies and explores the challenges and conflicts that these foundational pedagogies give rise to in the context of new trends in higher education, including distance education and the emergence of the virtual classroom. A key feature of relational pedagogy is affective learning-the realm of learning that impacts a change in students’ attitudes and beliefs. Occupational therapy education from its inception has embraced relational learning, reflecting an intimate tie between educator and student. Highly contextualized, active engagement provides the philosophical underpinnings of the therapeutic approach and describes the pedagogical model for training occupational therapy students, who learn by doing. Professional acculturation occurs through active and contextualized learning experiences guided by professionals in the classroom and in the field. In the last decade, occupational therapy professional education has continued to support relational pedagogies, with the “desired ways of being” communicated through the culture of the program, in order to mold a student into an occupational therapist.