Why create common epistemological assumptions within the council of a department of health of a university college? – Implications for the occupational therapy education.(oral presentation)

Moller, Matthias (2014) Why create common epistemological assumptions within the council of a department of health of a university college? – Implications for the occupational therapy education.(oral presentation). In: WFOT Conference, 18 - 21 June 2014, Yokohama/Japan. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

In 2006 the occupational therapy degree course of Italian Switzerland started. It is characterized by an interdisciplinary approach which offers 25% of its programme in common interdisciplinary modules for occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and nursery students. In order to create more coherence among interdisciplinary and specific modules, and to better emphasize the humanistic and socio-constructivist orientation of the college, immediately after being accredited in 2010, all three study courses agreed to undertake a revision of their curricula. In this occasion, important epistemological questions raised within the council, leading to the necessity of becoming clear and coherent as a teaching team and about what kind of institution’s philosophy teachers are supposed to support in their professional doing. The presentation describes the process of how the council has developed a series of epistemological assumptions on health and the human being that are shared as common philosophical base for teachers within the department of health. Furthermore, the impacts with respect to the construction of interdisciplinary and specifically occupational therapy modules are outlined. One direct implication was the creation of a common first-year module named ‘Epistemology of Caring’. By pointing out the main contents of this module and how they are related to common and specific second- and third-year modules, the specificity of the occupational therapy programme is emerging as building up on determined epistemological choices. Some critical points emerging from the students’ and the educational staff’s perspective after the first performances of the module in 2012 and 2013 are presented with some examples, pointing out that the realisation of this module is an on-going procedure that requires continuous adaptation. In summary, it is worth investing in an epistemological discussion with teachers and students in order to react to and prepare for the upcoming challenges in health care and occupational therapy.

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