Vision, Mission and Philosophy
The Occupational Therapy Program at Sacred Heart University offers you transformation through values-driven education
Vision
The Occupational Therapy Program at Sacred Heart University aspires to achieve prominence in occupational therapy education through dynamic teaching, scholarship, and transformative experiences, grounded in our values, collaborative relationships, a culture of mutual respect, community engagement, and service. Our graduates will create opportunities for people, groups, and populations to participate in meaningful occupations across all contexts.
Mission Statement
The Occupational Therapy Program is rooted in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. We fulfill the University’s Mission by preparing compassionate, authentic occupational therapy professionals, who are leaders making a difference in local and global communities and promoting a just society through service and practice. We educate students to demonstrate integrity, maximize their own and others’ health, well-being, and quality of life, be intellectually open-minded, and search for truth through inquiry and scholarship.
Values
Human and spiritual values reflect our search for truth and meaning. The following values are fundamental to the transformation of our occupational therapy students:
- Authenticity: genuineness, being real or true to oneself, transparency, sincerity
- Justice: fairness, inclusiveness, egalitarianism, objectivity
- Integrity: honesty, trustworthiness, related to moral principles, understanding of self, and ethical reasoning
- Altruism: service, compassion, selflessness, acting out of concern for another, social conscience, engagement with others
- Open-mindedness: curiosity, acceptance, pluralism, receptiveness to new ideas and the “other”
Occupational Therapy Program Philosophy
Our program philosophy contains our beliefs about occupations, human beings, learners, and teaching practices.
Our beliefs about occupation
"Occupations are activities that bring meaning to the daily lives of individuals, families, communities, and populations, and enable them to participate in [life]" (AOTA, 2017). "Meaningful Occupation" is personally and socially defined. Participation in occupation is dynamic and shaped by the interaction between the individual, the human and non-human environment, and the occupation itself. Occupations cover everything we do from basic survival activities such as eating and sleeping, work and education, to activities that allow humans to express their unique gifts. The occupations in which we engage contribute to individual, community, and societal health and well-being. Occupation has therapeutic and transformative potential, enabling people to flourish and grow.
Engagement in occupation impacts the health of individuals, society, and the planet. Occupations done collectively create culture. Occupational justice demands that all humans have the right to participate in and choose to engage in meaningful, healthy, and safe occupations across contexts as influenced by culture, society, and circumstances.
Our beliefs about human beings
Throughout the course of life, we engage in four inter-related dimensions of existence; DOING, BEING, BECOMING, and BELONGING (Wilcock, 2014). DOING is active engagement with the world and the act of performing or executing tasks and activities. BEING is our sense of self and is defined as ‘who we are.’ BEING involves the important roles in our lives. BECOMING is a continuous process of transformation, changing into the person who we will be. Becoming involves choices, experiences, successes, and failures. BELONGING is a sense of being part of a relationship, family, group, or culture. Our sense of self influences our DOING. DOING reflects who we are and shapes who we become. Through DOING with others, we can have the opportunity to BELONG. BELONGING supports our resilience and participation in life. The search for truth, meaning, and spirituality differentiates humans from other creatures and facilitates capacity for adapting to adversity.
Our beliefs about learners
Graduate learners enter their education with unique and diverse experiences, knowledge, and preparedness, that impact their understanding of the program’s content and process. They enter with varying levels of readiness, curiosity, and motivation and therefore require varied level of supports and scaffolding. The program adopted Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle as a transformational conceptualization of teaching and learning. We believe our students learn as a result of experience, reflection, and experimentation. Learners require concrete learning experiences, scaffolding, reflection, and challenges to their pre-conceived assumptions (Kolb, 1984; 1974; Vgotsky, 1978, and Mezirow, 1991). According to Kolb, 1984 p. 38, adult learning happens in stages as proposed in the diagram below. Learners transform to become more self- directed and independent in their learning process, as they commit to be a professional engaged in life-long learning (Kearlsey, 2010; Knowles, 1980; 1984).
Our beliefs about occupational therapy education
Our educational program promotes professional and clinical reasoning, use of OT theories, evidence, best practices and skills. Our teaching and learning beliefs are consistent with the philosophies adult learning, students who are engaged and invested in their learning, able to initiate and be self-directed. Occupational therapy education is unique in that it requires personal transformation of the student in addition to attainment of knowledge, skills, and professional behaviors.
Doing
As occupational therapy requires the doing of specific skills, a strong education must include significant DOING. Learners learn better when they are actively engaged. The SHU occupational therapy program uses a variety of high impact pedagogies to involve students in their learning. In this program a specific decision has been made to avoid large classes with traditional lecture approaches. Predominant pedagogies include case analysis, activity analysis, student presentations, service-learning, individual and collaborative projects, problem-based and team-based learning, self-directed learning, peer review, simulation, and interprofessional interaction. Students are encouraged to take risks, reflect on their performance and use instructor feedback for growth.
Instructor-Learner Partnerships
Instructors partner with learners in a reciprocal process of transformation. Immersed in collaborative learning and active engagement, students are guided through professional growth during the varied stages of learning. The role of the occupational therapy instructor is to frequently provide rich experiences with which students can engage. Instructors support, scaffold, cue, model, and challenge learners through experiential learning and the process of transformation. Instructors regularly seek out and use student feedback for curricular and pedagogical evaluation and refinement.
The Occupational Therapy Lens
Graduates must not only “do” occupational therapy but develop an occupational therapy “lens.” This lens or perspective includes simultaneous consideration of the client’s body, mind, and spirit, the human and non-human environment, and the activity or occupation. Occupational therapists uniquely engage with clients through a collaborative focus on the client’s in a given context. Occupational therapy education generates this lens or view to allow practitioners to understand and serve the health and well-being of clients. The occupational therapy instructors facilitate learners deep understanding of clients, context, and occupations.
Values
SHU occupational therapy education is infused with our values; authenticity, justice, integrity, altruism, open-mindedness. These values have guided curricular decisions and informed the development of specific courses, learning experiences, faculty-student advisement, and community outreach.