Kolb’s learning cycle as a framework for early fieldwork learning

ABSTRACT

Fieldwork is an integral part of occupational therapy (OT) education that provides opportunity for students to develop and demonstrate essential competencies to practice. This paper describes an introductory fieldwork experience in a Masters level OT programme that utilized Kolb’s learning cycle as a framework for its design. The 2-week experience incorporates peer-assisted learning and combines clinical placement, labs, didactic presentations, simulation exercises and reflection sessions to facilitate student progression through the learning cycle. Formal feedback from students, preceptors and university faculty over 2 years reveals that this novel and purposeful approach was effective in introducing students to important principles of OT practice and fieldwork learning early in their OT education. Students gained an enhanced understanding of client-centred care and the role of the OT within different practice contexts and acquired a solid foundation for enriched learning in academic and fieldwork courses that follow.

KEYWORDS:

• Occupational therapy
• education
• experiential learning
• peer-assisted learning

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge Jill Stier for her involvement in the creation of the revised Introductory Fieldwork Experience and her input into various aspects of this paper. The authors would also like to thank the students and members of clinical community for their involvement and ongoing feedback with regard to the Introductory Fieldwork Experience.