Designing Occupation-centered Curricula and Instruction for Occupational Therapy Students

"As the editor of the Journal of Occupational Therapy Education (JOTE), I have often been surprised how few articles submitted to JOTE explicitly include occupation, the cornerstone of our profession, as a key element. The Subject-centered Integrative Learning Model for Occupational Therapy (SCIL-OT) was published in JOTE in 2020 and immediately filled this gap. The model is a roadmap to thoughtfully embedding occupation across the curriculum, so that it connects and guides all other content. This textbook expanding on the SCIL-OT Model is essential reading for all occupational therapy educators seeking to ensure their graduates truly understand how to engage in occupation-centered practice." — Dana Howell, Editor, Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

"This book powerfully reaffirms the central role of occupation: claiming it and emphasizing its capacity to heal individuals, communities, and society in dynamic and meaningful ways. A resource that can be embraced across occupational therapy assistant and occupational therapy educational programs is essential, not only for teaching that occupation is our distinct value, but also for demonstrating how its bold and authentic application is vital to sustaining a healthy society. At a moment when the heart of occupation can feel lost and overshadowed amid discussions of models of care, this book brings it back into clear focus." — Arameh Anvarizadeh, Professor of Clinical Occupational Therapy, USC Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Founding Member and former Chair of the Coalition of Occupational Therapy Advocates for Diversity (COTAD), AOTA Board President (2025–2028)

"Congratulations to Dr. Hooper and her colleagues for this wonderful contribution to occupational therapy education. While the Occupation Centered approach to curriculum is well known, this resource provides the “secret decoder ring“ of how to make it work in your academic setting. What a gift!" — Dr. Barbara A Boyt Schell and Dr. John W. Schell, Schell Consulting co-editors and authors of Clinical and Professional Reasoning in Occupational Therapy

"Learning occupation is ‘the meat of it’ for learning and practising as an occupational therapist: we can thank an occupational therapy student referenced in this text for this concise insight. The Subject-centered Integrative Learning Model for Occupational Therapy (SCIL-OT) is such a clever strategy to alert educators, students, and public-policy people to ‘the meat’ of this profession. The focus on education in occupational therapy is long overdue to move beyond the challenges worldwide to communicate our professional identity. We can celebrate the three authors who are outstanding educators who have written and presented on occupational therapy education for years. With this full text on the SCIL-OT, readers will see how, when, where, what and why occupation differentiates our profession from others. I endorse the use of this model as a wonderfully efficient way to illustrate that 'occupation needs to become the central organising framework for occupational therapy curricula', as the American occupational therapist Elizabeth Yerxa declared almost three decades ago. Learning occupation using the SCIL-OT will be a fascinating way for readers to focus the vast range of topics and experiences that underpin the seemingly ordinary yet incredibly complex learning in occupational therapy education. To me, learning occupation with the SCIL-OT puts occupation at the forefront in declaring clearly why the profession is named occupational therapy." — Elizabeth Townsend,PhD (Adult Education), FCAOT, Professor Emerita, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia Canada, Founding Faculty and second Director, School of Occupational Therapy