Occupational Therapy Adjunct Faculty Self-Perceptions of Readiness to Teach

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LaRonda Lockhart-Keene, OTD, OTR/L
Marie-Christine Potvin, PhD, OTR/L

Abstract

To meet the demands of a growing profession, occupational therapy (OT) education programs rely on adjunct faculty to augment their faculty pool. Clinicians transitioning into faculty roles frequently do not have formal training in teaching and learning practices. This problem is compounded with adjunct faculty, as they are not using best teaching practices in OT education programs and do not have easy access to university resources. A qualitative study was conducted to describe the perceptions of new OT adjunct faculty on their degree of preparedness to teach, the supports needed to be successful in transitioning from clinician to academician, and their familiarity with and use of evidence-based teaching strategies. New OT adjunct faculty perceived they were prepared to teach, provided they have supports in place and command of the subject. New OT adjunct faculty make limited use of EBTP and use occupational therapy skills to aid in classroom teaching. New OT adjunct faculty feel ready to teach in terms of content knowledge but not in terms of pedagogical knowledge. They do not fully understand their academic role and have limited access to pedagogical content provided by their academic institutions.

Comments

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Recommended Citation

Lockhart-Keene, L., & Potvin, M. (2018). Occupational Therapy Adjunct Faculty Self-Perceptions of Readiness to Teach. The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy, 6(2). https://doi.org/10.15453/2168-6408.1415