Teaching Philosophy
Occupational therapy students come from a variety of backgrounds and join our program with highly developed learning skills and a wide variety of previous experiences as students, volunteers in health and social services, in the work force, and within their own social communities. Our students are therefore knowledgeable consumers of education and as such they need to be strong partners in the learning process.
I believe that as a teacher, my role is to facilitate students’ learning, excite them about the profession of occupational therapy, stimulate them to become life-long learners and evidence-based practitioners, and participate in enabling them to take their place as future leaders in the profession. This process is one of partnership between the students and myself.
Coming from a background that spans a twenty-year clinical career supplemented by a research masters’ degree, the courses that I teach cover areas in which I have had both work experience in the field and/or in which I have research interests. This allows me to integrate background experiences as a clinician with more recent research interests.
As a teacher, my goal is to ensure that students develop an understanding of the complexities of practice, as well as a firm grasp of strategies to address them. As such, the students and I have a mutual responsibility. Mine is to ensure that students have a strong grounding in the core values and beliefs associated with occupational therapy, an understanding of the demands of the profession and the knowledge to meet those demands with integrity and creativity. I believe that the students’ have a responsibility to participate to the best of their abilities, utilizing the resources available to them.
Motivating students to be fully involved in their own learning is a challenge that I readily accept. In order to maintain interest and commitment, students need to be challenged, listened to, and have opportunities to participate in innovative learning experiences. Learning, especially when one is developing skills that will need to be generalized to a clinical setting working closely with people at their most vulnerable, needs to occur not just at the level of the head, but at the level of the hand, and the heart as well. In order for such learning to occur, learning experiences need to be compelling, hands-on, interactive, and experiential. My goal is to bring these types of experiences into the classroom in order to stimulate students to be as actively involved in the learning process as possible.
Innovation must be an essential component of such a learning environment,
particularly since our students already have a diverse educational and experiential
background. The challenge is to be continually on the lookout for innovations
that will excite students and enhance their learning experience. This may involve
taking some risk - not all innovations turn out to be successful. The reward,
however, is that the teaching process becomes enriched for me as well. It gives
an opportunity to model the benefits of life-long learning.
Lisa Klinger
School of
Occupational Therapy
Elborn College ,Room 2535, University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario N6G 1H1
Telephone: (519) 661-2111 ext.88963; Fax: (519) 661-3894
Email: lklinger@uwo.ca