The tweet in question was as follows by @OT_Kate:
Wouldn't it be great if all learning and teaching followed the preschool model (learning through doing, exploring, & playing). My best lectures at the university level follow that model.
....and this got me thinking....what if university did follow a more, "preschool model" rather then the standard academic "here-is-the-information-now-remember-it" model. How would the course differ? how would the profession differ? and how would this affect the number of males enrolling in the course and eventually entering the profession? As this is an exercise in thought provocation I will be basing my "evidence" on myself, my experiences, and my opinions. I would really encourage people to present their opinions in the comments section as I find this to be a fascinating phenomenon.
Firstly ME. I consider myself to be a fairly average Australian male, mid twenties and started university 1 year after finishing high school. My favorite classes, during my course, were always the practical skills classes. I found it difficult to absorb all the necessary information whilst sitting sedentary in a lecture room.
There is much written around the fact that when compared to Females, Males are very visual, hands on learners. This is me in a nutshell. Granted there are exceptions but overall as a sex we generally prefer to get in and try things ourselves then study how they work.This is concreted form me by the fact that I learned more during my 28 weeks of placement work then I did in the 2 1/2 years of class prior to placement. Granted, I do agree that theory has its place in every course and im not discounting the value of the textbook teachings, but I do find it strange that, a profession that promotes, "wellness through meaningful, purposeful occupation," could deliver such a large amount of information and theory using a teaching model that would more then likely only be meaningful to the minority of students.
How many people remember sitting in a lecture thinking, "am I ever even going to need to know this?" Then getting to your placements and finally working out how it all fits together?? I know I am definitely one of these people, and so is nearly every other male OT I've spoken to. I feel that if there was a way that all of that theory could be delivered in a way that made it more of an "experience" rather then an exercise in auditory processing the profession would more then likely gain a higher percentage of male practitioners.
I'm sure there are some Universities around the world that have done exactly this and I would love to hear what has been implemented, however, I'm speaking from my perspective of the universities in my own country.
My overall point is summarised into the hypothesis that, course delivery needs to be reviewed and looked at through, "OT eyes," in order to gain the best results from all students. I can definitely foresee the benefits of the, "preschool model" in increasing the number of male OTs as well as increasing the overall new-graduate skill-set.
Peace & Balance
MH OT
The social representation of professions, such as OT are traditionally linked with female activities, like most of the health professions. We all have to admit that Occupational therapy started as a profession oriented to help people doing things (mostly creative craft activities).
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, here in Portugal, at the time I did my studies in OT, The program was not academic recognized. I was the only male person in a group of 24 women (each one more beautiful then the other), most of them coming from families where, traditionally, women would stay at home taking care of the family. Some didn't find this enough to fulfill their lives and they looked for an occupation with a social representation of being useful to others.
But times were changing, both for women and OT. Scientific perspectives of OT approaches were being developed and theory become relevant to justify what ots were doing. At the same time, women were no more looking for an occupation but for a job and a career.
The average, until the middle of the 80's was one male per class.
Then, academic integration became (I'm still talking about Portugal) and what started to matter was find a place in the Higher Education system. Again, the social representation of profession made its influence: men for engineer, women health professions. In between, there was art professions which were absorbing both genders. OT was in between arts and health and we started to see more men in the classes. No more the privileged one, but female beauty in an OT class had to be divided by 5 or more male students.
I know that the higher education system differs much from culture to culture, but, in general we are talking about a growing from 4% to almost 15%, here.
Today, reality is much different, but, as you very well said, women still prevail in OT. But, since scientific evidence of practice turn into the core of the programs, male students numbers become higher. And this is still a social representation of how we understand what is to study in OT.
Don't get me wrong. I agree with everything you wrote. Actually, I found it very precise. But behind all that, social representation of the profession was, is and probably will be, in my opinion, the main reason for OT to be mostly practiced by women. And I'm glad it is.
Sorry about my english
A big hug
JFaias