The undergraduate degree and prerequisite requirements develop students' perspectives and expose them to the first two stages of critical thinking, becoming aware of issues and questions related to the human condition and learning methods to identify problems. In the first semester of their professional curriculum, students focus on problem awareness and problem identification, learning to perceive questions from an occupational therapy and health care perspective. Much of this semester's material builds directly on pre-requisite work, relating earlier anatomical information to more advanced concepts and abstractions from that system and introducing students to physical and mental health conditions. In occupational theory and concepts courses students examine typical human function according to performance areas, components, and contexts and develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes basic to occupational therapy theory and practice. The majority of first-semester content is related to isolated systems or issues.
Analysis is structured and guided by faculty, using practice problems and clinical situations.
Second semester content continues to focus on single systems, single frames of reference, and isolated models of treatment. Content emphasizes assessments and treatment models that are broadly used across occupational therapy practice. Students strengthen problem identification skills and begin developing problem resolution abilities using a mixture of highly and moderately structured assignments, class activities, and clinical experiences. As the semester progresses, the case studies used in assignments and class are slightly more complex, some involving more than a single system or performance deficit. Treatment is based on analysis of functional impact on isolated performance components and performance areas.