Classroom as Clinic: A Model for Teaching Clinical Reasoning in Occupational Therapy Education

Abstract

One way to help students transfer their academic skills of data gathering and analysis to clinical settings is to teach them the clinical reasoning process outlined by Joan Rogers. This paper describes a format for teaching that process through the use of carefully structured in-class evaluations of physically disabled guest speakers who role-model as clients. Pre- and posttesting of the performance of 78 students during these in-class evaluation sessions showed a significant improvement over a semester in students’ abilities to accurately analyze preassessment data and to formulate appropriate treatment plans. Qualitative outcomes are also discussed.