A service learning relationship fostering cultural competancy: The cultural immersion of occupational therapy students and reflective practice

Reflective practice has been the learning and teaching instrument fostering cultural competence for 50 Curtin University Occupational Therapy students who have participated in a four week service learning placement at the Shanghai Boai Children’s Rehabilitation Centre in China since 2001. Graduates...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Goddard, Trevor, Gribble, Nigel
Other Authors: Bruce Shortland-Jones
Format: Conference Paper
Published: Curtin University of Technology 2006
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/23963
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author Goddard, Trevor
Gribble, Nigel
author2 Bruce Shortland-Jones
author_facet Bruce Shortland-Jones
Goddard, Trevor
Gribble, Nigel
author_sort Goddard, Trevor
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Reflective practice has been the learning and teaching instrument fostering cultural competence for 50 Curtin University Occupational Therapy students who have participated in a four week service learning placement at the Shanghai Boai Children’s Rehabilitation Centre in China since 2001. Graduates from Curtin University are expected to demonstrate cultural awareness and understanding. This paper postulates that reflective journals and group collaborative leadership are learning and teaching tools within a service learning relationship that engage students in developing cultural competence in alternative social, cultural and health service milieus. While immersion is a recognised method of fostering cultural competence, alone it does not promote rich engagement with clients, the desire to understand, and enable confidence through sustained effort. Reflective practice links academic learning and clinical practice for students, allowing them to explore and change attitudes toward clients and develop clinical cultural competencies within the service learning relationship. The strength of this program is the fusion of service learning and reflective practice; where action learning forms an integral part of developing cultural competency. The program incorporates learning and assessment practice which includes individual journals and collaborative leadership development, language and cultural orientation sessions, a stepped transition from facilitator supervised to independent practice and a collaborative group environmental scan of the Chinese health system to enhance the cultural competency of students.
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format Conference Paper
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T07:50:30Z
publishDate 2006
publisher Curtin University of Technology
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-239632017-01-30T12:40:17Z A service learning relationship fostering cultural competancy: The cultural immersion of occupational therapy students and reflective practice Goddard, Trevor Gribble, Nigel Bruce Shortland-Jones Reflective practice has been the learning and teaching instrument fostering cultural competence for 50 Curtin University Occupational Therapy students who have participated in a four week service learning placement at the Shanghai Boai Children’s Rehabilitation Centre in China since 2001. Graduates from Curtin University are expected to demonstrate cultural awareness and understanding. This paper postulates that reflective journals and group collaborative leadership are learning and teaching tools within a service learning relationship that engage students in developing cultural competence in alternative social, cultural and health service milieus. While immersion is a recognised method of fostering cultural competence, alone it does not promote rich engagement with clients, the desire to understand, and enable confidence through sustained effort. Reflective practice links academic learning and clinical practice for students, allowing them to explore and change attitudes toward clients and develop clinical cultural competencies within the service learning relationship. The strength of this program is the fusion of service learning and reflective practice; where action learning forms an integral part of developing cultural competency. The program incorporates learning and assessment practice which includes individual journals and collaborative leadership development, language and cultural orientation sessions, a stepped transition from facilitator supervised to independent practice and a collaborative group environmental scan of the Chinese health system to enhance the cultural competency of students. 2006 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/23963 Curtin University of Technology restricted
spellingShingle Goddard, Trevor
Gribble, Nigel
A service learning relationship fostering cultural competancy: The cultural immersion of occupational therapy students and reflective practice
title A service learning relationship fostering cultural competancy: The cultural immersion of occupational therapy students and reflective practice
title_full A service learning relationship fostering cultural competancy: The cultural immersion of occupational therapy students and reflective practice
title_fullStr A service learning relationship fostering cultural competancy: The cultural immersion of occupational therapy students and reflective practice
title_full_unstemmed A service learning relationship fostering cultural competancy: The cultural immersion of occupational therapy students and reflective practice
title_short A service learning relationship fostering cultural competancy: The cultural immersion of occupational therapy students and reflective practice
title_sort service learning relationship fostering cultural competancy: the cultural immersion of occupational therapy students and reflective practice
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/23963