Abstract
As a teacher of OS/OT, one of my purposes was coaching students to understand the relationship of occupation, health, and the health promotion power of occupation. I introduce two projects, a health and occupation project and a life crisis and occupation project, of three I used with OT/OS students to promote this understanding: A basic concept of occupational science is that occupation embedded in our daily life and life cycle gives meaning to life events, and thus can promote health. All three projects engaged students’cognitive and emotional abilities to understand occupation. The publication (2012) on the occupational photo project discussed basic ideas of occupational science using simple explanations and everyday episodes in the lives of a variety of people. It offers rich examples of cases with photos and interviews illustrating the power of occupation in health and life crisis. The other two projects used the narrative (story telling) impact of books and movies to stimulate students' understanding of occupation. In the health and occupation project, students chose and read a book from several offered about an illness and/or disability experience. They responded to questions developed regarding health and occupation. They reported to the class and submitted written papers. In the life crisis and occupation project, students chose and viewed a movie about a person's recovery from a life crisis, looking for evidence to respond to questions relating occupation to healthy recovery. Again, they reported their understanding in class and submitted papers. The books and movies available to them affect students’motivation in these projects. The materials should encompass a wide range of stories of occupational beings and life crisis recovery. Depending on students level and educational situation, these projects offer opportunities to examine narratives for better understanding of occupation, health and the power of occupation.
