Masters Degrees (Occupational Therapy)
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Browsing Masters Degrees (Occupational Therapy) by Subject "Academic achievement"
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Item Open Access Factors influencing academic success of first year occupational therapy students at the University of the Free State(University of the Free State, 2014-07) Swanepoel, Azette; Van Heerden, S. M.; Strydom, J. F.English: The Occupational Therapy program at the University of the Free State is academically and emotionally challenging. Prospective students who wish to study occupational therapy are selected primarily on their academic abilities in high school or in other programs in higher education institutions. The selected first year students have provided evidence of their academic abilities. Thus, it is presumed that the students will be able to meet the demands set by the program and maintain their academic achievement levels. However, once entering higher education some students seem unable to meet the demands of the program while others deliver consistent academic achievements. The question arose as to which factors influence the first year occupational therapy students’ academic success. Literature points to various factors which influence academic success, but no study was found which included all possible factors influencing academic success. This study set out to investigate all the possible factors which influence academic success of first year occupational therapy students at the University of the Free State. A qualitative research approach was applied by making use of a Case study research design. Eighteen first year occupational therapy students, with no prior higher education experience, were randomly selected to take part in the study. Nine students from the Afrikaans and nine students from the English class were included in the study. Data was collected from documentation and Nominal Group Technique discussions. The documentation data included the students’ portfolio reflections by making use of the Kawa River model. Students reflected on all possible factors influencing their academic success by making use of the elements of the Kawa River model. In addition, students’ reflection on their test and examination writing skills was also included in the documentation data collection. The NGT discussions posed the following two questions to the participants: · Which factors influence your academic success positively in the first year of occupational therapy? · Which factors influence your academic success negatively in the first year of occupational therapy? Thematic analysis of the portfolios, a content analysis and qualitative interpretation of the factors identified in the NGT discussion groups were done after which data was categorized according to the domains of the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (OTPF). Factors were placed in all six domains of the OTPF namely: · Areas of Occupation · Context and Environment · Client Factors · Activity Demands · Performance Skills · Performance Patterns The factors identified by the students were viewed holistically and were found to be interrelated thus, indicating the importance of acknowledging more than academic factors influence academic success in higher education. Academic-, social -, cultural-, physical -, cognitive - and psychological factors were identified as influencing academic success of first year occupational therapy students.