MScOT Program & Curriculum Materials
The Occupational Therapy program at the University of Toronto is guided by the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy’s Vision, Mission, and Values; relevant evidence-based theories and practices; the accreditation standards of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists in Canada; the Minimum Standards for the Education of Occupational Therapists 2016 of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT); the performance expectations for “competent” practice of occupational therapists as detailed in the Profile of Practice of Occupational Therapy in Canada (2012), the Essential Competencies of Practice for Occupational Therapists in Canada (2011) and the Competencies for Occupational Therapists in Canada (2021). These materials provide the foundation for the program objectives and evaluation, curriculum planning, management and evaluation, and the culture of educational scholarship in the Department.
Our Department is situated in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine (TFoM) at University of Toronto. The TFoM is at the centre one of North America’s largest biomedical research, education, and clinical care networks. With nine fully affiliated research-intensive hospitals—and dozens of community and clinical care sites—TFoM offers unparalleled learning opportunities in one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world. The MScOT Program is one of the largest occupational therapy programs in Canada with 260 learners in total across the two years of the program. The MScOT program is distributed across two campuses, UTSG (St. George downtown campus) and UTM (Mississauga campus). Our faculty educators apply innovative approaches to teaching in our distributed campuses to ensure the highest quality education for our learners. We have over 300 adjunct faculty who support in-class and fieldwork education for our students.
View the MScOT Program and Curriculum Document here.
Curriculum Structure
Guiding Principle: The major elements of the MScOT program are organized in a logical sequence and in a coordinated and integrated manner that supports the progressive development of students’ competencies.
We understand that students enter the MScOT program with knowledge that stems from their cultural, religious, educational and social experiences and their individual personal attributes. The curriculum is designed to move students to a broader understanding of how the world works, to understanding the value of occupation in that world, and to seeing themselves as occupational therapists. The flow of the curriculum structure is achieved through identified continua across the two years, guiding constructs and cross-cutting themes.
The flow of the curriculum structure is achieved through identified continua across the two years, guiding constructs and cross-cutting themes (see Figure 1, MScOT Program Structure and Flow Abridged Version).
Two fundamental principles of the curriculum structure are maximization of integration of content. and maximization of consistency.