Evidence-Informed Teaching Practices Across Faculty Terminal Degree Categories

Many faculty spend a considerable proportion of their time and effort in teaching, yet intentional preparation for this important responsibility is rare. Currently, there exists no standard guidance for which content areas or competencies are necessary for quality educator development as they perform the various faculty roles. In this descriptive study, we surveyed 334 occupational therapy/ occupational therapy assistant (OT/OTA) faculty from across the United States using a 53-item instrument that explored to what degree do OT/OTA faculty use and document evidence-informed teaching practices and if the use of evidence-informed teaching practices differs across faculty terminal degree category (entry-level occupational therapy doctorate [OTD], post-professional OTD, and PhD). Results did not indicate significant differences among terminal degree preparation type related to teaching competencies in OT and OTA education but indicated that faculty across all degree types reported very low implementation rates of certain surveyed teaching competencies, including formal instructional design approaches, context-appropriate teaching perspectives, and models of program evaluation to assess curricula, instruction, and outcomes. Participants also reported using instructional practices not supported by evidence, such as using course materials inherited from colleagues as the basis of course design or practices they learned by experiencing them as a student. Methods of documentation demonstrated significant degree-type differences in teaching philosophy statements, awards, book chapters, grants, and publications. The results of this study emphasize the need to more thoroughly prepare occupational therapy educators to use evidence-informed instructional practices and to assess teaching effectiveness according to a set of standard competencies rather than presumptions based upon type of terminal degree.