My Hope for the Curriculum Conference

All participants going to this month’s curriculum conference at Oklahoma State University (June 19 & 20) should take a copy of Guidelines for Competency Assessment and Curriculum Planning for Recreational Therapy Practice. The document was revised by Ray West, Terry Kinney, and Jeff Witman in 2008. (Perhaps ATRA should make copies available at the conference at a special price just in case some don’t have them.)

While I personally take issue with several of the competencies listed under the heading of “Recreation and Leisure,” the list of competencies in the Guidelines is the most complete listing of competencies found anywhere. The Guidelines also provide “Structural Components for Professional Preparation.”

I would hope that as a result of the Oklahoma State conference that participants adopt the Guidelines’ competencies as a beginning list of competencies to guide curriculum development, with the intent of refining them in order to form a final list of competencies.

I would likewise hope that the “Structural Components” found in the Guidelines are endorsed by the participants with the intent of having them form the foundation for the development of a self-study document for universities to use in curriculum assessment.

I am sorry that I cannot attend the curriculum conference. It is very much needed and I wish the best to participants who attend. They will have provided a wonderful service to our profession if the conference produces real strides in curriculum development.