THE POST-DIPLOMA journey differed for all of us who graduated last May. From Curtin to Glasgow-Caledonian to Queen Margaret and to Coventry University.

I decided to stay on with the local Honours programme under Trinity College Dublin (TCD), in partnership with Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). First programme in Singapore to offer a degree in Occupational Therapy, really. So that makes me… a test-run hamster in this pioneer batch?

Tomorrow marks Week 6 of school. News is that I’m still surviving!

TCD-SIT Class of 2013

That’s the class with our two lovely professors from TCD and SIT. It’s been a hectic 5 weeks, what with juggling tutorials and of course my personal leisure time and family events on the weekends. Took quite a bit to get used to the unstructured-ness… Lessons are in the problem-based learning (PBL) format. That basically means we set our own learning objectives and it’s pretty much self-directed in terms of information gathering. But the best part is when we all come together to have lively discussions around occupational therapy theories, models and practice.

Need to get out of my comfort zone!

Really challenges my thinking about professional practice, and I’m learning so much more about theories that we did not have the luxury to go in depth into during my 3-year study.

Our PBL group’s take on the Kawa Model

So we had a group discussion on Kawa (River) Model last week and presented to the class, using the model to frame a client who had previously visited during lecture. If he was present during class, Michael Iwama would be proud of us I think! (:

Classmates are a joy to be with – a very enthusiastic bunch!  Half of us were previously practitioners with one to six years of clinical experience… That benefits the new graduate me to learn how to take things into perspective.

Well, I must say I’m satisfied with the exponential increase in my learning curve lately. Now back to doing my readings… till next time for updates and more musings!