Accreditation is a critical process in maintaining standards of consistency and excellence in the academic preparation of students for their chosen profession. While academic programs, professional associations, and credentialing organizations all recognize the importance of programmatic accreditation in recreational therapy professional…

The pandemic created obstacles for our therapeutic recreation students who could not find or participate in an in-person internship. The only viable option was to create a virtual internship experience that still met NCTRC standards for national certification. This learning activity details the steps taken to create the experience, what was…

Over the last several years there has been a call to increase the quality of recreational therapy (RT) education. During this same time active learning has grown in popularity as a way to help increase student comprehension. While the vast majority of this growth has occurred in science, technology, engineering and math courses, no research has…

Leadership in Leisure Services (AHSC 361) is the most experiential class offered to students majoring in Recreation and Leisure Studies at Concordia University in Montreal. One interactive feature of this required course is a multi-part assignment that deals with group facilitation, personal introspection, and evaluation. This "Assignment…

This paper explores an inter-learning teaching method designed and utilized by the authors in the Winter 2021 term for first- and upper-year therapeutic recreation (TR) students in an online platform. This collaborative teaching method sought to make intentional space for upper-year students to take the lead on and facilitate seminars for…

In a university context, peer assisted learning (PAL) refers to students supporting the learning of other students. While PAL is used extensively in health and medical sciences fields to enhance student learning, there are few examples of how it has been incorporated within recreation education contexts. The purpose of this study was to examine…

Although students in the broad field of leisure studies may pursue a variety of opportunities post-graduation, employment within local parks and recreation represents one potential career path. Unfortunately, the Great Recession disproportionately impacted local parks and recreation relative to competing public services. As such, this article…

This paper discusses use of a scaffolded videomaking assignment to encourage students to engage with new literacies -- creation of media that blends text, sound, and imagery -- to expand the range through which students demonstrate knowledge and application of philosophical concepts in everyday Therapeutic Recreation (TR) practice. Technology is…

"Experience design" is a term that has risen to the forefront in a variety of professional fields and has relevance for the field of park and recreation. Park and recreation professionals are primarily focused on providing experiences and thus could naturally consider themselves experienced designers. Surprisingly, experience design is…

This paper shares lessons learned and effective practices in online teaching and learning from veteran faculty and students in an online graduate therapeutic recreation program at SUNY Cortland, now in its sixth year (2020-2021). The number of students in online learning is growing and consists of a diverse group of adults working full and or…

Diversity courses are integral to higher leisure education curricula and united by the following assumptions: (a) recreation programs involve encounters with "different" groups of people and (b) future professionals require a specialized set of knowledge and skills in order to manage those interactions. Although several scholars have…

Study abroad provides a unique context in which opportunities for culturally relevant leisure are extremely abundant. These programs provide varying levels of cultural immersion, and culture is inherently connected to leisure. Research has demonstrated relationships between various aspects of study abroad and desired transferable skills such as…

In "Thinking, Fast and Slow" (2011) Kahneman describes two modes of thinking: System 1 and 2. System 1 operates quickly, automatically, and unconsciously, drawing on our vast reservoir of stored knowledge to decide what should or should not be done in any situation. System 2 is a slower, more deliberate process, requiring us to step back…

This article provides a response to the article "Leisure Studies is for Experience, Not Industry," by Harmon (2018). In responding to Harmon's critique, I address two important issues; both could be expanded into full-length articles but are treated only briefly in this response. First, it is critical to clearly understand and…

Service-learning are structured experiences where students gain awareness and knowledge as it relates to civic responsibility, one of a few high-impact practices identified by the AAC&U. To help assess this practice, we utilized a directed content analysis approach of the final written reflections of undergraduate recreation students who…