Ideas at Play: An Occupational Therapy (OT) Podcast

Ep. 16 From Student Projects to Group Therapy: How to Build Better Teams

As occupational therapy practitioners, we spend our careers working in teams—yet most of us learned to hate group work in OT/OTA school. Sound familiar? We're breaking down brand-new research from the Journal of OT Education that studied how to build better teams to avoid group disasters. Whether you're an OT/OTA student dreading your next group project, an educator trying to build the best groups for an assignment, a new grad navigating clinic dynamics, or an experienced occupational therapy practitioner leading interdisciplinary teams, you'll discover evidence-based strategies to use tomorrow. Plus, get tips on how to practice and use therapeutic use of self in the process.


We share our own thoughts in the Research Review and encourage you to read the article too.

Scheidler, B., Layne, K., Gillard, M., & Doucet, B. M. (2025). Intentional Grouping: Impacts on Cognitive and Social Presence in a Hybrid Classroom. Journal of Occupational Therapy Education9(2), 10.


KEYWORDS: Occupational therapy; OT; evidence-based practice; OT ideas; Peds OT; pediatric occupational therapy; group projects; intentional grouping; therapeutic use of self

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