Recreational Therapy Students’ Class Time Fieldwork Experiences: A Phenomenological Qualitative Analysis

Abstract

With the recent call to advance fieldwork across recreational therapy (RT) curriculum, better understanding of the students’ perspectives on their processing, reflecting, and learning during fieldwork experiences is needed. Therefore, the purpose of this manuscript was to explore students’ reflections from class time fieldwork experience (CTFE) in a recreational therapy class when serving a community partner. Using a retrospective, phenomenological qualitative analysis of 111 RT students’ reflections, four themes and six subthemes emerged. Implications for educators for applying these findings to students’ CTFEs are detailed. Future research recommendations are discussed to advance best practice fieldwork for the profession.