The primary purpose of the undergraduate occupational therapy curriculum at The University of Sydney is to prepare students for the academic, practical and ethical demands of occupational therapy practice (School of Occupational Therapy, 1986). As part of a former College of Advanced Education, Cumberland College of Health Sciences (CCHS), the School of Occupational Therapy was required by the Higher Education Board to undergo major curriculum reviews every, five years. The goal of these reviews was to enhance quality teaching and learning, promote academic standards expected of baccalaureate degrees and to maintain curriculum relevance. In response to these curriculum reviews, the undergraduate curriculum has undergone considerable change and refinement (School of Occupational Therapy, 1975; School of Occupational Therapy, 1986).

One major area of change has been the development of a theoretical framework for the curriculum that has two integrated conceptual thrusts. One is educational with curriculum development and implementation moving towards problem-based, adult learning modes of education thereby directing the process of teaching and learning within the curriculum. The other is the development of a curriculum content structure that is based on conceptual notions of occupational performance and functions to organise content within the curriculum. Evolution of the present undergraduate curriculum structure is a product of the School’s response over a twenty year period to 1) the demands for preparation by a profession that is characterised by diverse and increasingly more community-oriented practice, 2) demands from higher educational bodies for a coherent approach to teaching and learning that is appropriate to tertiary level education, and 3) the need for a unifying model of the practice of occupational therapy around which to organise curriculum content. This article focuses on the process of theorising around concepts of occupational performance. The process of model building was initially stimulated by curriculum restructuring and subsequently continued by the authors to develop a model of occupational performance that was relevant to occupational therapy
practice in Australia.