Educational issues in teaching dysphagia to speech pathologists

This paper examines current practices in teaching speech pathology students dysphagia theory and practice in Australia, with comment and contrast from speech pathology courses in the UK. There is wide diversity in terms of the time allocated to this subject on undergraduate courses, in ways of teaching and achieving clinical practicum in these areas and in evaluating the learning outcomes and competence of students. Against the background of changing work experience in the health sector, where dysphagia increasingly forms a significant proportion of a speech pathologist's caseload, the challenge for educators is to provide a dynamic, integrated, modern curriculum where dysphagia forms a significant component of the course. This paper examines some of the current educational issues and discusses teaching and learning paradigms in this area.