Education Research in Physical Therapy: Visions of the Possible

Abstract

Education research has been labeled the "hardest science" of all, given the challenges of teaching and learning in an environment encompassing a mixture of social interactions, events, and problems coupled with a persistent belief that education depends more on common sense than on disciplined knowledge and skill. The American Educational Research Association specifies that education research-as a scientific field of study-examines teaching and learning processes that shape educational outcomes across settings and that a learning process takes place throughout a person's life. The complexity of learning and learning environments requires not only a diverse array of research methods but also a community of education researchers committed to exploring critical questions in the education of physical therapists. Although basic science research and clinical research in physical therapy have continued to expand through growth in the numbers of funded physical therapist researchers, the profession still lacks a robust and vibrant community of education researchers. In this perspective article, the American Council of Academic Physical Therapy Task Force on Education Research proposes a compelling rationale for building a much-needed foundation for education research in physical therapy, including a set of recommendations for immediate action.

Assessing physical therapist students’ self-efficacy: measurement properties of the Physiotherapist Self-Efficacy (PSE) questionnaire

“…The lack of validated outcome measures is a problem for education research in physical therapy [ 16 ]. A challenge for education research in PT is to progress beyond single-site studies using validated outcome measures [ 17 , 18 ]. As self-efficacy towards functioning as a PT is an important outcome measure, there is a need to develop validated and reliable outcome measures to assess self-efficacy in PT.…”

Searching our mindset – looking at places and spaces in education

“…We also commonly use outcomes in examinations as an outcome measure, treating assessment outcomes as valid and reliable measures of the success of our teaching approaches. The importance and challenges of good educational research has been highlighted [1,2]. If we are able to complete research in the clinical context with its multiple extraneous variables and complex settings, we would argue that we need to be working towards this standard also in educational research.…”

Athletic Training Educators' Knowledge and Confidence About Competency-Based Education

“…In both medical and nursing education, examples of CBE curriculum models have been published in the literature and evaluated in comparison to traditional models. [9][10][11] The underpinnings of CBE are also apparent in educational literature in allied health fields comparable to athletic training including physical therapy, 12,13 dietetics, 14 and physician assistant. 15 An overall lack of CBE literature in athletic training is further highlighted by the fact that we did not identify relationships between any demographic variable and composite knowledge score and/or confidence ratings.…”