Good Practice in Australian Physiotherapy Education

  Educators
Students
Graduates

Some ideas from physiotherapy educators that they find promotes student learning:

 

• Students are blindfolded for a meal and then discuss their experience in relation to disability
• Students from 6 allied health professions take an online course and work in groups on WebCT, making use of online chats and forums
• Discussion boards are held on the Web: academic staff address student questions
• Resource triggers are used, such as web notes, articles, commentaries and videos
• Role plays are used for professional issues, followed by group discussion
• Students take a group exercise class - they must design the class, determine objectives, choose content and method of evaluation as well as conduct the class
• Put independent learning packages on the web. They can be very clinically oriented - What is...? What if...? Some questions have the answers as well.
• Peer teaching in anatomy - 4^th year students teach 2^nd year students
• Professional issues - students write a business plan, and gain an understanding of business processes
• Students do case studies that integrate professional issues
• Fourth year students conduct a critical review of physiotherapy practice
• Students bring back a case report from clinics, reflect on it and develop new understandings and meanings

Educators, Students and Graduates

 

What do students say? Here are some representative comments:

'This year we're in our own little groups. We identify what we need to know. We find out. Then we come back. We talk about it, then we talk with the lecturer if it's alright. We're teaching ourselves and they're just there for guidance. I like that.'

'The small class sizes that we have had have been really good. The teachers are approachable. You have a lot to do with them. They get to know names quickly and you feel you can ask them anything.'

'I find it makes so much more sense once the person who's actually using the knowledge comes in and tells us about how it works. In the tute she said, 'This is what happened to him so ...'. I find when I can apply it and it's not just words that I have to read and read and read, I feel a lot better about it.'

'Something I've found that has really helped me along the way is the case based approach this University takes almost from second semester in second year. It was difficult at the start for everyone, I think, but eventually everyone got used to it and now, as 4^th years, we've really, really come to appreciate that process.'

'I'm much less likely to do work to find out for myself but if you know that the group needs it, that makes you do more work.'

'My ultimate learning outcome is, 'Can I do my job as a physiotherapist when I graduate at the end of this year? And the way that sort of comes through is: When I go on Clinical, can I actually perform? Am I able to apply the things I have learnt and use the reasoning thought processes that they've been teaching me?'

Educators, Students and Graduates

 

Some recent graduates reflect on their physiotherapy education

'The clinical experience was useful. Being a grade one has felt like being an extension of fourth-year. You still have someone to consult. Physiotherapy couldn't be a purely academic course.'

'Feedback is a huge part of learning in the clinical environment. Informal and formal feedback -- on the whole it was adequate. You learn through experience.'

'I had ten placements in the last two years. Some were better than others. Supervisors know the feedback process. There are definitely good links between the university and the clinical schools. The majority of supervisors are good, and they know the university system very well. A few were a bit impersonal.'

'I found Problem Based Learning fantastic. You went through a PBL in your head when you met a new patient.'

'I suppose I've learned how to learn and do self-learning and expand my knowledge and make myself a better practitioner.'