Good Practice in Australian Physiotherapy Education

The incidence of plagiarism seems to be on the increase in our programs. The proposed explanations of this phenomenon are varied including the increased access to digital information, increased pressure on student time as they struggle to manage work and study, cultural differences, the pressure to get good grades and pure laziness. It may just be that students do not have the understanding of educational integrity that academics suppose they have, or cannot effectively and efficiently apply the rules.
In order to ensure that students were aware of what constitutes plagiarism and collusion a proactive teaching project was designed which would teach the students understanding of these concepts.
An assignment was written using three sources. No attribution was made in the assignment despite quotes, tables, figures and summarizing from all three sources being used. The students were then given the assignment and the three sources. Their task was to identify the plagiarism and to correctly attribute it.
Prior to the students undertaking the assignment instructions were given in a lecture format, as was the advice to complete a number of on-line workshops on plagiarism. As it was an individual assignment students were also warned that they should not share their work with other students. All assignments were electronically submitted with student changes having been done using track changes. This had the extra bonus of being able to compare when changes were made and who made them. Ironically, some collusion was identified this way.
 
The results of the assignment were concerning, in that 30% of undergraduate and of 35% of postgraduate students failed. Further educative sessions for these students followed, and they were then asked to resubmit the assignment. Of the resubmissions 60% of postgraduate students still failed while only 3% of undergraduate students failed. The teaching team hypothesized that this was because the undergraduate assignment carried a mark of 20% and was an essential component to pass the course whereas the postgraduate students had only a pass/fail assignment and there was not penalty for failing. The results also highlighted the types of plagiarism that students had the most trouble identifying, namely embedded quotes, data and summarising of text. The teaching team also reflected on the teaching process and decided it did not have enough depth.
Changes made the following year included the introduction of a formal lecture on plagiairsm and collusion followed by a two hour interactive workshop where students worked on tasks related to plagiarism and collusion. The "assignment" had a greater focus on those areas that student had previously demonstrated difficulties, ie embedded quotes, data and summarising of text.
 
It is hoped that after completion of the assignment that students will have a better understanding of what plagiarism is, and therefore what needs to be attributed in their work. If they have a better understanding then it is hoped that we will see less examples of plagiarism.

A handheld computer device has been developed to streamline the process of the practical examination of students and to provide a mechanism for providing students with timely feedback on their performance in a practical examination
The device will be used by staff during practical examination to grade students according to an assessment template entered into the system by the examiner. This template will consist of the various cognitive and psychomotor attributes which form the assessment criteria of the examination along with relevant grading systems and descriptive text feedback fields.
 
It is anticipated that this system will streamline the practical examination process by automatically tallying results and outputting these to the university's mySI-net examination result collation system. In addition, the system will enable written comments of a student's performance in each cognitive and psychomotor attribute, to be emailed to them in a timely manner thus facilitating a reflective learning process.

Each student is required to work with two other students and make a video of themselves performing three physiotherapy assessment and treatment techniques taught in the first semester. One student acts as the patient, while the other student controls the video camera and also critiques the "student therapist" using the assessment sheet utilized during practical examinations of this subject.
 
Once the video is complete the "student therapist" is required to watch the video and complete a self-evaluation of their performance using the assessment sheets.
At least one week later the video process is repeated. The same or different techniques are chosen to be performed. The student therapist self-evaluates the performance on the second video and receives a written evaluation from the observing student.
 
The student is then required to compile a report based on the observing students critique and their self-evaluation of both video sessions. The report briefly summarises each technique, provides an in-depth critical appraisal of their performance, discusses what was done well and what needs improvement, compares the observation between the student observer and their own self-evaluation and includes a section about changes over time (from video one to video two).

Theoretical framework - of essential content material pertaining to Physiotherapy in Women's Health and the principles of adult learning and student-centered teaching: lectures and practical classes that modeled adult-learning interactive principles and practices, and a detailed resource manual.
Experience in the principles and practices of self-directed learning, interactive teaching and peer and self-assessment:
 

• Formulation of a criteria list for evaluation of the presentations. This is complied from their responses to the question - " Think back on your past learning experiences. What factors made some of them particularly effective, meaningful and long-lasting?"
• Research in pairs of an allocated topic and formulation of interactive teaching strategies for their content area. They also have free access to a resource room equipped with a range of reference material - books, articles, tapes, videos - and teaching aids for use in classes.
• Class outline - written assignment of class objectives, content, teaching methods and ideas for evaluation of effectiveness. This is handed in for assessment and feedback, and any necessary adjustments can then be made before they give their class.
• Presentation of their class material - role-playing as a childbirth educator, presenting their topic area to their tutorial group who in turn were role-playing as expectant parents.
• Peer evaluation via provision of anonymous feedback - using the previously student established criteria list, students give anonymous written feedback to each other regarding which factors s/he managed well in their class segment and what needed to be improved.
• Self-evaluation of their own teaching.

Clinical Conference is a 10CP capstone course undertaken by students in the last/final semester of studies prior to the final 8 weeks of clinical placements. The course aims to fully integrate the student's prior learning in exercise science with evidence-based physiotherapy knowledge and skills using complex clinical cases. These cases are complicated by 'real-life' moral, ethical and medico-legal issues. The students study four separate cases in detail and in a holistic manner, examining the progress of patients through a continuum of care (eg, early diagnosis, acute care, sub-acute needs, rehabilitation and through to re-integration back in to the community). Sessions are led by various members of different disciplines from the healthcare team that might be involved with such cases. The cases are updated and modified each year depending on medical advances or social change.