Assessing professional perceptions: design and validation of an Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale

The increased growth of interdisciplinary education programs in the allied health professions has presented the need for alternate forms of assessment that go beyond basic performance indicators. These assessments would gauge professionally oriented perceptions and related affective domains for participants in such programs. The present study describes the design and validation of an Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale (IEPS) to meet that added assessment need. In addition to presenting the instrument and its scoring procedures, this study also offers cross-disciplinary normative data and statistical power estimates for appropriate use of the IEPS in evaluative and related research settings.