Connecting Classroom, Clinic, and Context: Clinical Reasoning Strategies for Clinical Instructors and Academic...

Clinical reasoning is an essential skill in pediatric physical therapist (PT) practice. As such, explicit instruction in clinical reasoning should be emphasized in PT education.

This article provides academic faculty and clinical instructors with an overview of strategies to develop and expand the clinical reasoning capacity of PT students within the scope of pediatric PT practice. Achieving a balance between deductive reasoning strategies that provide a framework for thinking and inductive reasoning strategies that emphasize patient factors and the context of the clinical situation is an important variable in educational pedagogy.

Consideration should be given to implementing various teaching and learning approaches across the curriculum that reflect the developmental level of the student(s). Deductive strategies may be helpful early in the curriculum, whereas inductive strategies are often advantageous after patient interactions; however, exposure to both is necessary to fully develop the learner's clinical reasoning abilities.

For more insights from the authors, see Supplemental Digital Content 1, available at http://links.lww.com/PPT/A87.