Evaluation of Learning Approaches Among Physiotherapy Students in Haryana: A Cross-Sectional Study

Understanding students' learning approach, modifying teaching methods, curriculum and material accordingly is essential to deliver quality education. Knowing more about the learning approaches assists in upgrading the profession's quality for continuous professional development.

The cross-sectional study was carried out among physiotherapy students studying in physiotherapy colleges affiliated with the same university. The Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students questionnaire was used to evaluate learning approaches in both preclinical and clinical students. Data were analysed using the IBM Statistical Package SPSS 27. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05.

A total of 250 participants with a mean age of 21.09 + 1.93 years, 129 (51.6%) in the preclinical group and 121 (48.4%) in the clinical group participated in the study. 67 (26.7%) of the students were male, while 183 (72.9%) were females. The vast majority of participants (97.6%) adopt a deep approach to learning, while only a small fraction (2.0%) use a surface approach, with the strategic approach being rarely used (0.4%). No significant difference was observed between the males and females, and students of different colleges under the same university.

The predominant approach is the deep learning approach reflecting active learning. This may indicate that curriculum and strategies of teaching are employed over physiotherapy students to promote quality learning. Also, the teaching preferences varies between two group of physiotherapy students. Thus, this will also assist physiotherapy educators in planning and delivering learning activities according to learners by knowing their preferences.