Formative Assessment of Physical Examination Skills Within a Professional Physical Therapist Education Program to...

Formative assessment (FA), or assessment for learning, has been shown to support the development of the traits and skills required of the master adaptive learner (MAL). Master adaptive learners possess the ability to self-regulate their learning to develop routine and adaptive expertise. Summative assessment (SA), or assessment of learning, is the predominant approach within traditional physical therapy education. The purpose of this case report is to describe the development and implementation of FA to foster the advancement of MALs in a professional physical therapist education program and to evaluate outcomes of learners who engaged in learner-directed FA.

Voluntary, learner-driven, no-stakes FA with an emphasis on feedback and learner self-reflection was implemented in a first-year fundamental skills course in a cohort of 87 learners within a 3-year entry-level Doctor of Physical Therapy education curriculum.

Learners who completed 1 or more FAs scored on average 8 percentage points higher on summative laboratory practical examinations than those learners who completed no FAs (t = -2.72, P = .012). There was a weak positive relationship between the number of FAs performed and summative laboratory practical examination scores (Kendall's tau = 0.264, P < .001). Learners reported positive feelings toward the FA process.

Outcomes of this analysis suggest that FA could be used as an effective tool to support performance improvement and the advancement of self-directed processes that may enhance the development of professional physical therapy learners as MALs.