Challenges of Measurement Education for Rehabilitation Science Graduate Programs

Abstract

<h3>Research Objectives</h3> To describe barriers to and gaps in rehabilitation science measurement education curriculum. <h3>Design</h3> Survey research. <h3>Setting</h3> Surveys were collected using Qualtrics, an online survey platform. <h3>Participants</h3> Forty-one educators from rehabilitation science graduate programs in the United States and the United Kingdom using snowball sampling. <h3>Interventions</h3> Not Applicable. <h3>Main Outcome Measures</h3> We asked respondents if there was a course dedicated to measurement within their graduate programs, the qualifications of persons teaching the measurement courses, and to identify any barriers to teaching measurement. We also asked respondents to identify the specific measurement properties taught in their courses. <h3>Results</h3> Fifty-four percent (n=22) of respondents reported that they had a course entirely dedicated to measurement, and most educators (47%) had a PhD in rehabilitation science. Fourteen (34%) respondents reported that they perceived no barriers to measurement education. Of those who thought barriers existed (n=27), most selected lack of student interest (n=8), followed by a lack of faculty with measurement expertise (n=6), and no time or space within the curriculum (n=4). All respondents reported that they taught levels of measurement and test-retest reliability within their curriculum, but only 44% taught applied psychometrics topics such as cross-cultural validity. <h3>Conclusions</h3> Given barriers such as lack of student interest or lack of faculty with measurement expertise, it would benefit rehabilitation science graduate programs to have access to established measurement education content and curriculum guides fostered by measurement experts to complement current teaching approaches. We recommend the use of resources such as the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab's Rehabilitation Measures Database to provide such content. <h3>Author(s) Disclosures</h3> All authors declare no conflicts.