Testing Teaching

Abstract

The 2013 special issue of the Journal of Physical Therapy Education (JOPTE) is the 13th special issue that we have published and has as its focus the ways that we will teach physical therapy students in the 21st century. Guest Editor and Editorial Board Member Vanina Dal Bello-Hass, PT, PhD, MEd, has selected a range of articles that will describe several ways in which our instructional methods are and will likely be changing in the near future. The entire postsecondary educational enterprise in this country is consumed with the challenges facing colleges and universities, as well as professional and graduate education. The ubiquitous use of educational technology, starting with elementary-level education, in this country might be identified as the lynchpin in these discussions. In professional education, we might ask ourselves, “What instructional methods are most effective for learners in their 17th year of education?” This issue provides several research reports that address this question, but there are many more research questions about effective and efficient instructional practices in physical therapy education to be answered. Dal Bello-Hass encourages us as educational researchers to strengthen our methods for testing our teaching. A similar initiative related to clinical trials research is growing in use, both in the US and internationally. This initiative is the Clinical Trials Registry, a process whereby the researchers conducting clinical trials of patient interventions submit to one of several government or private agencies a detailed description of their planned research methods prior to initiation of their study. When a manuscript is submitted for publication, this research plan is then reviewed to determine the extent to which the researcher followed the original research plan. This process for clinical trial registration is described in more detail in the following editorial, prepared by the International Society of Physiotherapy Journal Editors. The editors of JOPTE have agreed to publish this joint editorial to show our support for the clinical trial registry as a process that will enhance the quality of clinical research. The JOPTE editorial board will discuss the application of these principles to educational research in the coming year, and we will keep our educational community informed as we adopt changes in procedures for publication of educational experimental research.