Mapping learning theory in physiotherapy: A Scoping review of education, clinical practice and supervision.

Many different learning theories have been developed to explain how individuals acquire, process, retain and recall knowledge. Contextual factors such as prior learning experiences, emotional, cognitive and environmental influences impact how learning occurs. Drawing on these theories clarifies the underlying mechanisms of learning and is essential to physiotherapy practice in understanding why certain learning strategies work while others do not. Understanding learning theory is important in many physiotherapy contexts, including undergraduate training, clinical practice and clinical education roles. Specifically, a deep understanding of how people learn enables physiotherapists to educate patients on injury prevention and self-management, support students during clinical placements and deliver effective undergraduate programs. Although the importance of learning theory is widely recognised, there is a lack of consolidated evidence on how it is represented in the physiotherapy academic literature. This scoping review aims to systematically map how learning theory is represented in physiotherapy literature across three key domains: student education, clinical practice/patient education and clinical educator supervision. The study will draw on databases of peer-reviewed and grey literature using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI), Arksey and O’Malley framework and PRISMA-ScR guidelines to chart the explicit, implicit or absent status of the engagement of learning theory. This process will identify the strengths and gaps in how learning theory is described, understood and applied, with the aim of informing coherent, theory-informed curriculum design, educator preparation and patient education strategies in physiotherapy. The overarching aim is to support a shift from fragmented teaching methods towards coherent, theory-informed learning systems, enabling educator programs to embed explicit learning theory frameworks into curricula and strengthen alignment across clinical, educational and supervisory practice.