ACTIVE LEARNING ACTIVITIES SUPPORTING PHYSIOTHERAPY CLINICAL EDUCATION: A SCOPING REVIEW (PROTOCOL)

Clinical internship is an integral and mandatory component of physiotherapy education worldwide. It provides students with the opportunity to integrate theoretical knowledge with clinical practice, effectively shaping the professional identity of the emerging healthcare practitioner. The majority of clinical hours are typically completed within healthcare facilities, where students work alongside an experienced physiotherapist serving as a clinical tutor or supervisor, pursuing various objectives tailored to different stages of the curriculum. Over the years, alternative internship models have emerged, diverging from traditional approaches through the implementation of active learning strategies. Active learning is a pedagogical approach that shifts the focus from the instructor to the learner, who becomes directly engaged in the cognitive processes associated with the subject matter. Within this framework, emphasis is placed on activities that stimulate higher-order cognitive processes, fostering the autonomous construction of knowledge through interaction, reflection, and active participation (Lim et al. 2019). The purpose of this scoping review is to systematically map the existing literature regarding the different types of clinical placements that adopt active learning methodologies globally. Specifically, the review aims to quantify the proportion of curricular hours dedicated to these modalities and to examine the evaluation of such activities from the perspective of clinical tutors.