Effects of self-controlled feedback on learning range of motion measurement techniques and self-efficacy among physical therapy students.

Background Accurate range of motion (ROM) measurements using a universal goniometer or visual estimation are difficult for physical therapy students. Self-controlled (SC) feedback, in which learners choose whether or not to receive feedback, promotes learning more than feedback without a choice, but is underutilized in physical therapy education. Therefore, we examined the effects of SC feedback on skill acquisition of these two ROM measurements and physical therapy students' self-efficacy (SE) for ROM measurements. Method The participants were 30 physical therapy students randomly assigned to two groups: an SC group, in which they could choose whether to receive feedback during practice, and a Yoked (Yk) group, in which they received feedback according to a schedule created by their SC counterpart. Participants completed tests and practice of two tasks; a goniometric measurement task, in which participants measure the ROM of left knee flexion using a universal goniometer, and a visual estimation task, in which they estimate it visually. Measurement accuracy and measurement time were used as test performance for both tasks. SE for ROM measurement was measured before the start of each test. Feedback related to measurement errors was provided only during a practice in line with each group's conditions. Results The feedback frequency of the SC group remained high at 80.0 ± 30.3 % at the end of the practice. The accuracy and measurement time of the goniometer measurements and visual estimation improved in both groups; however, no differences were observed between the groups. In addition, the measurement accuracy was higher with goniometer measurements than with visual estimation. Furthermore, SE before the pretest did not show any relationship with the measurement accuracy of the pretest, but SE before the short-term retention test correlated with measurement accuracy at that time. Conclusion Although the effectiveness of SC feedback was not demonstrated, we showed that external feedback improved the accuracy of ROM measurements using a goniometer and visual estimation in physical therapy students and shortened the measurement time. It was also revealed that SE after the end of the practice was temporarily related to measurement accuracy at that time.