Investigating professional identity in undergraduate physiotherapy education

• Main Author: Talberg, Heather
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: University of Cape Town 2015
• Subjects: Education
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12016

Includes abstract. === Includes bibliographical references. === Clinical practice remains an integral part of the training of physiotherapy students. It is seen as an effective way of socialising students into the profession. By placing students in a clinical setting where under the guidance of clinicians and clinical educators, they are able to put their classroom taught procedures into practice it is believed that they then start to develop an understanding of what being a physiotherapist entails. Drawing on Lave and Wenger's model of situated learning, this research sets out to understand how final year physiotherapy students begin to develop their identity as physiotherapists. The research looks at the positioning of students within specific communities of practice and the nature of the learning that occurs within these communities.