FIRST CONTACT WITH STATISTICS IN THE PHYSIOTHERAPY DEGREE

The adoption of a new educational paradigm based on the European Space for Higher Education requires an adaptation of the teaching methodology and evaluation skills and the implementation of a competency-based training that links the university with the professional world. These changes in the education system are certainly beneficial to the Spanish Degree in Physiotherapy, which has undergone length and content modifications. One of this changes includes the introduction of statistics as a course in the degree programme. Statistics is an essential tool in scientific research, although, as it is shown in the literature, this subject may be rejected and seen as unappealing by students at the beginning.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate physiotherapy students’ previous knowledge and later view about acquisition of competencies, applicability and teachers´ attitude in the course of statistics. This evaluation was carried out by means of a questionnaire provided to 61 first-year physiotherapy students in 2009-2010 academic year. The results, showed and analysed in the following paper, allowed us to know the key points to be reinforced in the next academic year.