Department of Physical Therapy, University of Toronto MScPT Scholarly Practice Curriculum 2024-2025 Research and Program Evaluation for Physical Therapy Practice
Deadline: Wednesday, April 10, 2024, 4 pm
Do you have a clinical or education program that needs evaluation? Do you need pilot data for a grant application, or experience with graduate student supervision?
The Department of Physical Therapy invites scientists, postdoctoral researchers, PhD students, and clinicians to submit a project outline relevant to physical therapy and participate as research advisors to a group of 5-6 second year physical therapy students. If needed, research advisors will be paired with an established researcher (PhD) from the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, referred to as the faculty advisor, who has experience with graduate student supervision. We recommend a maximum of three advisors (not including the faculty advisor). See examples of recent projectshere.
Timeline, Activities, and Role of Advisors in the Scholarly Practice Curriculum:
Scholarly Practice I - Unit 7 (3 weeks: September 9-27, 2024): Student groups develop a research protocol and submit the protocol for ethics approval. Research advisors facilitate this process with the support of the faculty advisor (if applicable) and a teaching assistant. Advisors meet weekly with students and review the final research protocol with a quick turnaround time of 2-3 business days.
Research Mondays: Throughout Unit 10 (January 6, 2025 to March 28, 2025) and Unit 11 (May 19, 2025 to June 6, 2025), Mondays are protected for students to work on their projects. Advisors maintain contact with students through email, phone and meetings as needed.
Scholarly Practice II - Unit 13 (6 weeks: June 9, 2025 to July 18, 2025): Students analyse their data, draft a manuscript, and complete and present a poster during a Research Day. Advisors facilitate data analysis and review drafts of the manuscript and the poster with support from the faculty advisor.
Want to know more? Attend our MScPT Scholarly Practice Curriculum Online Information Session, February 13, 2024, 12-1pm EST. Registration is required. If you cannot attend, please register to gain access to the recording. Please click here to register
Projects must be relevant to physical therapy and can include a:
Qualitative Study (example: in-depth interviews or focus groups)
E-Survey
Chart Review (requires review of 10 charts to confirm data are available)
Program Evaluation
Pilot Study (Quantitative or Qualitative)
Secondary Data Analysis
No Literature, Scoping or Systematic Reviews
No Multi or Mixed Methods (projects involving quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and analysis are not feasible in the MScPT curriculum)
Evaluation Criteria: Projects will be selected based on the following 3 criteria:
Quality of the project description,
Relevance of the project to physical therapy, and
Feasibility of the project in relation to the timelines of the MScPT research curriculum, the research capacity of the students, and COVID-19 restrictions (if applicable).
*NEW* for 2024-25
Students will complete a session on developing research questions and literature reviews in Unit 6 (July 2024) instead of Unit 7. Advisors will meet with and orient students just prior.
A strategic priority in the Department of Physical Therapy Strategic Plan is to foster equity, diversity and inclusion. To raise awareness among students of the level of diversity of the people who participate in their projects, we will ask students and advisors to consider recommendations from Ontario’s Anti-Racism Data Standards to collect participant data on gender, Indigenous identity, race, religion, ethnic origin, and other personal information.
Online Project Submission: Deadline: Wednesday, April 10, 2024, 4 pm
Create an account to obtain a username and password. If you created an account last year, your same username and password will still apply.
Once you logon, click “Submit a new project” and complete the online form. We recommend that you circulate a draft of your project description in Word to your co-advisors and when ready to submit, copy and paste into the online form. You may save your project on the online form and revise at any time using the “Save” button. When you are ready to submit the final version, click “Submit”.
Resources for Project Submission: Once you logon to the website, you will have access to:
Examples of a qualitative and quantitative project outline
