Physiotherapy students' lived experience of formative assessment during practice education

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into physiotherapy students' experience of formative assessment on placements. A purposive sample of nine physiotherapy students was selected from a pre-registration problem-based learning programme. Four postgraduate practice educators were interviewed to explore emergent themes. A qualitative phenomenological approach was adopted using semi-structured interviews. Reflective logs and theme boards were used to promote participants' reflection prior to interview. An interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach was used.