Evaluation of the disciplinary competences of the students of the bachelor’s degree in physiotherapy at “Sapienza” University of Rome through the TECO. A cross-sectional study

The objective of the study is to evaluate whether the TECO-D is a useful tool for measuring the skills acquired by students during three years of the physiotherapy bachelor’s degree course at the “Sapienza” University of Rome. The sample was recruited between October and December 2017. To be included in the study, the participants had to be enrolled in the bachelor’s degree course in physiotherapy at the “Sapienza” University of Rome and had to be on track with the course’s prescribed completion timeframe. The distribution of the scores for the TECO-D shows an increasing average (Standard Deviation) from 147.1 ± 34.5 in the first year up to 227.1 ± 17.8 for graduating students. Progress testing is a form of assessment in which groups of learners of different seniority (i.e., different classes in a curriculum) are given the same written test. The test is comprehensive by sampling all relevant disciplines in a curriculum, usually determined by a fixed blueprint. The total score of the TECO-D exponentially increased between the first and second years of the course. In fact, the score, at the first year of the course, was averaged at 147 ± 34.5 and increased up to 204 ± 23.2 in the second year. Regarding the third year of the course and the undergraduates, there was an increase, but the latter was less significant. Because of this, we can say that the TECO-D is a great tool for measuring student’s knowledge in order to evaluate study programs.