Integrating Movement and Clinical Reasoning: A Perspective for Teaching and Learning

An evolving conceptualization of clinical reasoning in physical therapy emphasizes the embodied, adaptive, iterative, and collaborative elements of clinical reasoning that personifies physical therapist practice. Contemporary clinical reasoning frameworks have primarily focused on cognitive processes, while overlooking the centrality of movement and the multisensory, collaborative interactions between physical therapists and patients. Recent research highlights the need for a framework that incorporates the bidirectional, sensory-rich exchange integral to clinical reasoning. It is also necessary to create new educational approaches to develop the fundamental skills crucial for embodied clinical reasoning in learners along the professional education continuum. Application of complexity learning theory and Grossman's pedagogies of practice are proposed as the foundation for an education framework that fosters a dynamic, nonlinear, learning approach, promoting exploration and integration of complex clinical reasoning and movement in practice.