The Development and Content Validation of a Student Satisfaction Questionnaire for Physiotherapy Teaching-Learning Methods: An Expert Panel Study

Background and objectiveProblem-based learning (PBL) is increasingly used alongside traditional didactic teaching (TDT) in physiotherapy education, and student satisfaction is a key outcome for evaluating the acceptability of different teaching-learning methods.However, no content-validated, physiotherapy-specific instrument is available to measure student satisfaction across different teaching-learning methods.Hence, we aimed to develop a student satisfaction questionnaire to evaluate physiotherapy teaching-learning methods, establish its content validity through a structured expert panel review, and assess its preliminary internal consistency in a pilot sample. MethodsA 12-item questionnaire was developed to evaluate aspects such as session organisation, content relevance, clarity of facilitation, achievement of learning objectives, comprehension, confidence in application, perceived long-term retention, and overall participant satisfaction.The questionnaire was developed using a structured item-generation process.A purposively selected panel of six subject-matter experts assessed the draft questionnaire for relevance, clarity, and simplicity using a 4-point scale.For each dimension, the itemlevel content validity index (I-CVI) and scale-level content validity index (S-CVI) were computed.Items with an I-CVI below 0.78 were flagged for revision and re-evaluation.The modified kappa statistic (κ*) was used to adjust the I-CVI for potential chance agreement.Following revisions, the finalised questionnaire was pilot-tested in two separate groups of 30 final-year physiotherapy students.One group was evaluated following a PBL session, while the other was evaluated following a TDT session on the same topic.Internal consistency under each condition was assessed using Cronbach's alpha, corrected item-total correlations, and alpha-if-item-deleted values. ResultsTen out of the 12 items achieved an I-CVI of at least 0.78 across all three evaluated dimensions.However, two items did not meet the threshold for clarity and simplicity, with an I-CVI of 0.667, although they were deemed sufficiently relevant, with an I-CVI of 0.833, leading to revisions in their wording.The S-CVI/Ave scores were 0.944 for relevance, 0.889 for clarity, and 0.875 for simplicity, resulting in an overall average S-CVI/Ave of 0.903 across all dimensions.The modified kappa values varied between 0.565, indicating fair agreement, and 1.00, indicating excellent agreement, with the lowest values linked to the two revised items.In the pilot testing, the finalised questionnaire showed strong internal consistency under both conditions, with Cronbach's alpha scores of 0.929 for PBL and 0.972 for TDT.Corrected item-total correlations ranged from 0.559 to 0.800 for PBL and from 0.736 to 0.950 for TDT, and removing any item did not enhance the overall scale alpha in either condition. ConclusionsThe 12-item questionnaire demonstrated strong content validity, with 10 items rated highly and two revised following expert review, as well as excellent internal consistency in both PBL and TDT pilot groups, with expert agreement exceeding chance levels.These findings provide preliminary support for using the questionnaire to assess student satisfaction with PBL and TDT in physiotherapy education.Its reliability across other teaching-learning methods, such as flipped classrooms and simulation, has not been evaluated and warrants further investigation.