Introduction.
The purpose of this study was to compare the perceived academic entitlement of physical therapy students with the way in which physical therapy faculty members perceived their students' academic rights and responsibilities. Three groups of researchers have published academic entitlement questionnaires. Although several researchers have attempted to measure the academic entitlement of undergraduate students, very few studies have investigated the same issue because it relates to graduate students. In addition, only one study has attempted to measure the academic entitlement of graduate students enrolled in a health care curriculum.
Methods.
The participants were Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) faculty members and DPT students at a public liberal arts university in the Midwest part of the United States. The data collection tool was the 15-item academic entitlement questionnaire created by Greenberger et al. A comparison of how the DPT faculty members and the DPT students answered the individual questionnaire items was calculated using the Fisher Exact Test, and a comparison of how the DPT faculty members and the DPT students responded to the entire questionnaire was calculated using Cronbach's Alpha.
Results.
There was no statistically significant difference between the way in which the DPT faculty members answered the individual questionnaire items and the way in which the DPT students responded to each question. When the entire questionnaire was taken into consideration, the overall academic entitlement of the DPT students was significantly greater than the way in which the DPT faculty members perceived their students' academic rights and responsibilities (P = .0452).
Discussion and Conclusion.
This study found that some DPT students may have an inflated sense of their academic entitlement. Therefore, DPT faculty members should explore meaningful ways in which to convey expectations regarding academic rights and responsibilities.
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