Narrative Review BGZ

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In the bachelor Health Sciences, the students study a broad variety of topics to reach a general understanding on many aspects of health. This way, they discover which topics they find interesting, and that should help in making the right choices in the rest of their career. The downside of offering a broad selection of topics is that it is impossible to reach deep understanding on all these topics. Deep understanding means that the student can understand state-of-the-art studies on a specific topic, and can see the implications of that research. This information cannot be found in regular textbooks, since the research presented in these books is often already more than 5 years old. Therefore, we designed a parallel module, which aims to give students the opportunity to investigate a topic in depth. To investigate a topic thoroughly, the student needs time and expert guidance, because in-depth guidance is only possible if the instructor is a specialist in the field. So, we designed journal clubs and a writing assignment, covering a whole semester, where you are guided by fellow students and an expert in the field.

During the second semester of the ‘Biology and Health’ track, the students meet in tutorial groups every two weeks, under supervision of an expert tutor. During period 4 the students can first acquire a deeper understanding in the topic of their choice by means of journal clubs. During period 5 and 6, each student individually writes a narrative review. All students within a tutorial group write on the same topic and that topic fits to the expertise of the expert. Likewise, the students can best reflect on their own work if the other students in the group work on the same topic. However, although everybody writes on the same topic, each student should write his or her own review. All members of the group should become experts on the topic. They should be able to judge their own work and that of others and lift the knowledge of the whole group to a higher level. Experience has taught us that we should not be afraid that the produced work is too similar. If ten students start investigating and writing, each will end up with a unique product.

Additionally, an English Writing Course is incorporated in the Narrative Review Training. In one lecture and two tutorial meetings experts from the Language Centre will help the students to improve their English writing skills. They will also provide feedback on the draft versions of the narrative review.