A Semester-long Journal Club Improves Self-perceived Critical Appraisal Skills in Undergraduate Sport and Exercise Science Students

Abstract

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (2011) strongly encourages a shift from traditional instructor-led courses to a student-centred teaching and learning environment where inquiry driven teaching and research-orientated active learning is favoured. Traditional undergraduate courses use didactic textbooks to inform students of what is currently known in the discipline. However, textbooks are usually broad in topic matter, superficial in content and present a false image of the reality of scientific research (Hoskins & Stevens, 2009). Consequently, they present scientific visualisations with little attention paid to the research process and the experimental techniques used to generate the data (Duncan et al., 2011). As such, textbooks may stifle the development of skills that correspond with higher order thinking (levels 4 to 6) in Bloom’s taxonomy such as scientific thinking and the development of critical appraisal (Duncan et al., 2011; Krathwohl, 2002). Without these skills, reading and analysing the primary literature may appear too challenging and a point of frustration, stress and anxiety for many undergraduates (Round & Campbell, 2013).