Critiques of Literature Reviews on Intervention Mapping Protocols

5 POINTS à DUE BY 11:59 PM CST on Feb 11, 2021

BLA Description & Goals: Students will gain skills in critiquing empirical research via 3 5-point individual written assessments. The purpose of Bridging Learning Activities (BLA) are, as described above, meant to provide students with skills in reading, understanding, critiquing, and synthesizing academic literature. These skills are important and useful across different careers in public health. 

Assignment-specific Description & Goal. Students will select one of three literature reviews posted on Blackboard. Students will develop a 1-page document that critiques this literature review and what we know about the state of the science regarding intervention mapping in research and practice. The goal of this assignment is to provide students with an opportunity to gain skills in reviewing literature reviews, which are major resources for understanding large body of literature.  

Format. submit 1 Microsoft Word document to the appropriate link within the Blackboard’s  use: 1) paragraph format (i.e., no bullet points or sentence fragments); 2) Arial 11 as the font style and size; 3) single spacing; and, 4) 0.5 inch margins. Students who do not submit their work in this format will have their work returned to them for reformatting purposes. Appropriately reformatted submissions will, however, be penalized as late assignments. Late assignments will receive a 1-point reduction for every day that they are late. The “clock” on late submissions begins with the day of submission – i.e., submissions that occur after 11:50 PM will be considered 1 day late. After seven days, late submissions will not be accepted and a grade of zero will be entered.

Requested content. Note that this is only 1 page max. Do not use quotes. Do not paraphrase/reword what is in the article. Use your own words and perspective (e.g., lived experience as a professional, person, etc.) to critique this article. 

1. Rationale for literature review (Introduction Section). How did the introduction justify the need for this type of literature review/synthesis of intervention mapping? (1 point)

2. Approaches to literature identification and review (Methods Section).

a. What are advantages regarding how authors of the review found and chose articles for the literature review? (1 point)

b. What are potential limitations regarding how the literature review found chosen articles and synthesized findings in your own words? (1 point)

3. Analyses and interpretation (Results & Discussion Sections).

a. What were cross-cutting themes about how studies used intervention mapping that authors identified? As much as is possible, specify their interpretation of how studies used intervention mapping to develop responsive programs from theories/conceptual frameworks. (1 point) 

b. Were their conclusions/synthesis convincing, based on how they described studies? Explain why or why not, in your own words. (1 point)