a.woltman@erasmusmc.nl
iMERR conducts high-impact scientific research in healthcare education and training. I am responsible for the functioning of iMERR and for the quality of the research. In addition, iMERR increasingly plays an important role in supporting and initiating evidence-based educational innovations. I am committed to applying research results to design education and education policy and thereby improve education. I would like to stimulate collaboration between iMERR and teachers, educational professionals and healthcare professionals to set up educational research and support evidence-based innovation for all programs within the Erasmus MC. In this way, iMERR generates scientific knowledge on healthcare education and training and improves healthcare through evidence-based medical education.
Get to know Andrea
Andrea Woltman studied Biomedical Sciences (cum laude) and also received her PhD cum laude at the University of Leiden. She lead a research group within the Erasmus MC for 12 years (2006-2018), published many immunological research papers and received several prestigious research grants, awards and honors rewarding her scientific research and her qualities as educator of young scientists. Although she is still involved in immunological research projects, she shifted her focus towards education research and innovation. She is especially interested in student selection and assessment in relation to student performance, well-being and diversity.
Next to that, she is active at a local, national and international level in innovation and organization of medical education as Program Director of the Bachelor in Medicine, Erasmus MC (since 2013). As the Project Leader of the medical curriculum renewal in the Erasmus MC (2020-2021), she created the basis for a new evidence-informed medical curriculum.
I like to create an environment in which people can develop and flourish. Education ís development. I like to learn, discover and contribute to better knowledge on education. Better knowledge is required to further improve education and educational policies in order to create a learning environment in which our students can flourish.
Anyone with questions about assessment and admission policies in relation to student diversity, academic performance and student wellbeing could get in touch with me.
Activities
- The effect of admission and academic dismissal policy (Bindend StudieAdvies) on student performance, diversity and perceived and biological chronic stress is being conducted in a multidisciplinary manner with colleagues from ESSB, Erasmus University (Prof.dr. J. van der Waal) and Erasmus MC (Prof.dr. E.F.C. van Rossum). We examine the effects for subgroups, including demographic characteristics such as gender, previous education and migration background. Research is partially supported by a Center for Learning and Innovation (CLI) Research Fellowship, Erasmus University Rotterdam.
- The effect of selection for medical school on student diversity, and how applicants’ demographic characteristics (i.e., gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, previous education) are related to selection outcomes. Furthermore, we investigate how applicants perceive selection procedures, and how their opinions are related to their demographic characteristics and performance. A final topic of interest is the predictive validity of different admission methods, which relates to the question of whether admission methods can accurately predict school performance. This research is partially supported by Netherlands Initiative for Education Research (NRO) | NWO.
- COVID-19: We assessed the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on perceived stress of medical students and we studied whether social support is associated with less crisis-induced stress. We were able to isolate the COVID-19 induced stress for medical students by comparing students’ stress level during the COVID-19 outbreak to their own pre-COVID-19 baseline stress levels. We also took into account the previous cohort’s pre-COVID-19 stress levels in order to control for fluctuations in stress level throughout the academic year regardless of the outbreak.
- Program Director Bachelor in Medicine
- Educational lectures and other teaching activities
- Supervision BSc and MSc students
- Supervision PhD students
- Project leader or member of educational innovation projects
- Consultancy for evidence-based educational policy
- Member of Advisory Boards of Educational programs and Innovation projects
- Mid-term review committee member of several BSc and Msc programs
- Other local, national and international committee services
Output
Overview of Andrea's publications: click here
Link to Andrea's CV: click here
Research on selection and performance have had and will have direct and indirect effects on (medical) education policies; locally, nationally, and internationally. Close collaboration with Erasmus MC medical school resulted in adjustment of academic dismissal policies (N=N) as well as the adjustment of selection instruments.
The ongoing research in a national consortium on a wide variety of selection instruments and their effects on performance and student diversity (NRO grant) will have direct impact on the selection instruments used and will contribute to the national debate on educational equity in the near future.
Active in public debates (e.g. Science Guide).
- Het BSA zou nooit dwingend mogen zijn. Science Guide 2021
- Doet het BSA nog wat het moet doen? Erasmus Magazine 2021
- Van een verhoogd BSA profiteren vooral mannen, vrouwen ervaren hinder. Science Guide 2020
- BNR radio interview KM Stegers-Jager (2020) on our paper: Gender-specific effects of raising Year1 standards on medical students’ academic performance and stress levels.
- Van VWO naar universiteit. Wat zorgt voor succes? Erasmus Magazine 2019
- Afschaffen N=N? ‘Minister slaat de plank volledig mis’. Erasmus Magazine 2018