Fifteenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

In Physical Education and Kinesiology faculties, undergraduate students study theoretical knowledge from various sub-disciplines (physiology, psychology, biomechanics and motor learning to name a few) and practice applied knowledge (coaching, playing sports and dance, program design, etc). However, theory and practice are rarely combined in a single course where students are able to generate embodied knowledge. Recognizing this gap, my faculty recently began a redesign of our undergraduate “activity core” courses. Subsequently, I designed and have taught two undergraduate courses that combine anatomy, biomechanics, and mind-body integration (use of breath, imagery, and proprioception) through an experiential learning approach. This process led me to write a perspective article about how I integrated somatic, embodied knowledge from my background as a professional ballet dancer to design and teach the first-year course, titled Movement Fundamentals and the Mind-Body Connection. While teaching this course, my teaching assistant and I had many informal conversations during and after classes where the students shared that their experiences in this class were “unlike any other in their kinesiology courses”. This led me to begin a second study examining student perceptions of course content and the overall efficacy and meaningfulness of embodied learning; I am now in the data analysis phase of this study. The purpose of the second study is to understand if/how this embodied approach to learning enables students to understand more fully the overlap between theory and practice in physical education and kinesiology.