Browse

Pedagogical strategies continue to improve and evolve with the primary purpose of preparing learners for life and career challenges. The focus on discipline-specific content and individual assessment has dominated higher education practice, including those in kinesiology. Although there is a clear vision to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion in kinesiology curricula, we also need to improve important foundational skills (e.g., quantitative literacy, information literacy, teamwork skills) that our students need to succeed in our programs and beyond. Our narrative review highlights how we tackled these two challenges in an intentional redesign of our foundational kinesiology course. In addition, we outline how we integrated our siloed content and moved to coinstruction of a large, team-based-learning class that employs a diverse set of learning assessments and is supported by near-peer learning assistants.

Kinesiology administrators make a myriad of strategic decisions throughout their time in leadership. Effective leadership, particularly inclusive excellence leadership, is highlighted by the ability of an individual to utilize a diversity of constituent viewpoints, perspectives, and “voices” to guide their respective decision-making processes. This manuscript includes two students’ stories, as well as main points of discussion by American Kinesiology Association Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion workshop leaders. These perspectives provide not only foundational background information, including student identities, but also strategic actions that are necessary to develop all-inclusive and individualized programming that can successfully overcome systemic barriers. The main identified themes are (a) ease of access to accommodations, (b) a culture of inclusivity, (c) advocating, (d) establishing trusting relationships, (e) welcoming of Indigenous perspectives, and (f) flexible practices and community support.

The COVID-19 pandemic proved to be an unprecedented disruptor on college and university campuses as stakeholders at all organizational levels were challenged to consider new approaches to teaching and learning using online course modalities with very limited preparation time and faculty support. Using a case study approach, this paper reviews valuable lessons learned through the experience, particularly regarding shifts in course delivery to include online and hybrid modalities on a widespread scale. Specifically, the authors reviewed the processes, outcomes, and student perceptions associated with online and hybrid course delivery in various kinesiology courses at three different higher education institutions. The paper also offers useful perspectives for kinesiology program administrators and faculty who are contemplating the continued application of online and hybrid course formats in greater capacity postpandemic.

Peer mentoring is a learning process wherein a more experienced student provides advice and support to a less experienced student during their academic career. At the graduate level, peer mentoring has been shown to increase social support, career readiness, retention, and graduation rates among first-year students. In spring 2021, the Exercise Science graduate program at Texas State University initiated a peer mentoring program. The participants reported that they felt more integrated in the graduate program. Meeting and socializing with mentor/mentee have enhanced their sense of belonging and relatedness, especially during COVID, when students felt more isolated. The professional relationship made them more prone to return and strive for academic success. This article describes a peer mentoring program that has been successfully implemented in a kinesiology graduate program and makes recommendations for universities to study the impact of peer mentoring on marginalized student well-being, retention, career readiness, and academic success in future research.

Preparing kinesiology undergraduates with the foundational knowledge required by professional organizations is no longer enough when considering the skills students are required to demonstrate upon entering the job market. Work-integrated learning, embedded through curricular and cocurricular activities, has seen extensive growth in the posteducation landscape of Canadian institutions. With increasing expectations from future employers, graduates in the field of kinesiology require more experiential opportunities to meet these expectations. The aim of this paper is to provide commentary on how the Bachelor of Kinesiology program at Capilano University underwent the necessary changes to incorporate a required professional practice stream to align with industry expectations. The authors discuss the development of laddering course learning outcomes, course content, reflection, and student evaluation. Additionally, they provide rationale for its inclusion in the second year of the program.

In this study, we examined the load–velocity relationship in the hexagonal bar deadlift exercise in women. Twenty-seven resistance-trained women were recruited. Participants performed a progressive load test up to the one-repetition maximum (1RM) load for determining the individual load–velocity relationship in the hexagonal bar deadlift exercise. Bar velocity was measured in every repetition through a linear encoder. A very strong and negative relationship was found between the %1RM and bar velocity for the linear (R² = .94; standard error of the estimation = 5.43% 1RM) and second-order polynomial (R² = .95) regression models. The individual load–velocity relationship provided even better adjustments (R² = .98; coefficient of variation = 1.77%) than the general equation. High agreement level and low bias were found between actual and predicted 1RM for the general load–velocity relationship (intraclass correlation coefficient = .97 and 95% confidence interval [0.90, 0.99]; bias = −2.59 kg). In conclusion, bar velocity can be used to predict 1RM with high accuracy during hexagonal bar deadlift exercise in resistance-trained women.