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This paper discusses some of the benefits and challenges of Kinesiology as a pre-allied health degree. Specifically, it highlights the impact of large enrollment growth on resources, course offerings, student experiences, student quality, and research. It is the author’s intent that this paper will stimulate discussion among Kinesiology programs and faculty to ensure that we are staying true to the recommended Kinesiology core and preparing our students to be future physical activity leaders while also providing the flexibility for students who are interested in pursuing graduate training in an allied health field.

As the discipline of kinesiology ponders what should compose a kinesiology curriculum, it is worth considering the broad context. What is our responsibility to imbue students with values, viewpoint, and a vocabulary that facilitates their success in a context greater than our discipline? How do we decide what those things are (e.g., professional integrity, analytical thinking, cultural understanding, social responsibility, problem solving, leadership and engaged citizenship, effective communication, working collaboratively, preparation for lifelong learning)? How do we create a curriculum that provides sufficient understanding of disciplinary knowledge and critically important foundational skills? The purpose of this paper is to provide a jumping-off point for deeper discussion of what our students need most and how we can deliver it.

Experiential learning provides undergraduate students rich opportunities to enhance their knowledge of core concepts in kinesiology. Beyond these outcomes, it enables students to gain exposure to, build empathy for, and affect the lives of individuals from diverse populations. However, the development, management, and systematic evaluation of experiential learning vary drastically across programs. Thus, the purpose of this review was to critically evaluate the experiential-learning programs at Auburn University and Oregon State University with respect to best practices outlined by the National Society for Experiential Education. The authors provide examples of lessons learned from these two programs to help others improve the implementation and impact of undergraduate experiential learning.

Millennial college students are typically digital natives who prefer experiential and active learning. This preference is in contrast to the traditional lecture method of teaching in higher education. Flipped instruction provides instructors with a means to integrate technology into their courses and expand active-learning opportunities. In flipped courses, students engage with technology-assisted learning opportunities outside the classroom. Corresponding in-class active-learning opportunities encourage students to apply foundational knowledge. This article summarizes research and provides an authentic case example to illustrate the way in which flipped instruction was applied in a physical education teacher education course to expand learning opportunities in the field.

Although the use of active-learning strategies in the classroom is effective, it is underutilized due to resistance to change from the traditional classroom, a limited evidence base for optimizing engaged learning, and limited support for faculty to overhaul their course structure. Despite these barriers, engaged learning is highly relevant, as the expected job skills of graduates continue to grow and are biased away from rote memorization and toward critical thinking and communication skills. The STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) disciplines continue to accrue evidence demonstrating that different engaged-learning formats provide for better learning and preparation for careers. This article describes 2 innovative course formats the authors have used to increase student engagement and enhance competence in the areas of critical thinking, evidence gathering, and scientific communication. Furthermore, the authors discuss what they have learned while applying these teaching approaches to the development of new courses and the enhancement of established courses.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the 2018 American Kinesiology Association preworkshop on best practices in internships. This preworkshop contained 2 keynote speakers, 5 ignite sessions, and 6 round-table discussions looking at the status of internships in departments of kinesiology, nationally. It is clear that kinesiology does not have a common practice for implementing internships. Given the many variables in respect to offering an internship, such as curricular mandates, faculty workload policy, community partner availability, program outcomes, student learning objectives, and assessment tools, this is not surprising. Perhaps we should rethink the notion that there is a set of best practices that guide internship development and consider the possibility that internships will look different at various institutions for valid reasons.