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The Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation is taking its curriculum in new directions, redesigning physical-activity courses to reflect current approaches to teaching and learning. Much of the change involves a shift away from sport-specific skill learning, toward teaching fundamentals of movement that could be applied to multiple contexts. For Emily Noton, principal instructor and developer of the new course KIN 156 - Introduction to Movement Fundamentals, this change provided the perfect opportunity to embrace the concept of somatic learning. 

In somatic learning, students understand and retain knowledge by experiencing the physical sensations of their moving bodies. In short, they learn by moving and being aware of how they experience that movement, physically, emotionally and cognitively. “I designed the course to give students the opportunity to connect theory they learned in lectures with the feeling of movement in their body,” says Noton. “This is a more effective way to understand theories about movement than just lecturing in a classroom.” 

KIN 156 is taught through one lecture and two movement labs per week. Movement fundamentals — the building blocks to developing more complex movement — are first taught in the classroom. Then, students take these activities — strength, balance, mobility, stretching and full-body coordination — into the lab to develop a strong mind-body connection. “For example, while learning how to do a laterally stacked plank in a technically correct manner, students learn how to incorporate breathing and imagery as well as proprioception (your body's ability to sense movement, action, and location). Instead of just trying to hold the position, students use imagery to connect to the sensation of pushing the floor away using their support hand.”

After the first semester, Noton and teaching assistant Kristi Skebo had a strong feeling the mix of lectures and active learning was positively impacting their students. But to scientifically capture the effects of integrating theory and practice, they asked them to answer a questionnaire sharing their experiences. 

Surprisingly, they say, this approach is rare — researchers often focus on their own teaching and learning experiences without considering the voices of their students. Rather than risk assuming they were succeeding in reaching the course’s desired outcomes, the teachers wanted to know for sure. “We wanted to know what content was new for them, how they experienced this new learning approach and what value the course provided.”

What they found was even more positive — and in some cases, more surprising — than they had anticipated. The biggest surprise was the fact that even though some of the students were nearing the end of their degree, 72 per cent of them felt they lacked understanding of how to apply in real life what they had learned in lectures. “I had never been taught HOW to stretch before,” said one. “Feeling the movement of the femur helps me understand the hip joint,” said another. As the course progressed, students gradually required fewer anatomical and mechanical corrections as they began to transfer classroom learning to their own anatomical alignment, breathing, proprioception and ability to use imagery while moving.  

Even months after the course ended, 95 per cent of the students surveyed said that they had retained the theories they had learned in class and were better able to apply them in clinical settings thanks to their time in the movement lab. 

Noton and Skebo also note that a powerful and unexpected side benefit of the movement labs was how they improved the students’ own well-being. Every single student who participated in the questionnaire said they felt physically better on lab days and 84 percent found they felt psychologically better as well. The vast majority also said they were able to use the mind-body components they had learned — such as breath work and visualizing — in their own lives long after the course had finished.  

“We think this approach essentially provides a ‘missing link’ in undergraduate education,” says Noton. “Typically in kinesiology — particularly in the post-COVID world of increased online learning — theory and applied practice are experienced in isolation. Being able to connect these two aspects is key for undergraduate students who train as athletes or aim to be physically fit, who coach young athletes, or who plan to pursue careers as kinesiologists or physiotherapists.”