Improving Engagement With Biomechanics: Student Perspectives and a Professional Development Initiative

Abstract

Student engagement is an essential aspect of educational environments, and this is especially true for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines, where student engagement declines in middle and high school years. Techniques for bolstering student engagement, such as hands-on learning, may be especially effective in the field of biomechanics since this discipline is rooted in STEM and has fundamental applications to everyday movement. To this end, this paper describes (1) the perceptions of student teachers in their first year of tertiary (undergraduate) education regarding the biomechanics content from their secondary (high school) education, and (2) a professional development initiative, in the form of a discipline-specific teacher training workshop, to enhance biomechanics resources for teachers via peer networking. The perception of student teachers in their first year of tertiary education in teaching indicated a positive relationship between perception of secondary school teaching quality and self-confidence with specific biomechanical concepts. Open responses focused on the need to cover concepts thoroughly, using practical activities where possible, and taking time to ensure understanding before progressing to more advanced concepts. The teacher training workshop provided secondary school Physical Education teachers with an opportunity to network nationally with other teachers across New Zealand, and internationally with university-based biomechanics researchers. Peer focus groups helped to design and refine sets of experiential learning activities that could be easily implemented in the classroom.

Practical experiential learning: a methodology approach for teaching undergraduate biomechanics

“…The course setting described here models how biomechanics can be taught to increase student engagement through effective hands-on learning (Shultz et al, 2019), which may also play a vital role in students' confidence and perception to ensure understanding of advanced concepts. Also important is the classroom environment (Catena & Carbonneau, 2018).…”

“…This method has been shown to successfully (1) engage engineering students who work with real-world cases (applied examples, problem solving, project-based, etc.) (Harris et al, 2002;Martin et al, 2007;Roselli, & Brophy, 2003;Shultz, et al, 2019;Singh, 2017;Singh et al, 2018), (2) increase student motivation and understanding of the relationship between their inclass experiences and their future work, and (3) results in positive learning attitudes that significantly increase students' knowledge and enhance their critical thinking and communication skills, while exposing them to the components of creativity and life-long learning skills (Martin et al, 2007;Terezini, et al, 2001). While these important skill sets are needed in future movement scientists in the field of Kinesiology, limited research has specifically focused on kinesiology programs (Knudson et al, 2009).…”