Lit Review

Literature review on Kinesiology

Since 1863, the first year kinesiology was introduced into the college curriculum as a major, it has been rapidly growing ever since then. According to the American Kinesiology Association, the number of undergraduate kinesiology majors grew 50 percent from 2003 to 2008, to more than 26,000 students, making it one of the fastest-growing majors in the country (Locke, 2008) Kinesiology has taken the college world by surprise as it is becoming one of the more popular majors of undergraduate studies. Experts say that the rise of popularity is credited to today’s new obsession with sports by young students all over the World (Locke, 2008).

This newfound popularity has not gone unnoticed, and has been observed by experts all over the World. Many experts and college professors have a negative opinion on the major expressing that it is simply a major based on exercise. This statement is merely an opinion and not a proven fact! The curriculum has developed over the years to offer courses that extend beyond physical education to psychology, sociology, neurology and biomechanics (Locke, 2008). The expansion of the college curriculum has helped to establish Kinesiology as one of the top majors in some of the top universities across the country, including Cambridge, Pennsylvania State, and Connecticut University.

As experts noticed the newfound interest of students to study kinesiology in top universities, they began searching for ways to better the major of kinesiology in order to make it more respectable and more appealing to undergraduate students. To formulate this paper, three different articles were reviewed by three different authors: Karl Newell, Gregg Twietmeyer, Lawrence Locke. Each article discusses a different aspect on the major of kinesiology. The three authors focused on topics such as learning criteria, class recommendations, curricular alignment, and philosophical insights. The main topic of this essay is to...