Faculty of Health
HSE204 Motor Learning and Development
Trimester 2, 2025
Welcome
This unit provides an introduction to concepts in human motor learning, motor control, motor development and physical growth. It is designed to provide students with an understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms and fundamental processes underlying the learning of motor skills and to show how motor development is influenced by physical growth. Application of motor learning, motor development and physical growth concepts, to selected aspects of skill acquisition and remediation of skill in work, sport and everyday living are considered. This Unit Guide provides you with the key information about this unit. Please read it carefully and refer to it frequently throughout the study period. Your unit site also provides information about your rights and responsibilities. We will assume you have read this before the unit commences, and we expect you to refer to it throughout the study period. To be successful in this unit, you must:
Read all materials in preparation for your learning activities, and follow up each with further study and research on the topic.
Start your assessment tasks well ahead of the due date.
Read or listen to all feedback carefully, and use it in your future work.
Attend and engage in all educator-facilitated (scheduled) learning activities and other learning experiences as part of the unit design.
Unit development in response to student feedback
Every Trimester, we ask students to tell us, through eVALUate, what helped and hindered their learning in each unit. You are strongly encouraged to provide constructive feedback for this unit when eVALUate opens (you will be emailed a link). In previous versions of this unit, students have told us that these aspects of the unit have helped them to achieve the learning outcomes:
Practical (laboratory) classes are a highlight, providing a hands-on approach to learning and an opportunity to apply knowledge covered in the lectures in a real-life setting. In 2020 and 2021, these practicals ran fully online due to COVID-19 restrictions, with an overwhelmingly positive response from students. A selection of these fully online practicals will be offered to online students, while students enrolled on-campus will participate in our popular in-person lab activities.
The prescribed textbook, Motor Learning and Skill Acquisition (Spittle 2021) is closely aligned with the unit and is a useful study aid for the assignments and exam preparation. This textbook is available as a hard copy or E-book.
The following aspects of the unit have been introduced, enhanced or retained in response to feedback from students who have undertaken this unit in previous trimesters:
The delivery of much of the learning materials will be via online modules (rather than traditional lectures). This concept has run with much success, and will allow for self-paced study, reducing your commitment to scheduled classes and providing efficient and engaging learning in the online environment.
Online modules will be divided into 4 study areas, and each study area will now have an online MCQ to be completed via CloudDeakin. This model encourages learning to be paced across the trimester and helps students to stay engaged with the unit on a week-by-week basis. Seminars (both on-campus and online) will run on assessment weeks to help students revise each study area.
If you have any concerns about the unit during the trimester, please contact the unit teaching team - preferably early in the trimester - so we can discuss your concerns, and make adjustments, if appropriate.
Learning Outcomes
Each unit in your course is a building block towards Deakin's Graduate Learning Outcomes - not all units develop and assess every Graduate Learning Outcome (GLO).