Classroom Techniques for Teaching Skeletal Muscle Contraction

Skeletal muscle physiology is often taught through didactic lectures with limited practical hands-on sessions. Consequently, it can be challenging for students to visualize and understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms of muscle contraction as illustrated in textbooks. Thus, active learning strategies are warranted to further enhance student teaching and learning. This study aimed to identify and summarize active learning (classroom) techniques for teaching skeletal muscle contraction. We performed a literature search on the Advances in Physiology Education website using these keywords: “skeletal muscle contraction," "teaching," and "models". Our search identified 21 articles published in English between 1998 and present that used a wide variety of techniques for teaching skeletal muscle contraction. From the 21 articles identified, the primary teaching strategies consisted of physical models (n=9), laboratory activities (n=6), skits (n=3), games (n=2), and computer simulations (n=2). The majority of articles reported using these strategies among undergraduate students (n=19) with some use among graduate students (n=3) and high school/community college students (n=2) as well. Regarding the disciplines in which these strategies were deployed, nearly all of the articles reported their use in teaching exercise science (n=12) and anatomy and physiology (n=8). In 13 of the articles, student perceptions were assessed through a survey at the conclusion of the activity. Collectively, data from the survey responses indicated that students perceived that they 1) were more interested and actively engaged in the learning process and 2) acquired a better understanding of concepts and were more satisfied with the classroom experience. In conclusion, there are a variety of active learning techniques for teaching skeletal muscle contraction to high school and college students. Hence, educators who teach skeletal muscle contraction may find that these strategies reinforce and extend upon their lecture material to further enhance student engagement, learning, and/or satisfaction. Future work is needed to confirm that these specific activities translate to enhanced student learning. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2025 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.