COE Faculty Profile

Kathleen M. Haywood
Professor and Associate Dean for Graduate Education
Division of Teaching and learning

Email: Kathleen_Haywood@umsl.edu
Office: 122 So. Campus Classroom Bldg.
Phone: 314-516-5872

Education

Kathleen Haywood received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Washington University then returned to Washington University to complete a Master of Arts in Physical Education.  She earned her Ph.D. in Kinesiology with an emphasis in motor behavior from the University of Illinois in 1976.  She has been at UM-St. Louis since 1976.  She has been the Director of Graduate Studies for the College of Education since 1993 and an Associate Dean since 1995.  Professor Haywood is active in the North American Society for Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity and has received the Central District Scholar Award and Mabel Lee Award from the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.  She is a fellow of the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education.

Research and Teaching

Professor Haywood’s early research was on the role of visual perception in the performance of anticipatory motor skills from an information processing perspective.  In particular she studied eye movements to document the focus of attention as performers intercepted moving objects.  When the motor behavior field adopted the dynamical systems perspective (chaos theory), she shifted her focus to interactions of the performer, task, and environment in giving form to movements.  A feature of her work has been a life span perspective of developmental phenomenon.

Professor Haywood’s teaching areas include those areas of motor behavior that overlap psychology (motor development; motor learning/control; social psychology of sport), biomechanics, and elementary-level physical educator preparation.  She also works with doctoral students preparing dissertation proposals.

Representative Publications

Haywood, K.M. & Getchell, N.  (2005).  Life span motor development (4th ed.).  Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Haywood, K.M. (2006).  Psychological aspects of archery.  In J. Dosil (Ed.), The sport psychologist’s handbook: A guide for sport-specific performance enhancement (Chapter 24).  West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Gagen, L.M., Haywood, K.M., & Spaner, S.D. (2005).  Predicting the scale of tennis rackets for optimal striking from body dimensions.  Pediatric Exercise Science, 17, 190-200.

• Aging
• Child Development
• Early Childhood
• Information Processing
• Life Span Motor Development
• Life-Span Development
• Physical Education
• Sport Psychology