Enactive Interaction in Support of Creative Learning: A Systematic Literature Review

Figures & data

Table 1. Inclusion criteria.

Id	Criteria
IC1	Document composed of four or more pages.
IC2	Document published between 2012 and 2022.
IC3	Document in English, Portuguese, or Spanish.
IC4	Document is an indexed scientific journal article, or a book chapter, or an article published in the proceedings of a scientific conference.
IC5	Document focuses on research in an educational context.
IC6	Document features creative learning, enactive interaction, embodied cognition, and/or related topics (e.g., embodiment, coupled action, perception, etc.).
IC7	Document features social aspects and/or interactions in the presented computational environment.

Table 2. Exclusion criteria.

Id	Criteria
EC1	Document has less than four pages.
EC2	Document was published before 2012.
EC3	Document is not in English, Portuguese, or Spanish.
EC4	Document is not an indexed scientific journal article, book chapter, or published in the proceedings of a scientific conference.
EC5	Document does not contain any topic that helps answer the research questions. None of these topics are covered in the document: creative learning, enaction, enactive interaction, embodied cognition, or social interaction.

Table 3. General questions.

Questions
What are the authors’ affiliation countries?
What kind of institutions are the authors affiliated to?
Is there a practical application in the study? If so, what is the context?
Is there a target audience in the study? If so, who is the target audience?
In general research terms, what is the methodological approach of the study?
Does the study cover the design of an artifact or system? If so, what is the design methodology?
Does the study have some kind of evaluation? If so, what is evaluated and how?

Table 4. Technology: What type of technology is used in the studies?

Type	Definition
Actuator	Output devices (e.g., LEDs, speakers, and motors)
Display	Image output devices (e.g., projector and TV)
Embedded	Computational technology embedded into something
Microcontroller	Embedded computers (e.g., Raspberry Pi and Arduino)
Mobile	Daily electronic devices (e.g., smartphone, tablet)
NUI	Natural user interface technologies (e.g., Microsoft Kinect)
Robotics	Use of robots or robotic components (e.g., mBot)
Sensor	Input devices (e.g., proximity, touch, microphone, and camera)
Tabletop	Interactive tabletop with an embedded display and tangible devices
TUI	Digital information made concrete by the handling of physical objects
Wearable	Clothing and wearable accessories with computational capabilities
Wireless	Wireless communication technologies (e.g., Wi-Fi and Bluetooth)

Table 5. Interaction: How does the interaction with computational technology take place?

Type	Definition
Full-body interaction	Interaction through the use of the whole body
Gaze	Interaction through gaze detection and eye-tracking
Gesture	Interaction through intentional gestures
Motion	Interaction through movement (not necessarily intentional)
Physiological information	Interaction through physiological data (e.g., heart rate)
Tangible interaction	Interaction with computational objects within physical world
Voice	Interaction through the use of voice
Wearable interaction	Interaction through wearable artifact

Table 6. Enactive: How is embodied cognition considered and involved in the interaction?

Characteristic	Definition
Autonomy	Self-maintaining organizational characteristic (Maturana & Varela, 2012).
Embodiment	Sensorimotor interaction of body and environment, our bodily “being-towards-the world” (Merleau-Ponty, 1996).
Emergence	System of interrelated components exhibits an emergent process (Thompson & Varela, 2001).
Sense-Making	Creation of meaning through interactions (Di Paolo et al., 2010).
Experience	Learning as constant change, a history of the self (Maturana, 1982).

Table 7. Embodiment: How is the human body involved in the interaction?

Type	Definition
Body movement	Any kind of body movement (e.g., arms and legs)
Embodied action	Perceptually guided action (Varela et al., 2017)
Full-body action	Interaction through the use of the whole body
Physiological data	Corporal signs (e.g., heartbeat and temperature)

Table 8. Social: How is the social interaction present in the study?

Type	Definition
Social awareness	Awareness of the influence of others and on others
Collaboration	Collaboration/participation/cooperation to solve a problem
Competition	Competition between two or more people (e.g., competitive game)
Conversation	Use of language for communication (e.g., voice, gesture, and expressions)
Coordination	Coordinated actions among different people, possibly with leadership
Group behavioral changing	Behavior change through social interaction
Group interaction	Dynamic in which members of a group interact with each other
Social fiction	Socially imagine alternative realities or possible futures

Table 9. Learning: What kind of learning is explored in the study?

Type	Definition
Active learning	Learning beyond the transmission of information, toward the construction of knowledge
Children teaching	Learning where the child instructs another child or robot (guiding by commands, actions)
Cognition	Mental process generated from perception, attention, language, and action
Collaborative learning	Learning built on collective actions and group tasks
Creative learning	Learning by doing giving rise to the creation of new products
Embodied Learning	Learning based on the use of body metaphors
Empirical/experiential	Phenomenological learning, experiences that promote development (Dewey, 1986), “hands on”
Informal learning	Learning constructed by actions, interactions, and experiences (non-formal education)
Playful learning	Fun-based learning, play (games, discovery, and exploration)
Programming teaching	Learning and teaching programming concepts
Task resolution	Learning with construction related to solving a task
Teaching children	Learning focused on teaching children

Table 10. Creativity: How is creativity explored in the study?

Activity	Definition
Artifacts	Creation of objects with technology
Drawing	Creation of pictures or diagrams
Embodied creativity	Creative expressions generate by bodily actions
Games	Creation of games
Imagination	Forming new ideas, images or concepts
Music	Music compositions
Problem solving	Process or act of finding a solution to a problem
Programming	Process or activity of writing computer programs
Storytelling	Telling or writing stories or narratives

Figure 1. Flow diagram of the selection process based on the PRISMA Protocol.

Figure 2. Select documents per year.

Figure 3. Authorship and publications by countries.

Figure 4. Authorship and publications by type of institutions.

Figure 5. Types of final selection documents.

Table 11. Journals and conferences where the selected documents were published.

	Articles
Journals
Computers & Education	S01, S08, S15
IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies	S03
International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction	S10, S13, S19, S20
Sensors	S07
Conferences
Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems	S04
Conference on Creativity and Cognition	S11, S21, S22
International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education	S14
International Conference on Human Interface and Mgmt. of Information	S09
International Conference on Interaction Design and Children	S05, S23, S24
International Conference on Learning and Collaboration Technologies	S18
International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction	S06, S12, S16, S17
Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play	S02

Figure 6. Context application of final selection documents.

Figure 7. Methodological approach of final selection documents.

Figure 8. Design methodology in final selection documents.

Figure 9. Evaluation (what?) in final selection documents.

Figure 10. Evaluation (how?) of final selection documents.

Figure 11. Technologies present in the selected studies.

Figure 12. Interactions addressed in the selected works.

Figure 13. The concept of “enactive” addressed in the selected works.

Figure 14. Embodiment in the selected works.

Figure 15. The social aspect and its descriptors found in the works selected.

Figure 16. The concept of learning addressed in the selected works.

Figure 17. How creativity is addressed in the selected works.

Figure 18. Quality and relevance assessment.

Table 12. Technology used by environments in the reviewed studies.

Technology	References
Display	S06, S09, S10, S12, S13, S14, S15, S22, S23
Microcontroller	S18, S19, S24
Mobile	S02, S07, S14, S24
NUI	S05, S06, S09, S10, S13, S15, S23
Robotics	S03, S04, S08, S17
Sensor	S07, S18, S19, S22, S24
Tabletop	S11, S16
TUI	S01, S03, S04, S20, S21
Wearable	S01, S02, S07, S10, S17
Wireless	S04, S07, S17, S18, S19

Table 13. Type of activities supported by environments in the SLR results.

Activities	References
Artifacts	S17
Embodied Creativity	S12, S23
Games	S02
Imagination	S09, S13, S22
Music	S11, S15
Problem-solving	S01, S02, S05, S07, S10, S14, S16
Programming	S03, S04, S11, S24
Storytelling	S04, S06, S08, S18, S19, S20, S21

Figure 19. Relationship diagram between technology, enactive characteristic, creative activity and creative dimension.

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