The role of embodied cognition for transforming learning

ABSTRACT

Cognitive psychology has undergone a paradigm shift in the ways we understand how knowledge is acquired and represented within the brain, yet the implications for how this impacts students’ learning of material across disciplines has yet to be fully applied. In this article, we present an integrative review of embodied cognition, and demonstrate how it differs from previously held theories of knowledge that still influence the ways in which many subjects are taught in the classroom. In doing so, we review the literature of embodied learning in the areas of reading instruction, writing, physics, and math. In addition, we discuss how these studies can lead to the development of new learning strategies that utilized the principles of embodied cognition.

KEYWORDS:

• embodied cognition
• embodied learning
• classroom body-based learning

Acknowledgments

A special thank you to B. Mcloughlin, who helped with the table.

Notes

¹ In some theories of embodied cognition, simulation refers only to the motor system, whereas simulation of the other systems amounts to “mental imagery” (e.g., Jeannerod, 2006; Decety & Grèzes, 2006).

² More radical views of embodied cognition completely reject the idea of representations of any kind within the brain, such that cognition is considered a dynamical system in which continuously changing variables are interdependent on one another for meaning (see Spivey, 2007; Borghi & Caruana, 2015 for a review). In these views, since there are no mental representations, reenactment of them becomes impossible.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jennifer M. B. Fugate

Jennifer Fugate, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Her research focuses on how language shapes emotion percepts, and the role that language plays in grounding abstract categories. She is the author of several book chapters and articles, and her work on facial depictions of emotion has received recognition in several popular press books and in the Court of Law. She is a certified FACS-coder.

Sheila L. Macrine

Sheila Macrine, PhD, is a Professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Her research interests focus on two areas: 1) school psychology including alternative assessment and embodied cognition; and 2) connecting the cultural, political, and institutional contexts of critical pedagogy as they relate to the public sphere, democratic education and social imagination. She is a critical feminist and has published numerous articles, grants and books including: Critical Pedagogy in Uncertain Times: Hope and Possibilities.

Christina Cipriano

Christina Cipriano, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Her research focuses on serving vulnerable youth through systematic examination of the interactions within their homes, schools, and communities to promote pathways to optimal developmental outcomes. She is a Service Learning Fellow, Community Engaged Research Scholar, and Principle Investigator of the Recognizing Excellence in Learning and Teaching (RELATE) Project. She directs several research initiatives and regularly disseminates her science in both academic journals and professional development workshops for pre-service and inservice educators and school personnel.