Our focus this year is on educational research and theory, and its
application to classroom practice. Each month, you are invited to join
our data blitz during which we sift through volumes of educational research
publications looking for studies or writings that look of interest or
significance. Over the course of this year’s newsletters, we will take
this opportunity to share out some of the studies and writings that we have
discovered.
I’ve decided to start with a study
entitled “Enactive Metaphors: Learning Through Full-Body Engagement” published
in Educational Psychology Review (2015). And I have three reasons for
doing so. First, it was co-authored by Robb Lindgren, a former AVHS
student (Class of 1996) now professor of education at the University of
Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Second, it highlights the exciting and
important domain of engagement. And third, it might be an excellent resource
for those of you who are interested in making use of our new learning stairs.
In the study, Lindgren, and his
co-author Gallagher, argue that metaphors are an important and meaningful tool
in understanding complex ideas or processes. They also discuss the
difference between “sitting metaphors” which are those you experience through
reading and thinking and “active metaphors” which are those you can “embody” or
experience physically. While Gallagher and Lindgren recognize the value
of sitting metaphors, they offer a wide body of evidence that demonstrates how
“enacting” these metaphors (or bringing them to life with movement, gesture or
action) allows for deeper, richer understanding of these concepts or ideas.
On a continuum of use, it could be something as simple as moving around
manipulatives on a desktop all the way to full body movement and actions.
Here is a list of embodied learning examples
Gallagher and Lindgren offer. In looking
at them, you might be inspired to develop some embodied learning activities of
your own or even recognize things you are already doing.
- Geometry teachers asked students to use the angle of their arms to simulate the slope of lines.
- Chemistry teachers asked students to use gestures to enact the rotation of molecules.
- Reading students recreated characters with figurines on their desks and played out events of the story using those figurines.
- Science students acted out the steps of an experiment focusing on control of variables.
- Math students learned about fractions within a narrative metaphor using manipulatives on their desks.
- Science students took on the roles of asteroids and planets to show trajectories.
- Science students learned about the conservation of length through an activity that involved them physically zig zagging across the floor.
Some recent studies have also started to expand the concept of
embodied learning to digital experiences like the following.
- Students learned about wavelengths and their features through a computer program that interpreted arm movements as waves.
- Augmented reality simulations that allowed students to participate in an archeological dig.
- Computer models that let students manipulate variables of virtual objects to learn about force and friction.
- Mixed reality games where students interacted with scenarios involving disease transmission or chemistry concepts.
- A “Music is movement” program enabled students to convert their bodily actions into sound, displaying the relationship between speed and pitch.
Some of these might look like things
you are currently doing, like the “tableau activity promoted by AVID.
Though not discussed specifically within this study, researchers within
the field point out that there are a few conditions to consider when developing
an idea for enactive metaphors.
1. Teaching through metaphor works
best with more complex or abstract ideas. If the concept is too simple or
basic, there is a good chance students don’t really need a metaphor to
understand it. Embodied learning is not movement for the sake of
movement. Rather, it is movement and action for the specific purpose of
learning, understanding, or exploring complex and dynamic concepts, ideas, or
principles.
2. The link back to the metaphor needs
to be clear. If students have to work too hard to see the connection,
it might even make things more confusing for them.
3. Avoid taking the metaphor too
far. When working with metaphors, focus on just a few key elements that
might apply back to the principles or concepts you are teaching. Again,
if it the metaphor becomes too complicated (no matter how rich it might be)
students are not likely to remember it or be able to transfer it back to the
original lesson.
I will close with the sentiments of Gallagher
and Lindgren who write that our natural stance in the world is to learn by
experiencing it. “As learners, we are more ‘in-the-world’ than
‘in-the-book’ or ‘in-the-head’; we take more from active engagement and
interactions than from passive observation.” Ultimately, embodied
learning allows for dynamic learning spaces that better reflect the way
students normally process and understand the world.
Read the full newsletter here.
