Reading Week 1: Mitch Nathan (2021) Foundations of Embodied Learning

23-01-14 

Weekly Reflection 1: 

Summary: 

The provided text discusses how young children effortlessly learn balance and spatial navigation, drawing a comparison with the challenges faced in programming robots to acquire similar skills. It points out the surprising difficulty in teaching computers to understand speech, contrasting it with how infants naturally develop speech skills by their first birthday. The main concern highlighted is the absence of a well-defined learning theory in educational systems, leading to decisions based on personal ideas about learning and resulting in inefficient exercises and ineffective teaching methods.

The author argues for an integrative framework that recognizes diverse learning styles across different time scales. Emphasizing the importance of embodied learning, where individuals use their bodies to make sense of new ideas, the text provides an example of early algebra education. It contends that current education systems often undervalue embodied forms of knowing, relying too much on mentalistic approaches that separate the mind from the body. The text identifies two obstacles to improving educational systems: misguided practices and policies, and resistance from scientific fields. It criticizes the overemphasis on abstract concepts, limiting students' access to valuable cognitive resources and potentially discouraging them from pursuing certain career paths.

In the discussion of Mathematics Education, the authors explore the idea that mathematics, often perceived as abstract and disembodied, is fundamentally connected to embodied experiences and conceptual metaphors. Drawing from the work of Lakoff and Núñez (2000), he argues that mathematical ideas, such as quantity, construction, length, and motion, are grounded in basic metaphors derived from human experiences. These grounding metaphors serve as the foundation for understanding and applying mathematical concepts.

The authors emphasize that while grounding metaphors are powerful for foundational concepts, they become challenging to apply as mathematical phenomena grow in complexity. To bridge this gap, they introduce the concept of linking metaphors, which enables individuals to offload cognitive operations from a grounded domain to a new and more complex domain. The linking metaphor approach demonstrates significant generativity for mathematics, allowing for the extension of concepts like analytic geometry and infinity. The discussion highlights the importance of embodied experiences in mathematical learning and suggests that effective teaching strategies involve connecting mathematical ideas to learners' lived experiences.

Stops:

1. "One program, in particular, has argued that mathematics is not abstract and disembodied at all, that mathematics ideas are fundamentally grounded in conceptual metaphors of embodiment of movement and space, and that this has guided the major advancements in mathematics." (pg. 147)

After reading about the embodied nature of mathematics, I draw connections to my teaching experiences in elementary school, particularly when introducing the concept of symmetry, which proved challenging for some students to visualize. In my approach, I leverage the use of students as tangible examples of symmetrical objects. I encourage them to stand upright and rotate their bodies, fostering a discussion about how their bodies exhibit rotational symmetry and lines of symmetry. Hence considering the diverse learning styles within the classroom, combining visual aids with embodied mathematics creates a multisensory learning experience that can enhance comprehension and retention of the concept.

My question is how to balance the need for traditional, abstract representations (such as formal notation) in the context of Asian teaching style with the embodied learning approach?

Are there any specific strategies you've found effective in helping students transition between these different modes of understanding?

2. "Despite the enormous importance of effective educational systems for social mobility, individual opportunity, and a healthy and secure nation, educational institutions are not guided by a coherent, evidence-based theory of learning." (pg.3)

I can identify instances during my teaching career, where the lack of a clear and evidence-based approach to learning has impacted the overall effectiveness of the educational experience. For example, recalling the Cambridge mathematics checkpoint exams where the teaching methods seemed disconnected from a comprehensive understanding of how students learn best. This disconnection has hindered the ability to fully grasp and apply concepts.

3. "Educators specifically design classrooms to restrict students’ physical and social interactions. This practice only increases with students’ age. The education community creates testing situations that restrict children’s ability to move their bodies in ways that can help them think, interact with objects, and interact with other people. For many students, schools with traditional instruction are a unique setting where they are blocked off from access to some of the most useful and flexible cognitive resources they have, resources that people ordinarily use while thinking and learning in nearly any other setting (Resnick, 1987)." (pg.4)

I can relate to that based on my daughter's experience in kindergarten. When she began learning addition and subtraction, her teacher discouraged her from using her hands as a method, instead emphasizing different and specific approaches to perform these operations. In the context of the South Asian teaching style emphasis is given on the students' testing through different grade level exams and emphasis is given on teaching traditionally.

Are there alternative assessment methods that could better accommodate embodied learning in the Canadian context?