Abstract
Research on learning and education is increasingly influenced by theories of embodied cognition. Several embodiment-based interventions have been empirically investigated, including gesturing, interactive digital media, and bodily activity in general. This review aims to present the most important theoretical foundations of embodied cognition and their application to educational research. Furthermore, we critically review recent research concerning the effectiveness of embodiment interventions and develop a taxonomy to more properly characterize research on embodied cognition. The main dimensions of this taxonomy are bodily engagement (i.e. how much bodily activity is involved) and task integration (i.e. whether bodily activities are related to a learning task in a meaningful way or not). By locating studies on the 2 × 2 grid resulting from this taxonomy and assessing the corresponding learning outcomes, we identify opportunities, problems, and challenges of research on embodied learning.
Highlights
Educational research incorporating findings from the research area of embodied cognition (EC), often referred to as embodied learning, has established itself as an important field in the past few years (Lindgren & Johnson-Glenberg, 2013)
As we will present in the following, there is a wide variety of ways to transfer EC into learning to be found in the current literature
Skulmowski and Rey Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications (2018) 3:6 forms of bodily movement in embodied learning research (e.g. Johnson-Glenberg et al, 2014), we propose a more general model based on the dimensions of bodily engagement and task integration
Summary
Educational research incorporating findings from the research area of EC, often referred to as embodied learning, has established itself as an important field in the past few years (Lindgren & Johnson-Glenberg, 2013). Other researchers have focused on the potential uses of embodied phenomena besides full-body movement for educational contexts. These aspects include gesturing (for overviews, see GoldinMeadow, 2011; Pouw, de Nooijer, van Gog, Zwaan, & Paas, 2014; Roth, 2001) or even minor implementations of EC such as assessing whether the display of human hands in animations can aid learning compared with disembodied arrow symbols (de Koning & Tabbers, 2013).
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