There has long been a search for innovative and integrative methods that can make education and school practice as a whole more effective. Western education methods are still based too much on traditional principles. Most educational programs follow mentalistic theories, that is, they separate the mind from the body. In school, students, access their education from a seated position, at best watching and listening, being active participants in the processes in very rare cases. New directions coming to us from cognitive sciences, point to enhancing the interaction of all components of the body in cognitive processes. Embodied, understood as the embodied and situated interpretation of these processes, overcomes the separate idea of body and mind, placing corporeality in a central role in understanding the whole experience of the individual, interpreting it together with the mind and decoding it in its symbolic meanings and contextualizing it in the environment. Already Dewey, extraordinarily ahead of his time, clearly opposed the immovable dichotomy between thought and external reality, shifting the argument to the dynamic and mutually conditioning relationship between the reality of thought and the world of facts. He had suggested that shifting the focus of reflection to action would certainly contribute to the dissolution of the traditional barriers between mind and body. The advent and development of neuroscience has resulted in a significant departure from the dictates of rationalism in favor of a concrete reassessment of corporeality. Similarly, this article aims to describe embodied learning from a neuroscientific perspective. After a brief historical overview, I will review studies that highlight the behavioral effectiveness of embodied learning instruction through a qualitative experiment.
BODY AND LEARNING: THE EMBODIED PEDAGOGY THEORETICAL REFLECTIONS AND EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM AN ITALIAN CASE STUDY
Scotta, Davide
2024-01-01
Abstract
There has long been a search for innovative and integrative methods that can make education and school practice as a whole more effective. Western education methods are still based too much on traditional principles. Most educational programs follow mentalistic theories, that is, they separate the mind from the body. In school, students, access their education from a seated position, at best watching and listening, being active participants in the processes in very rare cases. New directions coming to us from cognitive sciences, point to enhancing the interaction of all components of the body in cognitive processes. Embodied, understood as the embodied and situated interpretation of these processes, overcomes the separate idea of body and mind, placing corporeality in a central role in understanding the whole experience of the individual, interpreting it together with the mind and decoding it in its symbolic meanings and contextualizing it in the environment. Already Dewey, extraordinarily ahead of his time, clearly opposed the immovable dichotomy between thought and external reality, shifting the argument to the dynamic and mutually conditioning relationship between the reality of thought and the world of facts. He had suggested that shifting the focus of reflection to action would certainly contribute to the dissolution of the traditional barriers between mind and body. The advent and development of neuroscience has resulted in a significant departure from the dictates of rationalism in favor of a concrete reassessment of corporeality. Similarly, this article aims to describe embodied learning from a neuroscientific perspective. After a brief historical overview, I will review studies that highlight the behavioral effectiveness of embodied learning instruction through a qualitative experiment.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
