Mindful movements matter: differentiating active body movements in underprivileged students’ learning of physics concepts

ABSTRACT

Background

The theory of embodied cognition claims that body interaction with the environment change how we think and constitute cognition. Accordingly, active learning enriches learning experiences which in turn lead to better learning.

Purpose

Although learning by moving one’s body is often regarded as active learning, not all body movements lead to better learning. To investigate the influence of different levels of body movements on learning, we developed embodied learning activities and implemented in elementary afterschool program.

Sample

Twenty-seven fifth graders (12 girls, 15 boys) for Study 1 and forty-eight fifth graders (28 girls, 20 boys) for Study 2 were recruited from afterschool programs from two public elementary schools.

Design and methods

Through two quasi-experimental studies, we compared student learning and their attitude about physics concepts. Study 1 compared learning and attitude between two groups of students depending on whether body movements correspond to knowledge representation embedded in a to-be-learned concept (congruent condition) or not (incongruent condition). In Study 2, a control group that did not engage in body movement-related learning activities, was added to observe the impact of body movement itself. Therefore, students in three groups (congruent, incongruent, no body movement group) were compared in their learning and attitude.

Results

The results from Study 1 showed that the students in the congruent group showed better learning and higher attitude in science learning than those in the incongruent groups. Study 2 showed that the congruent group showed better learning and higher attitude than other groups. Also, there was no learning difference between the incongruent group and the control group.

Conclusion

The studies showed that the students could benefit from the embodied lesson plan and the findings imply that a student’s movements are to be elaborated and mindful considering knowledge representations embedded in a concept.

KEYWORDS:

• Embodied learning
• imagination
• interaction with robot
• physics concept

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Notes

1. The data for four students were not included in our analysis due to lack of attendance or disruption during a treatment session.

2. The data for seven students were not included in our analysis for their incompleteness of the activities.

3. After checking with afterschool program coordinators, only 6-week sessions were available in the semester. Therefore, the time for just playing with LEGO robotics became shorter than Study 1.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Research Assistance Program (2019) at the Incheon National University.