Embodiment in physics learning: A social-semiotic look

Abstract

In this paper, we present a case study of a pair of students as they use nondisciplinary communicative practices to mechanistically reason about binary star dynamics. To do so, we first review and bring together the theoretical perspectives of social semiotics and embodied cognition, therein developing a new methodological approach for analyzing student interactions during the learning of physics (particularly for those interactions involving students' bodies). Through the use of our new approach, we are able to show how students combine a diverse range of meaning-making resources into complex, enacted analogies, thus forming explanatory models that are grounded in embodied intuition. We reflect on how meaning-making resources-even when not physically persistent-can act as coordinating hubs for other resources as well as how we might further nuance the academic conversation around the role of the body in physics learning.

Qualitatively different ways of unpacking visual representations when teaching intermolecular forces in upper secondary school

“…A social semiotic approach has been used in science education research previously (e.g., see Danielsson, 2016;U. Eriksson, 2014;Euler et al, 2019;Fredlund, 2015;Moro et al, 2020;Tang et al, 2019;Volkwyn et al, 2017;Weliweriya et al, 2019). Furthermore, social semiotics have been combined with methodological approaches in a fruitful way.…”

Embodied interactions in a science museum

“…Embodied cognition constructs cognitive processes as deeply rooted in the body's interaction with the world (Amin et al, 2015). Of the few educational studies that explore embodied cognition, most focus on math classes (Hall & Nemirovsky, 2012;Lakoff & Núñez, 2000;Stevens, 2012), some on science classes (Alibali & Nathan, 2012;Becvar et al, 2005;Euler et al, 2019;Steier & Kersting, 2019), and a very few on informal science learning environments. Georgen (2019), for example, explores embodied cognition in an out-of-school activity in a performing arts center, incorporating the concept of state of matter with dance.…”

Learning with Friction—Students’ Gestures and Enactment in Relation to a GeoGebra Simulation

“…The idea that 'gestures and speech convey information of the same scene' (McNeill, 1992, p. 79) has influenced the work of several science education researchers. Studies on students' use of gestures while interpreting the relationship between an object's representation and its meaning have focused on (a) static representations, such as drawings and maps (Roth, 2000;Scherr, 2008;Steier et al, 2019), (b) computer-based dynamic representations, such as dynamic drawings and simulations (Adams, 2008;Euler et al, 2019;Roth, 2000) and (c) physical models, such as a wooden model of a bridge (Roth, 2000;Roth & Welzel, 2001). These studies show different aspects of gestures that play an important role in communication and thinking.…”