How to bring in the concept of Embodied Learning in Classrooms?

Learning is an enjoyable phase for every person when they get a chance to know and interpret things that are new to them.

Embodied learning has gained much appreciation in recent times for its unique approach in helping students.

According to many researches, this is one of the most effective techniques that involves physical movements and interactivity. This emerging field easily integrates human-computer interaction and learning sciences to provide a bit challenging experience but a great learning output. The technique is simple that needs some movements in your lessons. It not only improves student interest in learning but engages them in the most pleasing way.

However, teachers are finding it really hard to find ways to bring in the concept of embodied learning in classrooms. The combination of tangible intelligent objects, wearables, motion-tracking, sensor technology, and interactive video can give an ultimate outcome of this learning approach.

Here let us have a look at the strategies or methods or activities by which you can make embodied learning an integral part of a classroom.

Lego building:

This is one of the best ways in stimulating vision and patience in students while fostering their creativity. For completing a structure, they will have to come across different mathematical skills as well as the out of the box strategies. A number of other factors needed for a developing student such as fine motor skills, puzzle solving, cooperative play and persistence have a significant role during the process. This activity can be used effectively to learn counting and measurements, patterns and symmetry, illustrating stories as well as visualizing different concepts.

Kinect-based educational games:

Schools are now making use of advanced educational gaming systems using motion sensing to take learning to next level. The idea of learning subjects such as mathematics with just text book assignments is now getting replaced with such game based learning. The advanced options such as, Microsoft’s Kinect motion-sensor incorporates physical gestures with intelligent thinking in order to find solutions for puzzles. There are numerous options with interesting games such as pricking the right balloons, finding the right path for hedgehogs, magical baskets and more to learn complex puzzle solving. The advanced learning strategies such as SMALLab Learning utilize motion capture technology.

Act out worksheet tasks:

Rather than simply doing the text book assignments with papers and pen, encourage the students to come out and just make an act of the worksheet tasks. When working out chemical reactions, students can form groups and pretend as electrons or neutrons or as different elements to combine reactions. Such activity would be fun and eliminates boredom from classroom. At the same time, as students interact very closely with the problems, they would get a very clear understanding. While learning biology, they can imitate different animals and their species. Such acts in fact stimulate effective conversion of potential energy into kinetic energy within a classroom.

Hop scotch math:,/li>

Learning mathematics is one of the hurdles of students of diverse class levels. Hop scotch math is an interesting gaming concept by which students can have an interactive math learning experience. With just a basic knowledge of arithmetic, students can learn higher level concepts only with chalks and stones. This game can be modified in different forms depending on the learning concept handled.

The hopscotch area that resembles a calculator can be drawn in the classroom.
Make the boxes close so that students won’t find it difficult for jumping into boxes.
When the stone keys ‘1’, the student has to hop through equation that gives result as ‘1’.
For example, 4, 3, -, = or 1, *, 1, = and so on.
Student gets out while committing any mistake and the last person that completes the entire round becomes the winner.

Hands on projects:

Hands on learning is the key to embodied learning as students study the subjects by doing the stuff. Students can be given open ended projects in which they can come up with creativity. History can be taught with interesting ways such as folk art. Virtual science labs are the best option to learn science subjects by nearly experiencing it. If the projects are open ended, students won’t need to stick on with the guide lines and go for out of the box ideas to explore the subject in an engaging way. Drawing out the topics and storytelling methods are other interactive methods of approaching a difficult subject.

History mimes:

History is a vast subject and it is a night mare for many students to remember the many phases and periods. The rulers, the traditions and the way of life was very different in diverse phases. The history mimes strategy has proved really effective as the students work closely with the subject. An outline of different history periods and the traditions are discussed first. The students would voluntarily come up with mimes on different traditions or rulers by showcasing the way they dressed or the materials they used. The other audience students have to identify the history period after the mime show.

Map art:

This is an awesome way of learning social studies through embodied learning. Map art involves adventurous exercises that help you learn more about the subject with hands on experience. In this technique, art and history is combined in its most effective way that gives you a layered understanding. In normal methods, many ways are devised to learn the map from the already printed materials. This strategy demands students to prepare the maps themselves that helps them to be closer with the elements of the map. This form of learning stimulates their creativity and teachers are advised to give only minimal guidance to do the job.

Field trips:

Taking a break from the four walls of a classroom can be a real boost to the students. Engage them with field trips once in a while when they get a chance to interact with the environment along with subject areas. When they experience the lessons of their subject, it is very easy for them to understand and memorize it for long without the additional effort of ‘typical learning’. As we all know a picture is worth a thousand words. So you can imagine how effective it would be to really see the chemical reactions, motor functions or the transformation or growth of a plant.

Energy breaks:

In addition to all these activities that make the subjects more close to the student, getting some energy breaks can add great value to improving their alertness. Handling a set of drowsy students can be really challenging for the teachers and the learning session would be less productive. Warm up exercise between the sessions can act as icebreakers and relieve boredom while improving the blood pumping. Jump shot movements, swimming mimics, crossovers, weight training movements or simple arm rotations can do the trick. Including music and simple dance moves with all the students in the class can be real fun and they would easily get refreshed.

These are just a few among the many ways through which you can bring in the concept of embodied learning in classroom. The use of both context and body in learning lays a foundation for abstract thinking. As the situations of the learning subject are explored during the process, the student gets the upper hand of multidimensional involvement. The basic idea is that existential learning can be stimulated with physical interaction. Research studies have pointed out how effectively movement can stimulate a person’s mind and that signifies the role of movement in classrooms. As physical activities are highly correlated with intellectual growth, embodied learning is sure to reset the trajectory of traditional learning.