Embodied Learning by Siobhan Gillespie

 Link provided to view proper set up: Embodied Learning in the Classroom

 Links to an external site.

Assignment 8, Embodied Learning: ECAC634 

Siobhan Gillespie: 

Project name: Embodied Learning in the Classroom

Goal: Utilize physical activities and self-movement to enhance learning and improve cognitive processes in the Kinesiology classroom.

Objective: 

By utilizing embodied learning throughout the lecture, create learning experiences that will allow students to understand the functionality of arthrokinematics (joint movement)  and osteokinematics (movement of bone). Allowing students to take verbal, written, and visually taught information and implement it into their surroundings in the classroom, collaborate with others, and use their bodies as learning tools to help increase their overall understanding of the subject matter.

Summary of Embodied Learning

Embodied learning challenges traditional classroom learning models and encourages educators to create learning experiences that are not solely cognitively based. Embodied learning is a collective process of cognitive learning, sensory experience, and social context. Knowledge and understanding are constructed through active engagement with the environment, sensory information, bodily movements, and social interactions. Embodied learning allows students to develop a concrete understanding of the information by implementing this multi-sensory approach (Merriam, 2020). 

Attached document and presentation for students to use throughout the process  Motions

 Links to an external site. and Embodied Learning

 Links to an external site.

Module 1: For the motion portion of the lecture, we will review planes and axes (see link in the slide) and then together move through the motions of the body in sitting, standing, and supine. 

Including: 

• Shoulder: Flexion and extension, hyperextension, horizontal abduction and adduction,

Abduction, adduction, internal and external rotation 

• Elbow: flexion and extension
• Forearm: supination and pronation
• Wrist: flexion, extension, radial deviation, ulnar deviation
• Finger: flexion, extension, abduction, adduction
• Hip: flexion, extension, hyperextension, medial rotation, lateral rotation, abduction, adduction
• Knee: flexion and extension
• Ankle: dorsiflexion, plantar flexion, inversion, eversion

Rationale:  To provide visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning to increase retention of the learned material. 

Module 2:  Document Self Findings 

• Document the joint
• Joint motion
•  End-feel, including if the end feels soft, firm, or hard?
• Are there any range of motion limitations? 
• What plane and axis is the motion occurring in?

Rationale: Connect with the motion and what the student felt while completing the motion to enhance learning. Documenting the internal feeling of the joint (soft, hard, firm) will help the student understand the difference between joint motions and kinesthesia.

Module 3: Move to the hospital setting lab with their partners and move their partners through all the motions as depicted in the presentation in the supine position. 

Rationale: Facilitate embodied learning by changing the environment for a more accurate clinical depiction of patient care in the acute care setting. Completing the motions with their partners will enhance learning using a kinesthetic-tactile approach, which will help facilitate further multi-sensory learning.  

Module 4: In groups of 4 students, discuss your findings, including:

1. What limitations did you find with your partner's joints during the motions? 
2. Was one joint harder to move through a motion in the hospital bed than you had anticipated?  
3. Did this vary on the height of the patient in comparison to the bed challenge any of the motions you learned? 
4. What modifications for the motions did you have to make in the hospital room to allow for completion?

  5. In your groups, post your answers on the discussion board on Canvas and reply to 2 others. 

Rationale: Provide social context into the embodied learning experience. Discussing topics with others requires learners to apply what they've learned, are challenged to think critically, and create a shared learning environment, making the learning experience meaningful. 

 

 

References: 

Merriam, S. B. & Baumgartner, L. (2020). Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide (4th 

 

Edition). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.