Somatic learning by Lanny Burnham and Angela Johnson

 AJohnson & LBurnham Week 8 Project EDAC 634 

 
Names: Lanny Burnham and Angela Johnson 

Angela’s Roles: Layout, rationale, module content & activities, and references. 

Lanny’s Roles: Topic selection, project goal and objectives, module content & activities. 

Project Title: Embodied Learning Through Daily Practice of Mind Management 

Goal: To create healthy habits that can be practiced daily to promote an awareness of the mind, body, and spirit to achieve the full potential of one's self.  

Objectives: 

• Developing bodily and spatial awareness 
• Unifying the mind and body in the learning process 
• Developing awareness of the body’s role in socialization 

Rationale: To achieve these objectives, we will use the four-part model of somatic knowing.  

• Kinesthetic learning: Is achieved through movement of the body and typically yields lessons about discipline, diligence, dealing with stress, or solving problems. 
   
• Sensory learning: Allows the learner to access information through their senses; they then relate this to their experience and extrapolate meanings significant to their lives. 
   
• Affective learning: Is the strong emotional or feeling dimension. Our emotions increase the strength of our memories, which learning is derived from.   
   
• Spiritual learning: Allows the learner to make meaning through music, art, imagery, symbols, and rituals.  

Design:  

Module 1 (Kinesthetic):   

• Content: Given the nature of the tasks to follow, it’s best to start off Module 1 with an exercise to clear the mind of any stressors and outside distractions. This will heighten their sense of self and prepare them to obtain a deeper understanding of the information to be taught. 
• Activity: In a dimly lit room, have the students sit, or even lie on the floor in a neutral and comfortable position.To practice mindfulness, they will engage in the guided mindfulness video. Then they will transition to the breathing technique video to encourage relaxation and prepare their mind.  

Resource 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZxcw2rPWxU

 Links to an external site. 

Resource 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inpok4MKVLM

 Links to an external site. 

Activity: Module 2 (Sensory):  

• Content: Given a relaxed state of mind and body, the next module will gravitate towards the sounds that one hears. When the learner is relaxed and very aware of themself, they are more likely to be prepared to assess what is presented to them.  
• Activity: The students will remain seated in their relaxed positions and listen to the first 3 minutes of the sounds from a coffee shop with jazz being played. After the 3 minutes there will be a 1-minute pause for them to internally reflect on what they heard and assess how they feel. Next, they will listen to the first 3 minutes of a video that contains the sounds from an office. There will be a 1-minute pause for them to internally reflect again before they move on to Module 3.  

Resource 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJuSStkIZBg

 Links to an external site. (Coffee shop jazz) 

Resource 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuwGT88P-RU

 Links to an external site. (Office sounds) 

Module 3 (Affective):  

• Content: With the students relaxed and focused, facilitate a sense of what these sounds felt like and how they made them feel inside. The feeling should have been a renewed feeling of clarity and purpose felt all throughout the body. 
• Activity: Explore the student’s emotions – what do they feel and why. Were they emotions of joy, relaxation, clarity, strength, or a feeling of sensation? Were the feelings felt throughout the body? Was it a spiritual experience in any way? Ask the students to explain these the best they can in their own words and then relate those feelings the participants felt through mental imagery. Explain that these feelings can be controlled and called upon as desired.  

Module 4 (Spiritual):  

• Content: After previous modules, students will be asked to take notes on the things they felt and think about how those feelings could be used to learn new things, accomplish training, or other various goals. Students will now have a clear mindset and will have created an environment that is conducive to train, learn, and accomplish goals. This is an environment that is easily repeatable, and students are encouraged to practice.  
• Activity: Students will be asked to practice mental imagery daily to improve learning and livelihood. The use of meditation and mental imagery can be used for quite literally anything that one wants to improve on. There are no limits. Much practice is recommended, and students can complete this task anytime and anywhere a quiet, peaceful space can be found.  

Resource 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RYyQRQFgFk

 Links to an external site. (Science Based Mental Training) 

Resource 2 - VISUALIZATION Step-by-Step Instructions

 Links to an external site. (Mental Imagery) 

 

 These are the good activities which match the theoretical framework you used. Bo

References 

Coffee Shop Vibes. (2022, May 23). Rainy jazz cafe - slow jazz music in coffee shop ambience for work, study and relaxation. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJuSStkIZBg

 Links to an external site. 

Dr. Webber Coaching. (2020, March 11). Visualization step-by-step instructions. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDWYblqLpFU

 Links to an external site. 

Goodful. (2019, September 4). 5-minute meditation you can do anywhere. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inpok4MKVLM

 Links to an external site. 

Huberman Lab. (2023, April 24). Science-Based Mental Training & visualization for Improved learning. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RYyQRQFgFk

 Links to an external site. 

Merriam, S. B. & Baumgartner, L. (2020). Learning in adulthood: A comprehensive guide (4th Edition). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. 

MindfulPeace. (2023, July 6). Guided mindfulness meditation for a powerful mind - strength and Healing Energy. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZxcw2rPWxU

 Links to an external site. 

Sound Cassette. (2019, January 27). Office sounds ambience - people chatter, typing, air conditioning, computer fans. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuwGT88P-RU

 Links to an external site. 

Spiritual Learning by Jeff Kushel

 EDACS 364 – Assignment 8 

Embodied, Spiritual, and narrative learning 

Jeff Kushel 

Project Name: Reducing stress in a work environment. 

See this link for the formal project presentation: Project 8

 Links to an external site.

Goal: Everyone in a professional career encounters stress at some point in their day.  Whether it’s dealing with customers, bosses, or even co-workers, stress at work can come from anywhere.  In this class, we will learn several techniques to help reduce stress while at work or in a busy environment. 

Objectives: By the end of this course, students will be able to identify several techniques to help them reduce stress, including: 

1. Breathing Techniques
2. Stretching Exercises
3. Meditation 

Rationales: Spirituality has become a popular topic in even as unlikely a site as America’s profit-driven corporate world.  Dozens of articles and books are calling for management to integrate spirituality into workplace practices and allow for its expression in the workplace” (Merriam et al., 2020).

This course will utilize the spirituality design of adult learning.  We will focus on helping our inner-selves achieve peace while in a hectic and stress-inducing environment.  We will engage our minds and bodies to shed the physical and mental tension caused by stress. 

Kinesthetic: Focusing on the movement and form of the body. 

Affective: Controlling our emotions and achieving a sense of calm and purpose. 

Sensory: Accessing information through our senses. 

Module 1: Breathing Techniques

Breathing is a great and effective way to reduce stress. The teacher will guide the students through the techniques which you can use at the desk, in your vehicle, or on the jobsite that can immediately reduce stress in the body.  This course will discuss the following four techniques: 4-7-8, Ujjayi Pranayama, Lion’s Breath, and Box Breathing.

4-7-8 Technique: Dr Weil, the developer of this technique, is seen here demonstrating how to perform it.  This is one of the most popular and effective breathing techniques.  4-7-8 Technique

Links to an external site.

Ujjayi Pranayama:  A Yoga breathing exercise designed to relax the body.  Here is a great video designed to teach you this ancient technique. Ujjayi Pranayama

Links to an external site.

Lion’s Breath: Don’t let the screen fool you, this is a great method for boosting energy and reducing stress.  Another Yoga technique that can be done easily in the office.  Lion's Breath

Links to an external site.

Box Breathing: A great technique actually employed by the US Navy SEALs, also known as tactical breathing.  Simple and effective way to regain calm and reduce stress.   Box Breathing

Links to an external site.

Discussion: Class will practice some of these techniques and discuss their feelings afterwards.

Summary of Module 1:  Breathing techniques are "a powerful tool to ease stress and make you feel less anxious" (Fowler, 2018).  The act of breathing allows us to focus and control our emotions while relieving the physical tension from our body and returning us to a regular emotional state.  Kinesthetic Learning: We utilized the movement of our body in the form of controlled breathing, proper posture, and even our fingers to achieve a sense of calm.  Affective Learning: We controlled our emotions, reducing the anxiety and increasing our calm, thereby improving our emotional health.  Sensory Learning: We listened to our mind and body when it told us that we were stressed, we listened to our breathing to help us center ourselves in a busy or stressful environment.  We achieved a spiritual center, a calmness within ourselves that will allow us to continue through the day.

Module 2 - Stretching

Stretching reduces the muscle tension, thereby reversing the cycle of tension, then tightening, and pain. Stretching has been shown to increase serotonin levels — i.e., the hormone that helps stabilize our mood, reduce stress, and overall makes us feel good — which causes a decrease in depression and anxiety (Adams-Colon, 2021)    Here are a few techniques that will help. The following exercises are courtesy of Everyday Health (Quick Stretches for Stress Relief You Can Do Right Now | Everyday Health, n.d.)

Students will also be given instructions for properly performing these stretches, written by the authors on the website. (Instructions were too lengthy to post in the forum)

Discussion: Students will perform the stretches and then discuss how the stretches made them feel afterwards.  They will also be given the opportunity to provide stretches that they may utilize on their own which has helped them relieve stress.

Summary of Module 2:  Instead of only utilizing their breathing, students are now utilizing the whole body to relieve tension and reduce stress.  These are only a few exercises that can be performed in the office, but with each exercise we stretch our muscles and return closer to a regular emotional state.   Kinesthetic Learning: Students utilized their bodies in a series of stretches to reduce stress.  Through stretching, they've eased muscle tension and allowed their bodies to release serotonin to improve our mood.  Affective Learning: Concentrating on the stretching movement instead of what is causing them stress, students were able to control their emotions and concentrate on themselves and their health.  Sensory Learning: We feel the tension leaving our muscles, feel the release of serotonin, and reach an understanding that the stretching is benefiting our health.

 

Module 3 - Meditation

"If stress has you anxious, tense and worried, consider trying meditation. Spending even a few minutes in meditation can help restore your calm and inner peace.  Anyone can practice meditation. It's simple and inexpensive. And it doesn't require any special equipment.  And you can practice meditation wherever you are — whether you're out for a walk, riding the bus, waiting at the doctor's office or even in the middle of a difficult business meeting" (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2020). The following are videos providing great meditation techniques for stress reduction using meditation in a work environment.

Psychub: Meditation

Links to an external site.

Headspace: A Meditation for Reframing Stress

Links to an external site.

Discussion: Students will practice one of these meditation techniques and discuss how it makes them feel afterwards.  They will discuss their experiences with meditation and offer other meditation ideas that they’ve utilized before.

"Meditation has been utilized since before the birth of Christ.  The earliest documented records that mentioned meditation involved Vedantism, which is a Hindu tradition in India, around 1500 BCE.  However, historians believe that meditation was practiced before this time, as early as 3000 BCE" (Meditation History, 2010).  It has a long been known to help achieve a spiritual balance within a person, and continues to help us relieve stress, anxiety, and several other mental conditions.   Kinesthetic Learning: While stretching made active use of the body, meditation asks that students be calm and reposed to allow the mind to achieve calm.  Students will utilize a relaxed, and familiar posture that will help them achieve this calm.   Affective Learning: Students will control their emotions and thoughts, using techniques in the video to allow their minds to ease stress and release tension and emotion.   Sensory Learning: These techniques are almost the absence of sensory learning, instead focusing inward and tuning out the world around them.  With practice, sights and sounds will be ignored in favor of inner dialogue.

Additional Resources  The following are apps for your smartphone that can help with meditation and other exercises to reduce stress:     Meditation and Sleep Made Simple - Headspace

 Links to an external site.

  Calm - The #1 App for Meditation and Sleep

 Links to an external site.

 

  Balance App

Links to an external site.

 The activities are comprehensive and good, please check my comments about the connection between activities and the framework. Bo

 

References 

Merriam, S. B., Caffarella, R. S., Baumgartner, L., & Jossey-Bass Inc. (2020). Learning in adulthood : a comprehensive guide. Jossey-Bass, . © By John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 

Fowler, P. (2018, January 11). Breathing techniques for stress relief. WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/stress-relief-

 Links to an external site.breathing-techniques

 Links to an external site. 

Adams-Colon, B. (2021, June 23). The Simple Act of Stretching. Center for Healthy Aging. https://www.research.colostate.edu/healthyagingcenter/2021/06/23/the-simple-act-of-

 Links to an external site.stretching/#:~:text=Stretching%20reduces%20the%20muscle%20tension

 Links to an external site. 

 Quick Stretches for Stress Relief You Can Do Right Now | Everyday Health. (n.d.). EverydayHealth.com. https://www.everydayhealth.com/fitness/quick-

 Links to an external site.stretches-for-stress-relief/

 Links to an external site. 

 Mayo Clinic Staff. (2020, April 22). Meditation: A simple, fast way to reduce stress. Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-

 Links to an external site.procedures/meditation/in-depth/meditation/art-20045858

 Links to an external site. 

 Meditation History. (2010, May 18). News-Medical.net. https://www.news-medical.net/health/Meditation-History.aspx#:~:text=Ancient%20history

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.

Embodied Learning by Donovan Mann

1. I will be elaborating on each slide in the speakers note section. This project is about embodied learning and practical uses for it for educators/facilitators of learning.

2. The text on this slide tells everything. 

3. The conversation of embodied learning starts with knowing that the body speaks to us. Physical reactions are signs of certain emotions as highlighted by the video by the American Museum of Natural History. Yet, as mentioned earlier, we tend to ignore the body in western culture because of this idea of “mind over body” (Merriam & Baumgartner, 2020). However, embodied learning is an important theory for educators to understand.

4. It is important for facilitators to understand the body of their learners will tell them more than words may ever. “Body language is a silent orchestra” because it tends to give away clues to people's thoughts and feelings (Psychology today). If facilitators are able to better to read the non-verbal tells of their learners it will better help them understand their learners emotions.

5. Simple and easy physical activity can be used to help the learner relax and get their emotions situated for learning. This can also be a gateway to embodied learning by opening the learners mind up and connect the physical to mind (Merriam & Baumgarnter).

6. The idea of embodied learning is that learning is enhanced by providing physical activities to go along with the mental learning (connecting the mind and body). “Just as physical synchrony promotes a sense of belonging, so too does it play a role in aiding cognitive processes” (Hrach, 2021). This can also be applied for adults in the classroom, such as implement dance to curriculums (Merriam & Baumgartner, 20203. The idea is to connect physical activities with the learning in order to embody the concepts.

7. Lawrence’s model is used to summarize our main points for this project. “Heart (affective knowledge) and mind (cognitive knowledge) are at the two points at the top of the triangle. The body is at the bottom…because it is foundational” (as cited in Merriam & Baumgartner, 2020). The mind, heart, and body are all connected in learning.

8. While not often seen of value in the western culture, embodied learning can be a useful tool to better engage learners to the knowledge being taught.

9. 

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