Research On Embodied Learning

Learning is an important topic in the life of human beings.All learning initially was embodied,while thousands of years later,learning was alienated:people rejected and suppressed body more and more,and they regarded learning as the thing that only took place in head.To deal with this problem of learning,people came up with embodied learning that paid attention to the role of body in learning.In the process of getting rid of alienated learning and realizing embodied learning,there were many innovative and beneficial researches.But there were also many problems in these researches,for example,they did not know the history of embodied learning;they did not pay attention to.the wisdom of Chinese traditional culture;they constructed the claims of embodied learning using the resources of single discipline;they studied the embodied learning using single method.As a result,the alienated learning still exists.Based on the reflection of these researches,I try to provide an answer for getting rid of the reality that students' bodies were rejected and suppressed and realizing embodied learning.The concrete train of thought is as follows:Firstly,describing the facts that the students' bodies are rejected and suppressed in learning from the perspective of educational practice.More specifically,students'bodies are controlled by learning environments,curriculums and teaching.And there are two reasons that students' bodies are rejected and controlled:the root of epistemology,that is the dualism of body and mind;the root of social,that is the division of mental labour and physical labour.Secondly,describing the history of embodied learning from the perspective of history.As we know,the thought of embodied learning does not stay the same with the practice of embodied learning.As for the thought of embodied learning,there are great differences between Chinese traditional culture and western culture.More specifically,in Chinese traditional Confucian culture,the thought of embodied learning was predominant,that is embodied knowing;while in the western culture,the dualism of body and mind was predominant,and the thought of embodied learning developed from Rousseau.As for the practice of embodied learning,there was no difference between Chinese traditional culture and western culture:in the period of non-institutionalized education,learning was always embodied,while in the period of institutionalized education,learning began to reject and suppress body.Thirdly,constructing the main claims of embodied learning based on the research achievements of philosophy,psychology,sociology.The research achievements of philosophy,psychology,sociology provided great resources for constructing the claims of embodied learning.Based on the Merleau-Ponty's body phenomenology,Polanyi's tacit knowledge,Foucault's Disciplinary power,Feminist thought,Piaget's genetic epistemology,Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and embodied cognition,I try to construct the nature,aim,content,method,evaluation of embodied learning with educational discourse.More specifically,in the opinion of embodied learning,the nature of learning is process that body and mind both participate in,the aim of learning is culturing the holistic person,the content of learning is the experience that comes from the interaction between body and environment,the method of learning is the body's construction,and the evaluation of learning is respecting the differences of living experience.Fourthly,describing how the claims of embodied learning are put into educational practice through many case studies.There were three ways to realize the embodied learning,including constructing the embodied learning environment,developing the embodied curriculum,and making teaching embodied.Specifically speaking,constructing embodied learning includes constructing the embodied mix-reality environment and constructing embodied physical environment.Developing embodied curriculum includes developing the traditional subject curriculum that body experience penetrate;developing the subject curriculum that contains body experience;developing the integrated curriculum of practical activity that contains body experience;developing some certain body curriculum.Making teaching embodied includes teachers' admitting the value of embodied learning,teachers' interpretation of students' body activities,teachers' paying attention to the body activities of themselves,and making teaching form embodied—paly as a pathway to realize embodied teaching.