Communicating through body: a situated embodiment-based strategy with flag semaphore for procedural knowledge construction

Abstract

Situated learning suggests that knowledge is grounded in and influenced by the learning context, the activity, and the culture. Thus, learning in such situated learning contexts can improve learners' learning performance. Based on embodied cognition and situated learning, this study proposes a situated embodiment-based strategy to help learners learn flag semaphore through real signaling practices with their body movements in a richly perceived learning context. With the support of natural user interface technologies and educational robots, the situated embodiment-based strategy provides a realistic learning context via learners' body movements to help learners easily construct procedural knowledge. In order to evaluate the effects of the situated embodiment-based strategy, a flag semaphore learning activity was designed and a quasi-experiment was conducted with 60 participants. Three variables were assessed, namely practical signaling performance, attention, and cognitive load. The results showed that the situated embodiment-based learning group had significantly higher practical signaling performance and attention, and significantly lower extrinsic cognitive load than the embodiment-based learning group. The findings suggest that the situated embodiment-based learning strategy is an effective design that can improve the procedural knowledge construction and enhance the attention level with the lower extrinsic cognitive load in a learning process.

Patterns of Knowledge Construction

“…It is a process of learning knowledge in its authentic context (e.g., Damşa et al, 2010), or generalizing knowledge from pragmatic reality (e.g., Aalst, 2009; Kolb, 1984; Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2006). It reinforces the learners’ learning when learners learn in a specific context since the contextual information can provide concrete clues for abstract knowledge, and learners “can incorporate the clues into their knowledge construction” (Hung, Hsu, Chen, & Kinshuk, 2015, p. 750). Contextualization attaches to the social and empirical world where knowledge originates, incorporates personal experiences, and engages learners in social activities, which is consistent with some studies of how to promote knowledge from experience and the local context (e.g., Hammer & Collins, 2002; Handzic & Tolhurst, 2000).…”

“…Contextualization benefits learners since it provides learners the practical clue of the knowledge in its practical context, and helps learners conceptualize new knowledge in its situational context (e.g., Hung et al, 2015; Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2006). In practice, educators can encourage learners to embed their learning in the practical learning context.…”

Understanding embodied immersion in technology‐enabled embodied learning environments

“…In Hung et al (2015), learners learn the procedural knowledge of flag semaphore as they interact with the instructional materials using their whole body. The body movements were meaningful and closely related to what the semaphore represented.…”

“…TEELE. For example, inHung et al (2015), learners moved their whole body to directly interact with the instructional materials on the computer screen to learn the procedural knowledge regarding flag semaphore. A learner actively moved his/her own body to communicate with the computer-generalized instructions, and controlled the learning materials shown on a computer screen.…”

Engineering Lab in Immersive VR—An Embodied Approach to Training Wafer Preparation

“…Information and communication technologies were not involved in early research studies on embodied learning, and the body movements related to learning in these studies were either performed by the instructors (Alibali & Nathan, 2007) or the learners themselves (Broaders et al., 2007). As body sensing and tracking technologies evolve, people apply such technologies to enable body movements in computer-supported learning environments (e.g., Chang et al., 2013; Hung et al., 2015; Lan et al., 2018; Lindgren et al., 2016). Such technologies made it possible for the users to use their body movements to interact with the computers affording learning with embodied interactions.…”