Embodied instrumentation in learning mathematics as the genesis of a body-artifact functional system

Abstract

Recent developments in cognitive and educational science highlight the role of the body in learning. Novel digital technologies increasingly facilitate bodily interaction. Aiming for understanding of the body’s role in learning mathematics with technology, we reconsider the instrumental approach from a radical embodied cognitive science perspective. We highlight the complexity of any action regulation, which is performed by a complex dynamic functional system of the body and brain in perception-action loops driven by multilevel intentionality. Unlike mental schemes, functional systems are decentralized and can be extended by artifacts. We introduce the notion of a body-artifact functional system, pointing to the fact that artifacts are included in the perception-action loops of instrumented actions. The theoretical statements of this radical embodied reconsideration of the instrumental approach are illustrated by an empirical example, in which embodied activities led a student to the development of instrumented actions with a unit circle as an instrument to construct a sine graph. Supplementing videography of the student’s embodied actions and gestures with eye-tracking data, we show how new functional systems can be formed. Educational means to facilitate the development of body-artifact functional systems are discussed.

From STEM to STEAM: An Enactive and Ecological Continuum

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The Promise of AI Object-Recognition in Learning Mathematics: An Explorative Study of 6-Year-Old Children’s Interactions with Cuisenaire Rods and the Blockplay.ai App

“…Taking a radical embodiment perspective (which shares many assumptions of enactivism), Shvarts et al suggest knowledge cannot be separated from the body of the learner: "Knowledge emerges as part of a complex dynamic system of behavior, which is constituted through multiple perception-action loops" [16] (p. 448). In addition, cultural tools, or artefacts-which may be objects such as blocks, or words or symbols-may extend and participate in these bodily action-perception loops: "When a functional system is extended by an artifact, this artifact takes part in perception-action loops."…”

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