NTD Seminarium - Computer-supported collaborative learning & embodied cognition in science education

Naturvetenskapernas och teknikens didaktik anordnar seminarium med Magdalena Kersting.

Titel/Innehåll

Understanding how learners come to know abstract scientific concepts
requires a holistic approach. Embodied cognition in science education has
been a recent fruitful entryway to look at the ways learners conceptualise
the world around them. In my research, I have taken a sociocultural
approach to study how students deal with conceptual challenges in modern
physics. Ideas of embodied cognition and embodied interaction have
informed the design of a digital learning environment that I developed as
part of my PhD-project. Using these digital resources, I have examined
meaning making processes in computer-supported collaborative learning
environments in upper secondary physics classrooms. My findings shed
light onto the ways learners deal with the challenges of using their bodies to
depict and understand concepts that are impossible to perceive directly. I
will give recommendations to improve instructional practices by creating
opportunities for students to consider bodily ways of communicating and
knowing in the digital age.