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What is MetMe?

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MetMe is a social learning platform for students to share their learning and with its’ database. It has unique features for embodied cognition researchers to analyze students’ learning patterns. With this platform, students will be able to create their own metaphoric science  scenarios by choosing the science topic and the category of the scenarios (science fiction, drama, comedy etc.). In the second part, these scenarios are going to be available for role-playing to other students. This part would require the collaboration with in-service teachers and be assigned as homework to students. Accordingly, teachers can design variety of tasks for students by using scenario production tool. Additionally, there are significant implications of the tool from the aspect research ideas. MetMe with it's database of students' learning artifacts is expected to allow researchers to analyze the different patterns of self-embodiment by comparing the wording of the scenarios and gestures of the videos.

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What is the research opportunity behind MetMe?

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Background

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Early studies conducted in the field of cognitive psychology treated the mind as an “abstract information processor” (p.625) by putting little theoretical emphasis on the interactions of the mind with the outer world (Wilson, 2002). However, recent research in the field of embodied cognition treats mind as more than an abstract information processor (Wilson, 2002). In fact, a functioning mind requires the body in an action, as a transmitter of mental processes (Alibali & Nathan, 2012; Kiverstein & Miller, 2015). Besides, how the body acts as a result of sensing and affective processes are shown to be as a significant contributor to cognition (Ionescu & Vasc, 2014).

 

This two-way interaction between the mind and the body attracts researchers’ attention in order to map individuals’ learning by paying attention to the body’s “shape, movement and scale” (Alibali & Nathan, 2012, p. 248). For instance, various studies indicated that the gestures of the learners are associated with their learning as they engage in thinking and reflecting processes (Alibali & Nathan, 2012; Ionescu & Vasc, 2014). Therefore, the embodied clues of learning are the indicators of to what extent learning occurs, whether it is a concrete agent produced by the learners or directly observable behaviors such as bodily movements or the words used by the learners. Obviously, investigations of embodied clues of learning offer promise in helping educators to maximize the efficiency of learning opportunities by enabling them to better understand the pathways going from abstraction to automation among the learners particularly in science and mathematics education.

 

The Opportunity

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The daily speech of people is invaded by “embodied metaphors” (p.840) in order to quantify the abstractness of concepts (Close & Scherr, 2015). To illustrate, the articulation of we are almost “halfway through the year” (Close & Scherr, 2015, p.841) is a metaphorical simplification of the time concept, also known as the 4th dimension of the space. Abrahamson and Lindgren (2014) also claim that scientific and mathematical concepts are “conceptual mental entities” (p.11) which are embedded in the experiences of the body. To clarify, the words chosen randomly by the learners to describe self-experiences give clues about their learning. Besides, the articulation of abstract concepts in use of metaphors requires strong comprehension skills. Being inspired by how real world interactions affect the word preferences of individuals during articulation, I decided to follow learning clues embedded in the metaphors of students, specifically with science topics prone to misconceptions and how those metaphors are associated with the gestures of the learners. Therefore, I designed a twofold interactive research tool enabling users to develop metaphoric scenarios assigned to various science topics and improvise the assigned scenarios by uploading the associated videos. Certainly, this has implications for educational research and practice from different points of view. As a researcher, I am interested in investigating individual learning differences embedded in the patterns of “self-embodiment.” The tool is going to enable researchers to analyze the scenarios of different learners and map the type and frequencies of the words related with assigned science topic. Accordingly, teachers can design variety of tasks for students by using scenario production tool. Moreover, teachers would have a chance to follow students’ progression by using MetMe and this also would contribute students’ learning in the social context the software promises. Besides, the analysis of improvised role-playing videos scenarios will enable the researchers to categorize, label, compare and contrast the gestures of individuals associated with their learning in consideration of future implications.

 

REFERENCES

 

Abrahamson, D., & Lindgren, R. (2014). Embodiment and embodied design. In The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (2nd ed., pp. 358–376). Cambridge University Press.

Alibali, M. W., & Nathan, M. J. (2012). Embodiment in mathematics teaching and learning: Evidence from learners’ and teachers' gestures. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 21(2), 247–286. 

Close, H. G., & Scherr, R. E. (2015). Enacting conceptual metaphor through blending: Learning activities embodying the substance metaphor for energy. International Journal of Science Education, 0693(May 2015), 1–28. 

Ionescu, T., & Vasc, D. (2014). Embodied cognition: Challenges for psychology and education. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 128, 275–280. 

Kiverstein, J., & Miller, M. (2015). The embodied brain: Towards a radical embodied cognitive neuroscience. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9(May), 1–11.

Wilson, M. (2002). Six views of embodied cognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9(4), 625–636. 

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What the literature (high level conjectures) said to me ? 

 

Here are the high level conjectures that I focus on as I design my initial design artifact.

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Figure.1 Summary of High level Conjectures

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1. Learning is embodied. It is significant to catch the embodied clues of learning order to provide effective learning opportunities and design optimized learning experiences.

2. Empirical examination of theoretical papers indicated that use of enactive metaphors brings certain benefits to learning (Chandler & Tricot, 2015).

3. Learning is a complex system depending on various parameters but highly individualistic and the embodiment of the learning is the manifestation of one’s self-experiences.

4. Learning is meaningful as long as it is compatible with authentic life experiences.

5. Gestures are associated with learning. Gestures are the ways the body expresses itself as it engages in thinking and reflecting processes.

6. Scientific and mathematical concepts are conceptual mental entities. Misconceptions are common problems that teachers face with scientific concepts.

7. Social learning is an efficient way to teach concepts that are hard to understand.

 

REFERENCES

Chandler, P., & Tricot, A. (2015). Mind your body: The essential role of body movements in children’s learning. Educational Psychology Review, 27(3), 365–370.

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