Learn to Move Move to Learn: Insights from the Minding Bodies Book Club - Week 4

Wow it’s hard to believe how swiftly we've arrived at Chapter 4 of Susan Hrach’s compelling book Minding Bodies: How Physical Space, Sensation, and Movement affect learning. One of the principles of embodied cognition that Susan talks about is Principle 2: Our ever-moving bodies prize efficiency and the brain’s efficiency relies on predictions. So, if you’ve been following our book club reflections through the past three sessions, you might notice the familiar structure of each post, we hope this makes your reading experience more enjoyable and easier to read. However, for this week we encourage you to pause and indulge in a lively dance to the upbeat tunes of I Like to Move it, the Madagascar version is linked. How are you feeling after a fun dance? And how might your students react if you occasionally granted them the opportunity to move?

In our fourth session while we didn't exactly dance, we took our book club to the MUSC’s Wellness Center.

Review

• If you missed our week 1 post dive in to catch up on the structure of our book club! And in case you missed week 2 please read how we take it outside in exploring the power of nature on learning and in week 3 we looked at sensory-enhanced and object-based learning.

Now, let's get back to the specifics of our fourth session. Our Facilitator was Mr. Alex Walters, our exceptional Instructional Design Manager. Alex Graciously navigated the complexities of facilitating a hybrid session, and Ms. Brittany Smalls, our Business Analyst got creative with using her phone as a second camera so we could capture all of the movement.

How Did We Enter?

 

Mr. James Johnson, a personal trainer and Director of Science-Based Next Wave Center and Group Exercise at the MUSC Wellness Center led us through an amazing chair-based yoga and creative movement session. During this time, he introduced the group to various poses that helped encourage strength and mindful breathing. In the opening of Chapter 4, Hrach discusses her own experience using yoga to begin class with “…a series of gentle neck movements…leading students through slow inhaling and exhaling as I count and model the movements.” p. 107

The positive energy in the room was palpable as James guided us through multiple chair yoga poses while providing insight into the benefits of each. This opening segment set the stage for an engaging discussion about our chapter for this week, “Learn to Move, Move to Learn”.

How Did We Engage?

Our engagement began with Alex asking us “What instructional practices would you consider modifying based on the reading?” He noted that this chapter was “chock-full of instructional ideas and practices.” Ms. Christine Andresen, Associate Professor, and Librarian discussed that she was drawn to the account of Samuel Delany, a science fiction writer who required all students in his class to raise their hand in response to a question to encourage active engagement and recognize themselves as present. She discussed her experience engaging students in large classes and how this practice could be implemented.

In discussing Chapter 4, it was evident that exploring our instructional practices further through movement and active involvement from students is a huge key to success. Dr. Julaine Fowlin shared that the science behind strategies such as Think, Pair, Share needs to evolve to use and encourage movement. She shared her experience in a recent professional development session where she got individuals moving while actively engaging in discussion with their peers.

In this session we noted what Hrach has consistently emphasized throughout the book, it is important to be transparent with students why we are disrupting the norm of sitting to learn and explain the benefits of each exercise for learning and connect movement and sensations to the content area where applicable.

Hrach closes the chapter by discussing why learning is an “embodied process”. Considering strategies to enhance and embody learning is something that we must consider if we want to continue evolving our instruction and engaging learners. The closing line of the chapter sums this up best, “…our bodies are accessible and inexpensive technology, and the potential rewards to engaging them are well worth trying.” P. 128

How Did We Leave?

Julaine asked us to start thinking how we can continue the conversations after the book club and integrate the practices in our teaching. She shared an article: Embodied learning: introducing a taxonomy based on bodily engagement and task integration for faculty and staff who would like to start thinking about conducting research on their integration of embodied cognition. In the article Skulmowski and Rey provide a taxonomy that can be used to categorize research on embodied cognition along two main dimensions bodily engagement (how much bodily activity is involved) and task integration (whether bodily activities are related to a learning task in a meaningful way or not). At MUSC we have an Auditorium in our Wellness Center, so it is possible to have students do some time in the studio and return to class seamlessly if time allows and there can be opportunities for more task integration as well.

We all left feeling inspired, and energized and could not help but capturing our time with James with a photograph (see below). We also left feeling grateful that Dr. Gigi Smith, Associate Provost for Education Innovation & Student Life joined us. Gigi’s participation is reflective of her supportive leadership style and symbolizes the strong commitment of MUSC's leadership to the integration of embodied cognition in education.

From L to R: Brittany Smalls, Gigi Smith, Alex Walters, James Johnson, Christine Andresen, Kristin Powers, Katie Lamb, Julaine Fowlin

How are you leaving? We would love to hear your perspective!

What ideas do you have for integrating movement in your classes?

Don't forget to keep an eye out for reflection on our fifth session “Move Around Together”, where Dr. Casey O'Neill, a Neuroscientist, Associate Professor, and the Program Director for Supplemental Instruction in the Center for Academic Excellence and The Writing Center at MUSC, will lead us in a group drumming exercise.

Acknowledgement: Julaine Fowlin contributed to the creation of this post.