Nursery World - EYFS Best Practice - All about… embodied learning

Early years practitioners need to see learning – particularly in mathematics – not as abstract and ‘disembodied’ but as inherently concrete and ‘embodied’. Dr Jennifer S Thom explains why

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All about...embodied learning

CURRENT THEORIES in cognitive science and mathematics education are challenging deep-seated assumptions about the nature of cognition, mathematics and mathematical activity. Such views reject the idea that mathematics is abstract and objective, and that acquiring mathematical knowledge requires the body only from the ‘neck up’. In contrast, knowledge is illuminated as inherently concrete, (em)bodied and live(d).

Such thinking raises important implications for early years pedagogy. By making the connections between mathematics and the bodily ways in which we learn, practitioners can enact practices that enable young children’s deeper and broader understanding of all things mathematical.

MATHS AND OUR BODIES

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