Library: Beyond active learning: Practicing embodied cognition in the information literacy classroom: Welcome

About embodied cognition, information literacy, and teaching in higher ed

Embodied cognition is the idea that our senses, movements, environment, and social interactions are in a literal sense part of our thinking. This concept opposes the Cartesian idea of a brain/body duality,or the "Brain Sandwich" notion that the brain receives information, acts on it, then communicates it. Cognitive philosopher Andy Clark calls this concept of cognition a "brain in a box."

Annemaree Lloyd contrasts "information practices" to "information behaviors," finding that information literacy is embodied, situated, and social, with implications for teaching in higher education. Areas of our brains connected to our senses and motion light up when we think of concepts with sensorimotor elements. Research on learners from young children to adults indicates that using embodied approaches in teaching improves learning.

Implications for teaching information literacy in higher education include:

Looking at our teaching with an embodied lens to locate opportunities to increase students' physical, social and situated connection to the material.
Using insights from research to use embodied practices such as gesture and acting out concepts in teaching vocabulary, mathematical operations, and even abstract concepts.
Increase physical activity in the classroom. Sitting still uses cognitive load,
Grounding abstract concepts in sensorimotor activity.
Even asking students to write by hand instead of keyboarding improves cognition and memory.

A selected bibliography follows.

Selected Readings on Embodied Cognition, Information Literacy, and Teaching

Barsalou, L. W. (1999). Perceptual symbol systems. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22(4), 577–660. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X99002149

Barsalou, L. W. (2008). Grounded Cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59(1), 617–645. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093639

Barsalou, L. W. (2020). Challenges and Opportunities for Grounding Cognition. Journal of Cognition, 3(1), 31. https://doi.org/10.5334/joc.116

Clark, A. (2011). Supersizing the mind: Embodiment, action, and cognitive extension. Oxford university press.

Clark, A., & Chalmers, D. (1998). The Extended Mind. Analysis, 58(1), 7–19.

Glenberg, A. M. (2022). Embodiment and learning of abstract concepts (such as algebraic topology and regression to the mean). Psychological Research, 86(8), 2398–2398. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-021-01576-5

Gómez, L. E., & Glenberg, A. M. (2022). Embodied Classroom Activities for Vocabulary Acquisition. In S. L. Macrine & J. M. B. Fugate (Eds.), Movement Matters (pp. 77–90). The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/13593.003.0011

Hutchins, E. (1995). Cognition in the wild. MIT Press.

Kontra, C., Lyons, D. J., Fischer, S. M., & Beilock, S. L. (2015). Physical Experience Enhances Science Learning. Psychological Science, 26(6), 737–749. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615569355

Lloyd, A. (2010). Information literacy landscapes: Information literacy in education, workplace and everyday contexts. Chandos.

Lloyd, A., & Olsson, M. (2016). Being in place: Embodied information practices. Information Research: An International Electronic Journal.

Macrine, S. L., & Fugate, J. M. B. (2022a). Embodied Cognition and Its Educational Significance. In S. L. Macrine & J. M. B. Fugate (Eds.), Movement Matters (pp. 13–24). The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/13593.003.0006

Macrine, S. L., & Fugate, J. M. B. (Eds.). (2022b). Movement Matters: How Embodied Cognition Informs Teaching and Learning. The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/13593.001.0001

Mayer, K. M., Yildiz, I. B., Macedonia, M., & von Kriegstein, K. (2015). Visual and Motor Cortices Differentially Support the Translation of Foreign Language Words. Current Biology, 25(4), 530–535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.11.068

Paul, A. M. (2021). The extended mind: The power of thinking outside the brain. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Varela, F. J., Thompson, E., & Rosch, E. (2017). The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience (2nd ed.). The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262529365.001.0001