Embodied Cognition: Implications for Science Text Design

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: Educational Implications of Brain Research

Abstract

Accompanying a national decline in achievement standards within Australian science education is the negative impact of social disadvantage in senior science participation and achievement. Exacerbating this sector specific ‘socioeconomic achievement gap’ is an outdated model of cognition which affects text design. This model is computationalist as it adheres to cognitivist principles which identify specific neural architectural features and constraints in stimuli processing. The current paper presents findings from ongoing PhD research examining the utility of ‘socially congruent’ text design and presents an alternative model of the cognitive architecture. This conceptual model emphasises an embodied mind-body dualism and suggests that successful recruitment of cortical and cerebellar processes underlie meaningful learning. Significance of the study and its practical implications accompany this finding.

Authors

• Malcolm B. Kirkwood, University of Queensland

• Jill M. Aldridge, Curtin University