A Collective Movement Exercise, Marking and Angular Velocity

Background: We describe a case study of a physics course for high-school students based on integrating thinking processes with body movement (Embodied Pedagogy, Zohar 2015). The teacher taught the physics concept of `angular velocity` using a collective movement exercise and `marking` (a miniaturized version of the full-body movement, e.g. gestures). Marking serves every-day communication, dancers, trainers, actors and others.

Aim: To investigate how an embodied pedagogy, using movement and marking, contributes to learning and understanding the concept of angular velocity.

Methods: The case study involved two lessons conducted in a dance studio with 11 female 10th grade physics students. They learned the concept of angular velocity through a collective movement exercise and by marking. In a follow-up clinical interview, the students solved a paper-and-pencil complex question. We filmed the lessons and the interviews, and analyzed the students’ answers and the discourse (speech + gestures).

Results: All students succeeded in solving the collective movement exercise by coordinating individual and collective performance. Nine of 11 students succeeded answering the paper-and-pencil complex question. The class discourse following the instruction demonstrated that the students understood the angular velocity concept.

Discussion: We will discuss how to promote the use of movement and marking as a door to learning science.

Conclusions: We draw implications for designing science lessons that build on the capabilities of moving bodies and shifts through marking into discourse about the scientific content.