Movement in Education: Developing Student Potential Through Authentic Learning – by Lauren Boon

Movement in Education:

Developing Student Potential Through Authentic Learning

Lauren Boon

2006

Foreword

I, like most other educators, have always been passionate about making learning a meaningful experience and, like most other students, have come across some amazing, and some horrific, educators and educational experiences. As an education student, the last few years of my life, and the last few pracs, have taught me some valuable lessons. The upcoming generation of teachers has a heavy burden to bear, gone are the days of simply imparting knowledge upon students, teachers today must be motivators, initiators, individually and differently for each and every student. I believe that one key instrument we have for accomplishing this is movement, used correctly movement in education can help us bring authenticity and relativity to learning. I think Einstein said it best: "Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty." -- Albert Einstein (Accessed May 14, 2006)

The importance of movement…

Seventy years ago Piaget believed that all humans, of every age actively seek to understand and comprehend their world. Through the study of his own children he discovered that this active learning begins at birth. “To Piaget, infants might lack words, concepts and ideas, but they are nevertheless intelligent.” (Berger, 2001:159) Actually, since then we have learned that infants do develop concepts, and assumptions, however his concept of sensorimotor intelligence has remained valid to this day. Infant's intelligence is developed almost entirely through action-based, perceiving and doing activities. In other words, infants learn through doing, and through movement. In fact, we have learned that infants learn vast amounts in the first two years of their life, the period which Piaget calls the Sensorimotor Period. (Berger, 2001)

The fact is, that in the early stages of life most learning is done through movement, through the doing. Children learn not to touch the stove by feeling its heat, they learn by actively responding to the people and objects around them. Even in their later years (2 to 5) parents actively seek out activities for the children, in a study researchers noted that one of the four signs of a high-quality day care was encouragement of sensorimotor-exploration and language development. And yet, despite the vast amount of learning that is accomplished through doing, through movement in the first six years of life, once children are able to communicate with us verbally, we cease with learning through movement and switch to learning almost entirely through listening, reading and writing. Is it any wonder that at this stage our learning becomes progressively slower and that our students become progressively uninterested?

We all understand the importance of movement in relation to our health and physical well-being. Our society today is well aware of the obesity epidemic that is affecting our children's health. Most schools have implemented plans to increase physical activity through Physical Education, and various healthy eating plans. Clearly, we place a high value on movement in correlation with our student's physical well-being, but what about in the classroom… Sit still.  Stop squirming.  Don't run.  Stay in your seat. The fact is; our learning is still primarily inactive. So why is this, unfortunately although the connection of movement to physical development is clear, and progress is being made on the link of movement to emotional development, the understanding and comprehension of movement to intellectual development is minimal. Surely, if movement were critical to learning educational institutions would be using it right? “Those of us who've understood the connection between moving and learning for a very long time have been waiting just as long for the educational “revolution.” … Perhaps the revolution will only finally arrive when you, as an educator become aware of movement's role in cognitive development and learning and begin to insist the schools do what's right for children.” (Pica, 2003)

Movement and the brain…

I believe Einstein (Accessed 2006) said it best, “Learning is experience.  Everything else is just information.”  Piaget noted the importance of learning through doing, and in the last seventy years science has gone even further.

The latest brain research has shown that because a child's earliest learning is based on motor development, so too is much of the knowledge that follows.  The cerebellum, the part of the brain previously associated with motor control only, is now known to be, as Eric Jensen, author of numerous books on brain-based learning, puts it, a “virtual switchboard of cognitive activity.”  Study after study has demonstrated a connection between the cerebellum and such cognitive functions as memory, spatial orientation, attention, language, and decision making, among others.

“Thanks to advances in brain research, we now know that most of the brain is activated during physical activity - much more so than when doing seatwork.  In fact, according to Jensen, sitting for more than 10 minutes at a stretch “reduces our awareness of physical and emotional sensations and increases fatigue.”  He tells us this results in reduced concentration and, most likely, discipline problems.” (Pica, 2003:67) Movement however, expands blood vessels that allow for the delivery of oxygen, water, and glucose to the brain.  This allows for optimum efficiency and productivity of the brain.

Other studies have suggested that motor behaviour is not a subsidiary form of higher mental functioning but serves the important function of bringing refinement, goal-directedness, adaptiveness, and survival value to the human organism (Ewarts, 1973). “It is known that neural pathways from the cerebellar cortex (involved in the coordination of voluntary muscular movement) project to the frontal association cortex (involved in intellectual functions) and could conceivably enable the "skilled manipulation of ideas" not just the traditional control of motor functions subserved by the cerebral motor cortex.” (Leiner, Leiner, & Dow, 1986 as in Seitz, 2006) Again, this serves as evidence that movement and intellectual functions work together, and that one enhances the other.

Studies…

Movement and health… (Physical, mental and emotional)

As stated before society today is well aware of the growing epidemic and necessity for movement for physical well-being. Just in case, here are the facts:

•“Australian obesity is estimated to absorb more than 2 percent of health care costs”-ASSO/DHAC, 1999

•The prevalence of obesity in Australia has more than doubled in the past 20 years; the prevalence is 2.5 times higher now than in 1980.

•Rates of childhood obesity in Australia are at one of the highest amongst developed nations. 25% of Australian children are currently overweight or obese.

•Overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence is associated with a wide variety of serious complications and health problems. The most significant long-term consequence of childhood obesity is its persistence into adulthood

•The Premier's Physical Task Force noted the main barriers listed in the report included:

•Current physical activity levels seen to be sufficient (78.1% Primary Males, 77.5% Primary Females, 79.3% Secondary Males, 61.0% Secondary Females)

•No one to be physically active with (19.0% PM, 14.9% PF, 17.2% SM, 23.1% SF)

•Preference for TV/Electronic games (30.0%, 15.8%, 18.4%, 22.7%)

•Not being very good at physical activity (16.0%, 17.7%, 10.5%, 21.1%)

•No parks or sports grounds (16.4%, 13.6%, 11.2%, 15.7%)

•Not liking the way physical activity made them feel (17.7%, 19.5%, 7.7%, 12.9%)

•Not liking physical activity (7.0%, 5.4%, 4.0%, 9.9%)

Many of us have look back with revulsion on our days in gym class, running till we were ill, push-ups, climbing the rope in front of a class full of peers. We must consider that any kind of physical activity would feel equally nightmarish to an overweight child. “Even if they're inclined to move, overweight children are often physically incompetent. Is it any surprise, then, that 40 percent of obese children and 70 percent of obese adolescents become obese adults? Indeed, by the time obese children are six years old, their chances of becoming obese adults are over 50 percent.” (Pica, 2003: 25) It's a vicious-circle kind of problem. Lack of physical activity is a primary cause of obesity in children. Then, once overweight, children have a tendency to become even less physically active — a tendency that only increases in adolescence. (Pica, 2003)

Unfortunately, along with the physical health risks of obesity in children, comes an array of mental, social, and emotional problems. Being bullied, or teased at such a young age can develop problems with self-esteem that last far into adulthood.

However, exercise doesn't have to be this difficult. By incorporating movement into more of our student's everyday activities, we can make significant progress in increasing our students' physical fitness.

Movement and Play

As stated before, much of our learning in our earliest years comes from movement and doing. Much of that movement is done in the form of play. “Following infancy, play occupies the bulk of a child's development, physically, intellectually, and socially.” (Goldberg, 2001:47) Think of your students during recess and lunch, what is it that they do, most often they go out and play. “Playing gives young children the opportunity to learn new social skills that they have not yet mastered like sharing, taking turns, and waiting. “ (Cohen, 2006) Play is evolving, individual, diverse and collaborative, and we as teachers need to remember this and allow our students to experience all facets of play. Again, this is an exercise of integration. Students are often allowed free-play with recess and lunch. However, structured play can be a wonderful way of making learning meaningful. “Play, viewed as an ongoing process, is essentially a creative activity through which children make connections to what they know and use those connections to explore further. Through play they develop an ability to represent their world.” (Goldberg, 2001:47) One example of this might be allow the students in your class to find shapes around the room, they can then form groups to see if they can make the shapes with their bodies, example, four students lie on the ground to make a square, after the students have found a few objects and made them, ask them to play with the objects and see what they can discover. Simple activities like this are wonderful for student self-directed learning, group work, and best of all, the students are moving, and most often they are motivated. Play is a fantastic form of self-regulated learning for students, and allows a much better insight into students understanding of concepts. As Richard Cohen, an early childhood educational specialist explains, even simple activities like playing with blocks and scoops of water gives young children “tangible experiences that prepare their minds for the future when they will be presented with abstract ideas like fractions, volume, surface tension, gravity, etc. Young kids don't realize it, but through play they are practicing the scientific model that they will later learn terms for - hypothesis, experiment, and conclusion.” In other words play provides development of key concepts that will later be explored and defined in formal education.

Movement and physical education…

•In 2003, according to research by the Premier's Physical Activity Task Force, 11% of males and 13% of females in primary school's in WA reported doing no form of vigorous sport, exercise or dance; this number increased to 25% (males) and 32% (females) in secondary schools.

•Almost 30% of primary school males and females reported doing no active play. This increased to over 50% in secondary males and females.

•One in five females and one in seven males (metropolitan area only) reported no school based physical education.

Although a lot of progress has been made to improve the amount of physical activity in schools, the quality of physical activity still has a long way to go. We must remember that we are educators, first and foremost. This has to apply to physical education also. So often, it is all too easy to get the students outside the classroom and simply pass the time. Just as movement within the classroom must be meaningful, so too must the learning outside the classroom be authentic.

Movement and drama…

“The first word of the theatrical vocabulary is the human body, the main source of sound and movement. Therefore, to control the means of a theatrical production, man must, first of all, control his own body, know his own body, in order to make it capable of making it more expressive.” (Boal, 1979: 65)

Everyone seems so happy.

Someone once said a picture says a thousand words, however, when it comes to communication words seem to play a very small role. Take the sentence above; depending on the scenario, the tone, intonation, facial expression and body language of the person saying it, there are countless possible meanings. When a person is conveying a message, they do so mostly through movement, through their body language. How convincingly the person portrays the message depends on the control they have over their body to make it appropriately expressive.

As teachers, especially primary teachers, we begin work with students who have very little, if any, capability of correctly expressing themselves through words. As such, we rely very heavily on body language, facial expression and the like to extract correct meaning from our students about their understanding of many subjects. Let us discuss this concept further through looking at movement in the arts as a whole.

Movement and the arts…

As discussed previously, the bulk of education today is taught through reading, writing, and discussing. This state of affairs has resulted “with the study of logical problem solving skills with a consequent neglect of development of artistic abilities in the realms of musical, literary, visual and movement arts.” (Seitz, 2006:6) According to Goldberg (2001) one can learn with, through and about the arts, in utilizing all three ways teachers expand the role of arts in the classroom experience. She explains that the arts “broadens the acceptable modes of expression in the classroom while offering students the opportunity to engage in reflective, creative, and critical thinking.” (Goldberg, 2001: 25) While this is true, some have focused solely on how we can teach through the arts, instead of understanding that optimum results can only occur by utilizing all three approaches. As the battle for arts advocacy has waged on, supporters of the arts have had to justify the arts importance in education as a buttress for a multitude of other subjects. However, instead of basing the arts importance on its instrumental value to other subjects, I believe that we should be focusing on its intrinsic value to education. We must start looking at the intrinsic cultural and individual value of the arts as a component of a well-rounded education.

A recent study researched evidence from four separate arts programmes; the study revealed that evidence from the four programmes evaluated suggested that arts programmes that enhance students' learning have the following attributes:

http://www.dest.gov.au/schools/publications/2004/evaluation_arts_education/default.htm

From this we can see how the arts can have a profound affect not only on student's intellectual development, but social, and emotional also. Let us look more closely at the second aspect mentioned, “students are engaged in authentic activities.” This is the key to all true and meaningful learning, authenticity and engagement. This is where movement can play a key role; as educators we all understand the importance of theory. We as educators are challenged continually to keep up to date with the latest theories in education, however, the most learning and growth is accomplished when we walk into that classroom and experience it first hand. The same applies to our students; the most authentic learning is accomplished when they are allowed to experience it; to explore it from every angle. With movement we can allow our students to do this.

Let us explore this concept further with the concept of dance. Whereas sport is concerned with the results of actions, the study of performance of dance is concerned with the role of movement itself. Through dance movement the students cultivate aesthetic sensibility in relating to the physical world. In group movement the student also develops socially by experiencing relationships with others in an atmosphere of mutual exploration, thus gaining confidence in communicating imaginatively. (Seitz, 2006:8)

Clearly the connections between movement and authentic learning are evident here. However, the connection is sometimes harder to understand and not so plainly seen and put into practice in other curricula.

Movement and Mathematics…

Core subjects such as mathematics can be difficult enough to teach without the added burden of finding room for movement. However, the introduction and inclusion of movement into this area is crucial. Much of the learning in mathematics relies on building understanding of ideas. Before one can understand multiplication and division, one must understand addition and subtraction, before that one must know how to count, and before that one must understand what numbers represent and so on. Without a solid understanding of the most basic concepts, students learning can be irrevocably impaired. Since most of these basic concepts are learnt in the very early years of schooling, learning these concepts in partnership with movement is some of the most natural learning that a student can be involved in. Movement can be a useful tool in helping students make these mathematical connections. Simple activities such as having students move around a classroom and pairing themselves into groups allows for a more interactive and authentic understanding of counting, by counting all the groups students are lead into understanding of addition and multiplication. By including movement, students are often more motivated, which leads to more authentic learning and better retention and understanding.

Again, the focus is on using movement as a tool for authentic learning, using students' natural development to help them reach their optimum potential. Ideas and understanding of space provides the perfect example of how we can use movement with a child's natural development. Young children first learn laterality (left-right), which becomes the basis for concepts of co-ordinates of space, as well as the establishment of the line of gravity through the body. From this 3 dimensional space can be established as part of the students' kinesphere (up/down, front/behind etc)(Seitz, 2006). Imagine trying to teach these concepts to a child without allowing movement. From these concepts students can discuss and explore ideas about time, energy, space, and relationships between the three.

Movement and Science…

Science has always been a natural medium for hands on learning, and as such it provides an easy medium for movement learning also. From getting out and experiencing to environment, to re-enacting a volcano erupting, a plant growing, or a cell dividing, science proves to be a valuable relationship with movement. This is particularly pertinent with young students, a wonderful example is floatation: demonstrate how bubbles, feathers or scarves float through the air. Allow the students to play with the scarves, throw them in the air, and see that they float down regardless of how hard they are thrown up in the air. Have the students be bubbles, ask them if their movements are strong or light, fast or slow. Through using movement in the exercise, you can gauge the students understanding on a much clearer level, and again the learning is authentic.

Conclusion

Although this paper has only begun to explore a few subject areas, the possibilities are limitless. Regardless of what area, what subject, what year level, students naturally gravitate toward movement. Instead of fighting against this, we as educators should see the value in embracing it and using those natural tendencies to excel our students forward. When students enter the school system, their natural tendency is to learn, and to seek out as much information as they can. It is only through years of stagnate learning that this natural desire for knowledge is lost, perhaps movement is a way we as educators can re-capture some of that lost passion for learning.

Until we as educators and our educational institutions can understand the necessity for the movement to play as integral a role in education as it plays in society and culture, we cannot hope to optimise its effect on learning. Although it is important to understand the uses and advantages of the instrumental value of the movement, such as its recent quantative studies have presented, there is a clear and present danger in solely implementing movement for movements sake. We must take up the challenge to use movement to improve the quality of student's health, not only physically but intellectually, mentally and socially. Movement in education offers us a unique opportunity, we must not let it simply pass by.

Bibliography

Berger, K.S. (2001). The Developing Person Through The Life Span. NY Worth Publishers.

Boal, A. (1979) Theatre of the Oppressed, London. Pluto Press.

Cohen, R. (2006) Accessed April, 2006, www.richardcohen.com

Creative Connections: An Arts in Education Partnership Framework, Summary Report. (2005)

Einstein, A. Albert Einstein Quotes. Accessed May 14, 2006. http://www.humboldt1.com/~gralsto/einstein/quotes.html

Ewarts, E. (1973). Brain mechanisms in movement. Scientific American, 229, 103-110.

Goldberg, M. (2001) Arts and Learning: An Integrated Approach to Teaching and Learning in Multicultural and Multilingual Settings (2^nd. Ed.) Addison Wesley Longman

Leiner, H. C., Leiner, A. L., & Dowq, R. S. (1986). Does the cerebellum contribute to mental skills? Behavioral Neuroscience, 100(4), 443-454.

Pica, R. 2003 Your Active Child: How to Boost Physical, Emotional, and Cognitive Development through Age-Appropriate Activity. McGraw-Hill.

Seitz, J. A. The Development of Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence in Children: Implications for Education and Artistry, Accessed 2006, http://www.york.cuny.edu/~seitz/HolisticEd.htm

View other 'Your Work' entries...     2006 Ed Pack     Glynis' Journal      Julian's Journal

Lauren Boon's Movement in Education   Nicole Pfeiffer's Theatre Production in the Classroom

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