Spatial and temporal embedding for science inquiry: an empirical study of student learning

In consecutive years, a fifth grade teacher of a self-contained classroom enacted five-week Earth sciences units that included learning activities focusing on the interpretation of seismograms and the location of earthquake epicenters. In one class, the unit utilized an embedded design that situated learners within the spatial and temporal extent of the phenomenon during the epicenter determination activities. In the other class, while the activity set remained the same, the embedding features were removed. Students in the embedded condition demonstrated greater learning gains than their non-embedded counterparts in prepost assessments of student skill, declarative knowledge, and conceptual understandings, even among topics unrelated to the determination of epicenters. Post-activity student interviews evidenced strong preference for the immersive, asynchronous, and temporal staging components of the embedded condition.

[1]  Lev Vygotsky.  Mind in society , 1978 .

[2]  Margaret Wilson,et al.  Six views of embodied cognition , 2002, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[3]  Paul Dourish,et al.  Where the action is , 2001 .

[4]  E. Thelen.  Time-scale dynamics and the development of an embodied cognition , 1996 .

[5]  Tom Moher,et al.  Learning and participation in a persistent whole-classroom seismology simulation , 2008, ICLS.

[6]  Tom Moher,et al.  Embedded phenomena: supporting science learning with classroom-sized distributed simulations , 2006, CHI.

[7]  C. Dede.  Using Virtual Reality Technology to Convey Abstract Scientific Concepts , 1997 .

[8]  Pm Jenkinson,et al.  Cognitive , 2020, Definitions.

[9]  Tom Ziemke,et al.  Embodiment and Social Interaction: A Cognitive Science Perspective , 2007 .

[10]  H. Pashler,et al.  Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. , 2006, Psychological bulletin.

[11]  J. J. Donovan,et al.  A meta-analytic review of the distribution of practice effect: Now you see it, now you don't. , 1999 .

[12]  F. N. Dempster,et al.  Spacing effects and their implications for theory and practice , 1989 .

[13]  Hiroshi Ishii,et al.  Ambient Displays: Turning Architectural Space into an Interface between People and Digital Information , 1998, CoBuild.

[14]  Etienne Wenger,et al.  Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation , 1991 .

[15]  S. Yantis,et al.  On the distinction between visual salience and stimulus-driven attentional capture. , 1999, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[16]  R. Wallace.  The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason , 1988 .

[17]  Mark L. Johnson.  The body in the mind: the bodily basis of meaning , 1987 .

[18]  William Winn,et al.  Learning in Artificial Environments: Embodiment, Embeddedness and Dynamic Adaptation , 2003 .

[19]  A. Glenberg,et al.  What memory is for: Creating meaning in the service of action , 1997, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[20]  Arthur M. Glenberg,et al.  4 Why mental models must be embodied , 1999 .