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Previous research has established that embodied modeling (role-playing agents in a system) can support learning about complexity. Separately, research has demonstrated that increasing the multimodal resources available to students can support sensemaking, particularly for students classified as English Learners. This study bridges these two bodies of research to consider how embodied models can strengthen an interconnected system of multimodal models created by a classroom. We explore how iteratively refining embodied modeling activities strengthened connections to other models, real-world phenomena, and multimodal representations. Through design-based research in a sixth grade classroom studying ecosystems, we refined embodied modeling activities initially conceived as supports for computational thinking and modeling. Across three iterative cycles, we illustrate how the conceptual and epistemic relationship between the computational and embodied model shifted, and we analyze how these shifts shaped opportunities for learning and participation by: (1) recognizing each student’s perspectives as critical for making sense of the model, (2) encouraging students to question and modify the “code” for the model, and (3) leveraging multimodal resources, including graphs, gestures, and student-generated language, for meaning-making. Through these shifts, the embodied model became a full-fledged component of the classroom’s model system and created more equitable opportunities for learning and participation.
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Beyond Verbal: A Methodological Approach to Highlighting Students’ Embodied Participation in Mathematics Classroom
Despite the growing availability of classroom measures, such measures rarely attended to the embodied nature of learning. This article describes the collaborative development of a practical measure to capture embodied participation in mathematics classrooms with four elementary school teachers—working with students at the intersections of multiply marginalized identities: students of color, emergent bilinguals, and students with disabilities—who informed the measure design and ensured that the data were actionable in their contexts. This article contributes to existing research on classroom measures by highlighting the value of attending to embodied learning through multiple modalities and representations of student participation. We further highlight how such a measure provides practical insights into participation that extend beyond verbal only measures.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1943146
- PAR ID:
- 10564723
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.3102
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Educational Researcher
- ISSN:
- 0013-189X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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