Affordances of Physical Objects in Computing Instruction from an Embodied Cognition Perspective

Background : The embodied cognition perspective is a collection of theories that all explicate a fundamental relationship between the perceptions, actions, and movement of the body and how humans think and reason. The application of the embodied cognition perspective to instructional interventions—often referred to as embodied learning design—has the potential to aid computing education researchers and practitioners who want to meaningfully integrate more sensory and “hands on” activities in their instruction. Purpose : The objective of this paper is to describe a process for, and to model, how computing designers and instructors can interrogate the embodied affordances of pedagogical activities in computing. Analytic Approach : We describe 12 embodied affordances present across six pedagogical activities. Our goal is to model the analysis of pedagogical activities for their embodied affordances. For coherence, we selected six pedagogical activities related to arrays in Java. Implications : Embodied learning offers theoretical ideas and a process for interrogating the characteristics of visual and physical resources in computing education. As with any design process, iteration and assessment are necessary to ensure that an embodied learning intervention is effective, but previous research suggests that learning is increased when students’ perceptual and physical interactions align with learning goals.