Submitted by: Susan Gerofsky
Do we understand big mathematical ideas through our senses and bodies, or is mathematics a purely mental pursuit? Could particular embodied ways of teaching help all learners understand abstract mathematical ideas better and more deeply?
Math educator Susan Gerofsky and dancer/ literacy educator Kathryn Ricketts (SFU) are working with blind students and their sighted classmates to experiment with embodied learning about mathematical functions. Preliminary findings show that top students already engage in being the graph rather than just seeing the graph, and use their sensory and imaginative experiences as a learning resource. Can we teach this to everyone?