Bodymarking: Interpreting Students’ Embodied Experiences in the Mathematics Classroom

Presented by Dr. Joshua Markle, PhD.
Friday May 06, 2022, at 2 p.m.
Register here  (MS Teams or Lifesize link will be emailed to you prior to event.)
Inquiries about seminar: Dr. Steven Khan (skhan6@brocku.ca)

The work described in this presentation sits at the intersection of two critical areas of research in mathematics education: spatial reasoning and embodiment. Spatial reasoning has been identified as integral to both general mathematical capability and the potential for individuals to flourish in life beyond formal mathematics education. Research on the body in mathematics education points to the constitutive role the body plays in the development of mathematical understanding, the importance of understanding students’ experience of the body in the mathematics classroom, and how our senses, such as sight and touch, are integral to how we know and do mathematics. In this presentation, I discuss the development and use
of a tool for observing and describing everyday classroom actions, such as gesture and gaze, to offer an interpretation of how students use the body to both sense and make sense in a spatial reasoning activity.

Bio

Josh is an Assistant Professor (LTA) of mathematics education in the Faculty of Education at Brock University. His research explores students’ experiences in classroom mathematics and is oriented by three key themes. The first is a focus on how spatial reasoning skills are developed and used in mathematical problem solving and posing. The second explores the role of embodiment and the experience of the body in coming to know and do mathematics. And a third, all-encompassing theme investigates how mathematics can enable students to flourish, both within and beyond the classroom. His work is grounded in theories of embodied cognition, such as enactivism, and he primarily draws on interpretive traditions as research methodologies.