Embodied teaching and learning: Using gesture in the university classroom

Dr Fey Parrill from Case Western Reserve University will be the speaker on 10 June 2020.

Despite converging evidence indicating that the human mind is embodied, those of us who take on the responsibility of teaching about cognition too often ignore the body. This talk will review three areas of research—embodied cognition, active learning, and the role of gesture in teaching and learning—and discuss implications for teachers of university courses about cognition. We will present general recommendations, and support them with data from a study using gesture-based training to teach brain anatomy. 

Dr Fey Parrill studies gesture from the perspective of embodied cognition. Current projects focus on the use of gesture in teaching and learning, gestural viewpoint in narrative and in spatial descriptions, and abstract gestures. Visit here for recent publications.