The role of motor problems in embodied design for mathematics education: a comparative study

Abstract

This study investigates how two educational design approaches, action-based embodied design and interactive dynamic visualizations, support students' learning processes and outcomes when exploring geometric similarity of quadrilaterals. In interactive dynamic visualizations, students manipulate digital figures using sliders or other controls to transform, and the software automatically preserves key mathematical properties, such as angle sizes and proportional side lengths, during these transformations. In contrast, action-based embodied design engages students in motor problems where they are invited to actively maintain these key mathematical properties themselves for similarity, supported by continuous color feedback. The role of the motor problem and continuous feedback in action-based embodied design, as compared to interactive dynamic visualizations, remains underexplored in the context of student learning. This study addresses that gap through a two-part design: a multiple case study exploring students’ learning processes by analyzing video data and a two-group experiment measuring learning outcomes through pre- and post-tests. Accordingly, we designed two learning environments, one based on action-based embodied design and the other on interactive dynamic visualizations, to investigate this. Findings indicate that action-based embodied design is more effective in helping students mathematize the underlying properties that define similarity, whereas interactive dynamic visualizations are more effective in supporting students to recognize similarity between shapes. While both designs facilitated learning, how students learned varied depending on the design features and individual learner differences. Furthermore, students showed the new ways of moving learned through the motor problem in action-based embodied design in their gestures.