Learn math with body exercises

Getting to learn math is a challenge for students, teachers and the educational system in general, for that reason Traci Lengel and Mike Kuczala have studied and practiced a new way to achieve this challenge.

In the book “The Kinesthetic Classroom”, the authors explore and share how their math classes involve students outside of their seats performing a series of body exercises that help, as shown in their research, to learn math better, managing to increase its association and retention.

Learning mathematics with body exercises may seem strange or, at least, far from the traditional way in which people have learned this logical ability of our cognition.

However, Lengel and Kuczala have shown that it is not only learning formulas, but also mathematical and geometric language, which, supported by body movements, is learned more easily and is remembered for much longer.

The long-awaited significant learning that is talked about so much seems to be present when we not only learn with “the mind”, but also involve body movement in that process.

All this should make us question the still prevailing culture of order, silence and stillness inside the classroom, something that is not only almost inhumane to ask of growing boys and girls, but also unsuitable for the learning process. .

We learn with ideas, emotions and the body; and in fact, we learn much better when we use all these dimensions in experiences that are immersive, meaningful and that make sense of learning.

So, if you are going to learn or teach mathematics, I recommend that you read this interesting book “The Kinesthetic Classroom” and open ourselves to thinking about the educational model focused on how we are and how we learn, and not more on how we were taught that it should be.