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HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article

Front. Educ.
Sec. STEM Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1528755

Embodied and dis-embodied affordances in mathematics education

Provisionally accepted
Danyal Farsani Danyal Farsani 1*Omid Khatin-Zadeh Omid Khatin-Zadeh 2
  • 1 Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
  • 2 University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In this paper, we discuss a two-way mechanism for acquiring mathematical knowledge: disembodied-to-embodied and embodied-to-dis-embodied shifts. Shifting from an embodied representation to a dis-embodied representation enables mathematics learners to discover general rules and patterns that can be applied to a wide range of mathematical problems, while shifting from a dis-embodied representation to an embodied representation allows mathematics learners to acquire a more graspable knowledge of mathematics. After discussing these two shifts in mode of processing, we describe a two-way mechanism through which a parallel employment of these two modes of thought allows mathematics learners to acquire a grounded and deep knowledge of mathematics. Therefore, any mathematics education program should engage learners in both modes of processing. Finally, we conclude that it is not possible to have an efficient education program by focusing on just one mode of mathematical thought.

    Keywords: Dis-embodied representation, Embodied representation, mathematics education, affordances, Education program

    Received: 18 Nov 2024; Accepted: 28 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Farsani and Khatin-Zadeh. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Danyal Farsani, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.