This article discusses two mechanisms through which understanding static mathematical concepts (basic and more advanced mathematical concepts) in terms of fictive motions or motion events enhance our understanding of these concepts. It is suggested that at least two mechanisms are involved in this enhancing process. The first mechanism enables us…

Mathematics is a particularly notable domain in which to understand the role of body movement for improving reasoning, instruction, and learning. One reason is that mathematics ideas are often expressed and taught through disembodied formalisms--diagrams and symbols that are culturally designed to be abstract, amodal, and arbitrary (Glenberg et…

Students' graph comprehension may be affected by the background of the students who are the readers or interpreters of the graph, their knowledge of the context in which the graph is set, and the inferential processes required by the graph operation. This research study investigated these aspects of graph comprehension for 152 first year…

In mathematic courses, construction of some concepts by the students in a meaningful way may be complicated. In such circumstances, to embody the concepts application of the required technologies may reinforce learning process. Onset of learning process over daily life events of the student's environment may lure their attention and may…

Starting from a situated cognition perspective, this paper reports on the activity of 9th grade students who are interpreting the shape of a graph arising from the motion of a bouncing ball. In an unfamiliar context, informed by previous knowledge of similar experiments, the obstacle of understanding why the graph does not start from the origin is…

The metaphorical nature of first-year calculus students' reasoning about limit concepts is explored using an instrumentalist approach. Analysis of written and verbal language reveals that, while these students used motion terminology profusely when discussing limits, it was typically not intended to signify actual motion and did not play a…