Gregory Hallman | Teachers College, Columbia University (original) (raw)

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Research paper thumbnail of Surrogate Embodiment, Mathematics Instruction and Video Game Programming

Page 1. Surrogate Embodiment, Mathematics Instruction and Video Game Programming Cameron L. Fadjo... more Page 1. Surrogate Embodiment, Mathematics Instruction and Video Game Programming Cameron L. Fadjo; Gregory Hallman Jr.; Ronah Harris; John B. Black Teachers College, Columbia University United States of America clf2110@columbia.edu ...

Research paper thumbnail of Are Simulation and Physical Manipulation Different in Improving Conceptual Learning and Mechanical Reasoning?

ABSTRACT Recent theorizing on the embodied nature of cognition suggests that the processes of per... more ABSTRACT Recent theorizing on the embodied nature of cognition suggests that the processes of perception fundamentally affect conceptual thinking (e.g., Barsalou, 2008). This point of view emphasizes on having perceptual experiences for being able to learn abstract concepts by actually 'feeling' it. The mechanical reasoning process, especially, contains major Physics concepts that are usually too abstract to be perceptually comprehensible. It is very natural that people have a hard time imagining mechanical movement that they have never physically experienced before. Once they have experienced, however, even though they did not have the explicit knowledge of how it works, it would be much easier to perceptually simulate the mechanism when they later learn the related concepts. Hence, it is very important to provide people with opportunities to have embodied experience of perception and action that is meaningful enough to be cognitive grounding for nurturing their imagination and comprehending abstract concepts. Providing perceptual experience can be done in various ways by offering different levels' of embodiment. From embodied cognition perspective, manipulating materials physically would provide more embodied experience than using computer simulation by clicking and manipulating symbolic representations, followed by reading a text. The purpose of the current study is to investigate how different levels' of embodiment would affect the understanding of Physics concepts (torque, gear ratio, speed, and the relations among them) and the reasoning about mechanical systems. Also, we examine how people's prior experience of driving a manual transmission car affects their later learning. Theoretical Background

Research paper thumbnail of The Development of Embodied Animations for Chinese Characters

Research paper thumbnail of Possibilities of Haptic Feedback Simulation for Physics Learning

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of force feedback based computer simula... more The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of force feedback based computer simulation as the mode for instruction on the topic of gears in terms of embodied cognition theory. The goal was to enable for the auditory, visual, and haptic cognitive processing during the learning process. The study randomly placed 28 adult participants in either a haptic group, which used the simulation together with the force-feedback device, or a non-haptic group, which lacked the force-feedback element. Statistical analysis of the results suggests that the participants who learned about gears with haptics performed better on the posttest than those who performed the simulation without haptic feedback. However, the average response to items about motivation indicates that the simulation had a negative impact on the attitudes of the participants. Discussion about this result follows.

Research paper thumbnail of The Development of Embodied Animations for Chinese Characters

Research paper thumbnail of Evidence for the Use of Embodied Animations in Chinese Character Learning

Research paper thumbnail of The Different Benefits from Different Gestures in Understanding a Concept

Journal of Science Education and Technology, 2013

Explanations are typically accompanied by hand gestures. While research has shown that gestures c... more Explanations are typically accompanied by hand gestures. While research has shown that gestures can help learners understand a particular concept, different learning effects in different types of gesture have been less understood. To address the issues above, the current study focused on whether different types of gestures lead to different levels of improvement in understanding. Two types of gestures were investigated, and thus, three instructional videos (two gesture videos plus a no gesture control) of the subject of mitosis-all identical except for the types of gesture used-were created. After watching one of the three videos, participants were tested on their level of understanding of mitosis. The results showed that (1) differences in comprehension were obtained across the three groups, and (2) representational (semantic) gestures led to a deeper level of comprehension than both beat gestures and the no gesture control. Finally, a language proficiency effect is discussed as a moderator that may affect understanding of a concept. Our findings suggest that a teacher is encouraged to use representational gestures even to adult learners, but more work is needed to prove the benefit of using gestures for adult learners in many subject areas.

Research paper thumbnail of Effective Designs of the Computer-Assisted Chinese Learning Program for Beginning Learners of Chinese Characters

Research paper thumbnail of The Role of Imagination in Augmenting Perceptual Representation

Knowledge construction requires both perceptual information from external sources and our active ... more Knowledge construction requires both perceptual information from external sources and our active interpretation of that information. Thirty one 5 th grade elementary school students were asked to move plates in a Tower of Hanoi (TOH) task, which was displayed on a screen monitor. When the students were asked to respond to the weight of the plates, both imagination and non-imagination groups reported that they felt weight of the plates which actually had no weight. Also, students in imagination group reported that they felt the plates heavier than did those in non-imagination group. The result shows that haptic information can be created without providing any information through haptic channel. In addition, the result implies how knowledge is constructed based on previous knowledge and suggests that children create their own imaginary world even at a perceptual level. Also, it was discussed why imagination experience can maximize and help learning in embodiment activities.

Research paper thumbnail of Surrogate Embodiment, Mathematics Instruction and Video Game Programming

Page 1. Surrogate Embodiment, Mathematics Instruction and Video Game Programming Cameron L. Fadjo... more Page 1. Surrogate Embodiment, Mathematics Instruction and Video Game Programming Cameron L. Fadjo; Gregory Hallman Jr.; Ronah Harris; John B. Black Teachers College, Columbia University United States of America clf2110@columbia.edu ...

Research paper thumbnail of Are Simulation and Physical Manipulation Different in Improving Conceptual Learning and Mechanical Reasoning?

ABSTRACT Recent theorizing on the embodied nature of cognition suggests that the processes of per... more ABSTRACT Recent theorizing on the embodied nature of cognition suggests that the processes of perception fundamentally affect conceptual thinking (e.g., Barsalou, 2008). This point of view emphasizes on having perceptual experiences for being able to learn abstract concepts by actually 'feeling' it. The mechanical reasoning process, especially, contains major Physics concepts that are usually too abstract to be perceptually comprehensible. It is very natural that people have a hard time imagining mechanical movement that they have never physically experienced before. Once they have experienced, however, even though they did not have the explicit knowledge of how it works, it would be much easier to perceptually simulate the mechanism when they later learn the related concepts. Hence, it is very important to provide people with opportunities to have embodied experience of perception and action that is meaningful enough to be cognitive grounding for nurturing their imagination and comprehending abstract concepts. Providing perceptual experience can be done in various ways by offering different levels' of embodiment. From embodied cognition perspective, manipulating materials physically would provide more embodied experience than using computer simulation by clicking and manipulating symbolic representations, followed by reading a text. The purpose of the current study is to investigate how different levels' of embodiment would affect the understanding of Physics concepts (torque, gear ratio, speed, and the relations among them) and the reasoning about mechanical systems. Also, we examine how people's prior experience of driving a manual transmission car affects their later learning. Theoretical Background

Research paper thumbnail of The Development of Embodied Animations for Chinese Characters

Research paper thumbnail of Possibilities of Haptic Feedback Simulation for Physics Learning

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of force feedback based computer simula... more The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of force feedback based computer simulation as the mode for instruction on the topic of gears in terms of embodied cognition theory. The goal was to enable for the auditory, visual, and haptic cognitive processing during the learning process. The study randomly placed 28 adult participants in either a haptic group, which used the simulation together with the force-feedback device, or a non-haptic group, which lacked the force-feedback element. Statistical analysis of the results suggests that the participants who learned about gears with haptics performed better on the posttest than those who performed the simulation without haptic feedback. However, the average response to items about motivation indicates that the simulation had a negative impact on the attitudes of the participants. Discussion about this result follows.

Research paper thumbnail of The Development of Embodied Animations for Chinese Characters

Research paper thumbnail of Evidence for the Use of Embodied Animations in Chinese Character Learning

Research paper thumbnail of The Different Benefits from Different Gestures in Understanding a Concept

Journal of Science Education and Technology, 2013

Explanations are typically accompanied by hand gestures. While research has shown that gestures c... more Explanations are typically accompanied by hand gestures. While research has shown that gestures can help learners understand a particular concept, different learning effects in different types of gesture have been less understood. To address the issues above, the current study focused on whether different types of gestures lead to different levels of improvement in understanding. Two types of gestures were investigated, and thus, three instructional videos (two gesture videos plus a no gesture control) of the subject of mitosis-all identical except for the types of gesture used-were created. After watching one of the three videos, participants were tested on their level of understanding of mitosis. The results showed that (1) differences in comprehension were obtained across the three groups, and (2) representational (semantic) gestures led to a deeper level of comprehension than both beat gestures and the no gesture control. Finally, a language proficiency effect is discussed as a moderator that may affect understanding of a concept. Our findings suggest that a teacher is encouraged to use representational gestures even to adult learners, but more work is needed to prove the benefit of using gestures for adult learners in many subject areas.

Research paper thumbnail of Effective Designs of the Computer-Assisted Chinese Learning Program for Beginning Learners of Chinese Characters

Research paper thumbnail of The Role of Imagination in Augmenting Perceptual Representation

Knowledge construction requires both perceptual information from external sources and our active ... more Knowledge construction requires both perceptual information from external sources and our active interpretation of that information. Thirty one 5 th grade elementary school students were asked to move plates in a Tower of Hanoi (TOH) task, which was displayed on a screen monitor. When the students were asked to respond to the weight of the plates, both imagination and non-imagination groups reported that they felt weight of the plates which actually had no weight. Also, students in imagination group reported that they felt the plates heavier than did those in non-imagination group. The result shows that haptic information can be created without providing any information through haptic channel. In addition, the result implies how knowledge is constructed based on previous knowledge and suggests that children create their own imaginary world even at a perceptual level. Also, it was discussed why imagination experience can maximize and help learning in embodiment activities.