Dr. Arthur Glenberg has received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support his research on the application of theories of embodied cognition to education.

 

In previous work, Dr. Glenberg demonstrated that understanding text requires that the words and sentences be connected to experiences.

 

Because new readers have to concentrate on translating orthography into phonology (i.e., saying the words), they may not make the connection between the written words and relevant experiences, resulting in poor reading comprehension. Having children act out the meaning of sentences using toys establishes the connection and improves comprehension.

 

The NSF grant will support research on:

• Translating these findings into classroom curricula.

• Exploring how acting out sentences may enhance vocabulary acquisition and transfer to mathematical problem solving.

• Development and testing of a computer-based version of the intervention.