{"id":66083,"date":"2017-05-13T15:24:51","date_gmt":"2017-05-13T22:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=66083"},"modified":"2017-05-13T15:25:04","modified_gmt":"2017-05-13T22:25:04","slug":"education-as-embodied-cognition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/05\/13\/education-as-embodied-cognition\/","title":{"rendered":"Education as Embodied Cognition"},"content":{"rendered":"

R Chandrasoma<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

It is traditionally supposed that learning \u2013 education in its broadest sense \u2013 is an activity of the Mind and that the body is a mere appurtenance that works in the service of the mind. Indeed, the \u00a0traditional view is that the corporeal must be subdued for the \u2018unleashing\u2019 of the mental. \u00a0In what may be called the \u2018paradigmatic teaching set-up\u2019, a \u2018Know-All\u2019 or \u2018Teacher\u2019 acts as an authoritative source of information that is \u2018transferred\u2019 to a pupil or set of pupils. A class-room serves a coercive function – a \u2018trap\u2019 that prevents a cross-classroom dialogue and other hindrances to efficient transfer of information. The \u2018learning body\u2019 is thus forced into passive subservience. No surprise, then, that \u2018discipline\u2019 is a much-admired virtue in schools. This strange arrangement has a history \u2013 schooling was first devised by monks and is rooted in the religious tradition of \u2018imparting knowledge\u2019 wherein a \u2018Guru\u2019 acts as a conduit for the transfer of the wisdom of the Sages to untutored and compliant pupils, In contrast to this ancient folly, we have today \u00a0– or hope to have in the future – what is called \u2018embodied cognition\u2019 where education is through an interaction of whole beings \u2013 of bodies and minds that jointly adapt to the intellectual challenge of existence. We learn through interaction of whole beings and \u2018instruction\u2019 must be collegial and democratic.<\/p>\n

How does this new philosophy of education express itself in practice? \u00a0Above all, pupils must not be in competition \u2013 the group learns collectively by adopting the famous maxim \u2013 \u2018Each for All and All for Each\u2019. The class advances as a whole by the strong helping the weak- indeed, the class is no longer a test-bed for the advancement of an elite but an organic whole trying to make sense of the world. In Mathematics the gifted will feel it a duty to help the weak by working with them \u2013 not by outsmarting them and winning the plaudits of the teachers. In languages \u2013where, again, there are natural differences in ability \u2013 the fluent must help those struggling to cope and the class must advance as a whole living system. This does not mean that natural differences must be erased \u2013 it means that such differences must be exploited for the good of the Whole \u2013 not for the aggrandizement of the favoured few. What is the part of the traditional teacher in this new dispensation? He moves into the class \u2013 abandoning his High Seat as the Teacher – and actively seeks to enhance the quality and sophistication of the general dialogue in the classroom by \u2018injecting\u2019 his expertise where necessary. Contrast this new image of the Teacher with that of the Cane-Welding Tyrant punishing the Fools. It was held in those bad days that \u2018ignorance\u2019 and \u2018intellectual laziness\u2019 were punishable offenses. It was also held that personal advancement was achieved by \u2018defeating\u2019 others. These ancient follies must be eradicated<\/p>\n

In a broad sense, education that seeks to \u2018fill the individual\u2019 with a prepared \u2018formulation\u2019 served by those with a vocational commitment to do so, is not genuine. .Authentic education ought to be part of societal dynamic in which the individual uses both body and mind to enhance his viability and performance as a thinking citizen through collegiality and the intercourse of minds. That in Sri Lanka we are dismally short of this target becomes evident when we reflect on the \u2018abyss\u2019 of University Education and the pathetic \u00a0lack of \u00a0open and unfettered intellectual discourse in the public life of this country,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

R Chandrasoma It is traditionally supposed that learning \u2013 education in its broadest sense \u2013 is an activity of the Mind and that the body is a mere appurtenance that works in the service of the mind. Indeed, the \u00a0traditional view is that the corporeal must be subdued for the \u2018unleashing\u2019 of the mental. \u00a0In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-r-chandrasoma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66083\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}