Graphing with Balance Board Math: Critical embodied design for regulation and learning.
Tancredi, S., Wang, J. X., Li, H. L., Yao, C. J., Ryokai, K., & Abrahamson, D. (2022). Graphing with Balance Board Math: Critical embodied design for regulation and learning. In C. Chinn, E. Tan, C. Chan, & Y. Kali (Eds.), “International collaboration toward educational innovation for all: Overarching research, development, and practices”—Proceedings of the 16th annual meeting of the Learning Sciences (ICLS 2022), Hiroshima, Japan (online) (pp. 1181-1184). ISLS.
Abstract
Some forms of movement, such as rocking, are common means of sensory self-regulation yet are discouraged in classroom contexts. We analyze the ableist underpinnings of this discouragement, and ask instead: could intrinsically attractive sensory activities such as rocking instead be solicited to serve content learning? Our design-based research project, Balance Board Math, fosters sensory–cognitive opportunities for the regulatory movement of rocking to serve as an intrinsic interaction resource for exploring mathematical graphical representations, with a focus on properties of sinusoidal functions such as frequency and amplitude. We analyze the role of balance/vestibular activation in pilot participants’ exploration of graphing before, during, and after Balance Board Math activities.