Kinesthetic Learning in Adolescent Education

Kinesthetic (movement/touch oriented) learning is not only a dominant learning style for some people, it is an important facet of everyone’s learning process – one that enables the student to retain and integrate the information learned. This extremely valuable paper explores how to integrate movement into academic subjects on behalf of the students’ increased learning and more balanced psychology. Highly recommended!

From the author’s abstract:

Movement education is often considered a peripheral subject in school curricula, yet it is essential for the teenager and it should form a central focus in education. Eurythmy and spatial dynamics are co-creators of a balanced and creative approach to movement educaiton, and they provide criteria by which other forms of movement can be introduced.

Students need not only a balanced movement education but also movement introduced into lessons, projects and demonstrations in order for them to integrate learning on both physical and psychological levels. Without such integration education imparts information which cannot be retained and remains undigested within the personality. Concepts that are not integrated, according to Rudolf Steiner, lay the basis for later anger toward the judgments of society.

In this paper examples of classes integrating movment include physics, earth science, history, eurythmy, literature, and biology. Suggestions for generating curricula are presented.