Embodied cognition in physical education: a theoretical synthesis for bodilyexploration

Abstract

Cognitivist models centered on symbolic processing and verbal instruction continue to dominate contemporary education, relegating the body, movement, and sensorimotor exploration to a secondary role in learning. Physical education is no exception to this trend. Some recent studies suggest that embodied learning exerts a positive effect on academic performance, although this effect varies by discipline, educational level, and degree of bodily engagement, revealing its pedagogical potential and the fragility of the theoretical scaffolding that explains it; this theoretical review does not systematically evaluate that evidence, but rather takes it as motivation for the conceptual synthesis developed here. Faced with this tension, this article develops a theoretical review that confronts and articulates the main approaches to embodied cognition —enactivism, ecological psychology, gesture, and embodied design— with the aim of building a conceptual framework to support a movementbased pedagogy. Although these currents do not share a single notion of mind, they converge on a common practical consequence: designing for the body in motion, not for the mind at rest. From this articulation, three pedagogical principles emerge: action-mediated learning, the physical environment as a didactic resource, and the body as a vehicle —not merely a receptor— of knowledge. These principles constitute the article's central contribution, offering concrete criteria for rethinking curricular design and teaching strategies in physical education from an embodied perspective.