ABSTRACT
We introduce here a special issue of this journal on the theme of ‘Conceptual Meta-
phor and Embodied Cognition in Science Learning’. The idea for this issue grew out
of a symposium that we organized on this topic at the conference of the European
Science Education Research Association (ESERA) in September 2013. The eight
papers collected in this issue reflect the emergence of a critical mass of studies in
science education applying ideas from the perspective of ‘embodied cognition’ in cog-
nitive science. Up until the 1980s, most research in cognitive science assumed a view
of the mind as an abstract information processing system. On this view, our sensori-
motor systems were often seen as serving a peripheral, input/output role, conveying
information to or from a central cognitive processor where abstract, higher level
thought took place. The research focused on developing models of cognition incor-
porating language-like, propositional representations and syntactic processes, and
largely ignored the specifics of human physiology and interaction between the
person and the material and social world in which he or she thinks and acts. Since
then, several different approaches to cognitive science have adopted some version
of the assumption that cognition is embodied-that is, they have assumed that
models of cognition need to attend to the characteristics of human brains and
bodies, and the material contexts in which thought is taking place (e.g. Barsalou,
2008; Clark & Chalmers, 1998; Shapiro, 2011; Varela, Thompson, & Rosch, 1991;
Wilson, 2002). The broad assumptions behind embodied cognition are not new to
the study of the mind and may be traced back to Merleau-Ponty’s (1962/2002) Phe-
nomenology of perception andGibson’s (1979) ecological theory of perception. They are
also acknowledged in cognitive developmental traditions, such as the Piagetian
emphasis on our sensorimotor system as a basis for the development of abstract con-
cepts, and resonate with Vygotsky’s (1978) recognition of the role of our interaction
with physical and symbolic artifacts. With regard to the educational sciences, certain
ideas of embodied cognition are in line with pragmatic and progressive traditions, for
example, those of Dewey (1916) which emphasize the role of personal and physical
experiences in learning.
