Psychology has made, and continues to make, a significant contribution to the discipline area of education. Since one of the main aims of education concerns student learning – which is an indisputably psychological phenomenon – we argue that the emerging research agenda of embodied cognition has much to offer educational practitioners, researchers, and/or policy-makers. Although embodied cognition is still in its infancy, the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary nature of the literature provides some thought-provoking recommendations to enhance educational practice or practices, which in turn can bring about student learning more effectively. Consequently, this article will be concerned with the discussion of two issues: first, we provide a brief historical overview that foregrounds embodied cognition, and, second, we outline the educational implications of embodied cognition through the use of some examples significant to education. We conclude with an argument for the importance of making findings in an area we call ‘embodied education’ available to teachers.

Key words: cognition, education, educational research, embodied cognition, learning, psychology

Alvin Goldman has the right idea. The idea: to offer “a philosophical, or conceptual, proposal, namely, an interpretation of the notion of embodied cognition, a proposed definition of the phrase” (forthcoming: 1). The rightness: Embodied Cognition (the field) seems to need just such a philosophical, or conceptual, interpretation of embodied cognition (the subject). I begin this chapter explaining in more detail the rightness of Goldman’s idea, why his endeavor is an important one. I then turn to the idea itself – the definition of embodiment that Goldman proposes. Evaluation of the idea reveals some significant problems, but attaining the perspective from which these problems become visible sheds useful light on the nature of Embodied Cognition.