Computer Modeling and Biological Learning

In this article, we argue that learning is more than the transfer of information from expert to novice; additionally, learning processes involve the learner’s body as a fundamental condition. We provide examples from a large database on student learning that show how gestures are an important means in the construction of perception and communication as students interact over and about a computer software environment. Robust learning, as we know it, is therefore a biological phenomenon rather than one that is independent of the machinery on which it is implemented. Based on this and other studies, we suggest that learning environments that do not support students’ use of body and gesture can limit what and how they learn.