Beyond the body and external representations … the brain. A commentary on the article Learning beyond the body by Juan-Ignacio Pozo / Más allá del cuerpo y de las representaciones externas … el cerebro. Un comentario sobre el artículo Aprender más allá del cuerpo de Juan-Ignacio Pozo

My commentary is based on three matters derived from Ignacio Pozo’s article. First, I present my defence of the cognitive research that Pozo criticizes and characterizes as methodologically aseptic and disembodied. Second, I discuss my doubts regarding the author’s arguments on external representations overcoming the limitations of embodied cognition. Third, I examine the neuroscience perspective in order to clarify the representational debate.     

From body to culture: the need for a developmental psychology view. A commentary on the article Learning beyond the body by Juan-Ignacio Pozo / Del cuerpo a la cultura: la necesidad de una mirada desde la psicología del desarrollo. Un comentario sobre el artículo Aprender más allá del cuerpo de Juan-Ignacio Pozo

The necessity of adopting a developmental perspective to understand the role that the body and action play in children’s representations is argued in proposals made by Pozo in his article Learning beyond the body: from embodied representations to explicitation mediated by external representations. The transformative power of action is valued from this developmental perspective, while at the same time revealing the close link between action, cognition and communication. Similarly, the explicitation and implicitation processes are considered to be recurrent phases that occur in any stage of development, applied to embodied knowledge as well as to more elaborate and explicit knowledge.     

Beyond the dual mind: the cultural reconstruction of embodied representations. Response to commentaries from the article Learning beyond the body / Más allá de la mente dual: la reconstrucción cultural de las representaciones encarnadas. Respuesta a los comentarios al artículo Aprender más allá del cuerpo

In the responses to the original article, the necessity of adopting an embodied approach in the study of the mind instead of the traditional symbolic approach in classical cognitive psychology is assumed. However, as soon as the nature of that embodied mind and its relationship to explicit representations mediated by semiotic cultural devices is delved into, that consensus gives way to significant criticism and discrepancies. Without wishing to end the debate, but rather open or ignite it, this article seeks to respond to some these observations, grouping them into four sections: (1) the acceptance of the body as a representational device; (2) the risk of incurring a new dualism when differentiating an embodied and implicit mind from a symbolic and explicit one; (3) the transformation processes of mental representations and functions in development as well as in instruction; and (4) the implications of these reflections on the relationships among mind, brain and culture.     

Ciencia para el ciudadano en la escuela: más allá de la calle y del laboratorio

Resumen

El artículo destaca las diferencias entre las teorías legas y las científicas de hoy. Se plantea que no es pertinente ni posible la sustitución de las primeras por las segundas durante los años de la escolaridad básica, sino que lo deseable es fomentar desde la escuela el desarrollo de una racionalidad lega de nuevo tipo, más compleja y crítica. Para ello se requiere una escuela investigadora, flexible y democrática. El trabajo ofrece algunos lineamientos al efecto.