Learning in Motion: Maximizing Student Potential through Kinesthetic Regulation

Nickie Hodges

The purpose of this study was to explore the concept of learning through movement to maximize student potential (academically, physically, emotionally, and socially). Incorporating kinesthetic regulation in the classroom community is an interactive way to learn (and teach); it is also a human need that must be addressed in our public education system. The human capacity to learn, design and innovate is rooted in the parts of the brain that govern movement (cerebellum). Twenty-nine third grade students from a public elementary school participated in the facet of the study which explored the relationship kinesthetic regulation and maximizing student potential. The "Jammin' Minute" was integrated four or five days a week for approximately three weeks within the third grade setting. The "Jammin' Minute" is a short, one-minute video clip that helps incorporate physical activity and health education into the classroom. Six students (two boys identified as Talented and Gifted students, one girl with "average" academic characteristics, and three other girls with learning challenges) from the same class participated in the transition facet of the study and engaged in brief, ten minute interviews before and after the implementation. In concluding this study, twenty-eight out of twenty-nine students exhibited progress in demonstrating indicated increased levels of social, educational, and/or emotional growth.