Abstract:

Introduction:
For a few decades now, we have been looking for innovative and integrative approaches that can make training and school practice as a whole more effective. Western education methods still rely too much on traditional principles. Most educational programs follow mentalistic theories, that is, they separate the mind from the body. At school, students access their training while sitting, in the best of cases they watch and listen, being active protagonists of the processes in very rare cases.
The new indications that come to us from cognitive sciences aim to enhance the interaction of all the components of the body in cognitive processes. The embodied, understood as an embodied and situated interpretation of these processes, overcomes the separate idea of body and mind, placing corporeality in a central role for the understanding of the entire experience of the individual, interpreting it together with the mind and decoding its meanings symbolic and contextualising it in the environment. Already Dewey, extraordinarily ahead of his time, clearly opposed the immobile dichotomy between thought and external reality, shifting the reasoning to the dynamic and mutually conditioning relationship between the reality of thought and the world of facts. He had suggested that shifting the focus of reflection to action would certainly contribute to the dissolution of traditional barriers between mind and body. The advent and development of neuroscience has led to a significant departure from the dictates of rationalism, in favor of a concrete revaluation of corporeity.

Methodology:
The research question, from a theoretical point of view, intends to problematize the concept of embodied learning as an alternative to mentalistic education. Similarly, this article aims to describe embodied learning from a neuroscientific perspective. After a brief historical overview, I will review the studies that highlight the behavioral effectiveness of instruction incorporated into the learning of some disciplines. From an empirical point of view, we intend to present the results of educational research with qualitative-quantitative methodology with the aim of analyzing the teaching and methodological practices that best lend themselves to the achievement of skills. The representations and practices of experiential learning will be analyzed through a convenience sample of Italian teachers and students of lower secondary school, to verify the results of this methodology.

Results:
Empirical evidence from the latest neuroscientific studies shows that in at least two educational domains, namely second language learning and mathematics, embodied strategies offer the basis for better understanding and learning. Practice, the experience of the mind and body through action are an irreplaceable tool for understanding and learning school subjects.

Conclusion and discussion:
The comparison between the literature on the topic and the research evidence will give useful indications for designing educational interventions, methodological frameworks and tools for conscious learning, making teaching methods more effective, combining behavioral and neuroscientific research.

Keywords:

Embodied, situated learning, educational research, schools, neuroscientific perspective.