International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME)

Proceedings of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education · Volume 1

Embodied Instructional Interventions for the Emergence of Formal Geometry Reasoning

Nadav Marco, Alik Palatnik

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

49th Annual Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, PME 2026Helsinki27 July 2026 - 1 August 2026pp. 987–994ISSN 2790-36482026Scopus conference code 336559
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Abstract

This design-based research (DBR) tests the self–friend–skeptic framework as embodied moves for the teacher to shift spatial-geometry reasoning from measurement to proof. In five teaching experiments (TE) with 16 non-STEM education undergraduates, an instructor-guided body-sized-cube activity was iteratively refined. Naming a ‘skeptic’ often failed, whereas justifying to an absent friend without a cube reliably prompted general, non-demonstrative warrants. Progressively constraining affordances recruited an inner skeptic and semiotic resources. We propose a classroom-ready principle: escalate audiences-of-conviction framing while withholding manipulatives.

Keywords

Embodimentteaching spatial geometrymathematics educationreasoningdesign-based research

Recommended citation

Marco, N., & Palatnik, A. (2026). Embodied Instructional Interventions for the Emergence of Formal Geometry Reasoning. In Krzywacki H., Hähkiöniemi M., Haataja E., Hannula M.S., Hästö P. (Eds.), Proceedings of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Volume 1 (pp. 987–994). Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME). ISSN 2790-3648.
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