Embodied Design versus Dynamic Visualization: Benefits for a Far Transfer Problem Solving in Trigonometry

The development of digital technologies enables visualizations of many scientific relations. In this paper, we question the efficiency of the visualizing tools from a theoretical perspective that combines cultural-historical and radical embodied approaches. Dynamic visualizations expose the target relations in a ready-made form, while embodied action-based design provides students with an opportunity to reinvent the target relations in their sensory-motor coordinations. In a multiple-case study, we compare these design genres for learning trigonometric relations. While dynamic visualizations were more efficient in simple tasks, embodied action-based design enhanced students' reasoning in a far transfer task.