Paper presented at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association (Special Interest Group: Learning Sciences), NYC, April 13-17.
We propose a complex-systems approach to educational research that subsumes and integrates enactivist and sociocultural perspectives on teaching–learning phenomena. An empirical study used dual-eye-tracking (DET) to supplement measures of a tutor–student dyad’s joint action with synchronous measures of their perceptual activity. Microgenetic analysis of pilot DET data from implementing a computer-based embodied design for parabolas reveals the emergence of coupling between the tutor and student’s respective perceptual-motor systems. Findings suggest the hitherto under-theorized participatory role of tutors’ perceptual activity in guiding students’ idiosyncratic sensorimotor engagement with cultural artifacts toward normative practice, thus enriching our understanding of enculturation. We offer implications for the conceptualization, ideation, design, implementation, and facilitation of educational technologies that surface, accommodate, and support the instructor’s perceptual activity.