The Mediation of Embodied Symbol on Combinatorial Thinking

This research investigated if the embodied symbol using a turtle metaphor in a microworld environment works as a cognitive tool to mediate the learning of combinatorics. It was found that students were able to not only count the number of cases systematically by using the embodied symbols in a situated problem regarding Permutation and Combination, but also find the rules and infer a concept of Combination through the activities manipulating the symbols. Therefore, we concluded that the embodied symbol, as a bridge that connects learners' concrete experiences with abstract mathematical concepts, can be applied to introduction of various mathematical concepts as well as a combinatorics concept.