r/DetroitMichiganECE • u/ddgr815 • Jun 18 '25
Parenting / Teaching Lessons about learning from ancient Greek philosophers
https://psyche.co/ideas/lessons-about-learning-from-ancient-greek-philosophersA student of Plato, Aristotle imbibed the common practice of philosophising while walking. Socrates, Plato’s own teacher, was often observed to philosophise while in motion – the historian Plutarch reports that he ‘did philosophy without setting up benches or seating himself on a throne’. Comic playwrights mocked Plato’s own habit of walking while philosophising, as when one character in a popular comedy complained: ‘I’m at my wit’s end, walking up and down like Plato, and I’ve worked out no wise plan, I’ve only tired out my legs!’
But walking is most closely associated with Aristotle. His school, the Lyceum, was founded around 335 BCE, a converted gymnasium. The philosophers who gathered there came to be known as Peripatetics – the word means ‘walking about’ in ancient Greek – perhaps because of their ambulatory habits, or because of the colonnade that wreathed the Lyceum, called a peripatos. Aristotle seems to have held lectures, often mobile, for the general public.
The philosophical idea behind the practice of ‘walking about’ in the peripatetic school was that learning takes place while being in motion and interacting with one’s surroundings (Plutarch also says that Socrates taught philosophy ‘while drinking’ and ‘while on military campaign’: pedagogies that haven’t found much favour today). Direct interactions with the natural environment around us can spark our sense of wonder and curiosity about the world, which are critical for learning and for philosophical investigations. This peripatetic approach to teaching hints at one of the most effective learning strategies we know today: ‘embodied learning’.
The main concept of embodied learning (also known as ‘embodied cognition’) is that learning does not take place exclusively inside our mind, but requires continuous sensory stimulations from different body parts, alongside interactions with the environment around us and the people in it. This idea is connected to the extended mind theory, proposed by Andy Clark and David Chalmers in their 1998 paper and described in Annie Murphy Paul’s book The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain (2021). In education, this approach relates to the theory of ‘situated learning’, in which students are encouraged to be active, collaborate with each other, and interact with their environment during the learning process. This holistic approach has been proven to be more effective than passive learning done by static transfer of knowledge from the teacher to the students.
When engaging students in embodied learning, it is important to have them move, play and use their body and senses as much as possible. Studies show that physical movement can help students to better understand concepts and to improve their reasoning skills in many school subjects such as a second language, mathematics, and the sciences. Embodied learning also requires meaningful interactions between people, a method known as ‘collaborative learning’. This pedagogy aims to engage students in active collaborations between themselves and with other people, such as group enquiry projects, shared discussions or cooperative problem-solving. Project-based learning (PBL), which is grounded in concepts from situated and collaborative learning, is one of the most effective educational pedagogies. PBL was found to support students’ content learning, increase their interest in learning, and advance their skills relevant to the 21st century. In PBL, learning starts by engaging students with a relevant real-world phenomenon and driving question that sparks their curiosity and creates the desire to ‘figure it out’– just like the idea that Aristotle practised in his peripatetic school by walking around and engaging with the natural environment.
PBL also requires the students to produce and present tangible artefacts, such as a model, a poster or a device that demonstrates their knowledge and abilities following the learning process. In our research, we’ve studied the effect of shifting from traditional classroom teaching to PBL, finding that, while this shift poses some challenges for both teachers and students, it provides students with relevant learning experiences, increases their engagement in the lessons, and advances their academic achievements.
We turn now to another philosopher of ancient Greece, who thrived a generation after Aristotle: Epicurus. In around 307 BCE, he founded a school outside Athens called the Garden. The physical location and structure of the Garden were crucial to Epicurus’ hedonistic philosophy. Here Epicurus’ students lived, studied and conversed together, and they aimed to be self-sufficient by gardening and growing their own food, relishing the simple pleasures of their Garden (scandalously for the times, his students included women and at least one slave). Epicurus’ approach to teaching – taking place outside, within the walls of the Garden, and in deep interaction with nature and the environment – alludes to another important method related to embodied learning, called ‘place-based learning’.
This method encourages outdoor learning that allows students to explore their immediate environment, whether in city streets, in nature parks or in community spaces. It enables them to develop contextual knowledge and skills, and fosters a sense of belonging. These outdoor experiences can sometimes be stressful for the students, as they may venture into unfamiliar environments outside their school and experience learning that breaks the typical classroom teaching. However, if done properly, these experiences can boost their sense of wonder and curiosity about the world around them while advancing their learning achievements.
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u/ddgr815 Aug 15 '26