**2. Theoretical perspectives: General principles**

**1. Introduction**

opment in new ways.

acts) in a virtual (mind) space [7].

(see, e.g. handwriting recognition systems).

Digital learning games have become a reference point in the educational field, in terms of positive effect of their use on learning and motivation [1,2]. However, why they are used in education is an interesting issue to be investigated from a broad perspective including, on one hand, the psychological processes underlying learning and, on the other, the potential new technologies offer. In this chapter, we will try to describe both mentioned perspectives and to

Since their birth and maybe even before, children start learning about the world around them. Day by day they can count on wider sensorimotor functions that open their cognitive devel‐

In the period of their life that goes from few months to 3–4 years, the hands are fundamental in conveying knowledge. A child points something and he/she handles, touches, tastes and

These everyday observations eminently reflect in psychologists' perspectives; consider, for example, Piaget [3], Papert [4] and Bruner [5] who recognise a fundamental role to manipu‐ lative activities for psychological development and cognitive representations at birth. Also Vygotsky [6], the other giant father of cognitive development theory, believed that interaction with the environment was an important way a child could learn, not the only one indeed. In his opinion, cognitive development relies on input from other people as well, thus underlying

Of course, learning in adults is not limited to pointing, reaching, touching and manipulating as, along human cognitive development and thanks to learning processes, the 'concrete' manipulative acts are gradually interiorised and become part of our neurocognitive structures. They are not actually performed as they are but they become 'simulated' actions (symbolic

In spite of this interiorisation, the use of hands (or more in general, the body) together with the related cognitive representation of physical space is a latent and essential psychological resource for learning and developmental processes. They can emerge when the context and the environmental conditions allow humans to use hands and their representation. It is a sort of bias that is, probably, the main reason why we think about Internet as a geometrical (virtual) space or why the (computer) 'mouse' and the 'touch screens' are immediately intuitive. Adopting this view, the mouse extends 'pointing' and 'reaching' actions in a computer screen graphic space, and the current 'touch-screen' technology allows us to manipulate digital virtual objects. Recently, new technologies are candidates to enhance our attitude to learn by manipulating. If we equip common objects with sensors and connect them in wireless mode with a remote computer, we build something similar to what is called Internet of Things [8] that permits an easy interaction with (smart) objects through new interfaces (glasses, gloves, visors, etc.) or by traditional manipulation coupled with (sophisticated) computer programs

illustrate how they may concretely interact through two project descriptions.

62 E-Learning - Instructional Design, Organizational Strategy and Management

manipulates while understanding an object's features and functions.

the importance of the historical and cultural context children live in.

Learning can be defined as an enduring and stable change in the individual potential behav‐ iour, as a result of practice or experience (Fig. 1). Learning occurs throughout life for animals, and learned behaviour represents a large proportion of all behaviours in higher animals, especially humans. In humans, learning is strictly connected to development in cognitive, emotional and social sphere, and it implies the human skill of giving sense, coherence and meaning to experience too. The complexity of this process is evident for the reader when he/she thinks that everyone is constantly subject to a huge amount of information coming from the context the individual is immersed in. This information can potentially become learning materials, but actually most of them disappear in an individual's mental life, whereas some others are recorded in memory.

From a psychological perspective, there are three key-points of learning process (consider the definition at the beginning of this paragraph): 1) observed change in the individual's behav‐ iour, 2) change resulting from experience and 3) 'potential' behavioural change that does not have to be actual.

Furthermore, Gagné [9] emphasises that learning is a change, observable in behaviour, that can affect attitudes or human ability, which can be stored and which cannot be simply attributed to growth.

**Figure 1.** What is learning?

In a more practical view, learning 'programming is not seen simply as a technological development incorporating previously established learning principles, but rather as one particular form of the ordering of stimulus and response events designed to bring about productive learning.... (If) one wants to investigate the effects of an experimental treatment on the behaviour of individuals or groups who start from the same point, he would be well advised to measure and map out for each individual the learning sets relevant to the experi‐ mental task' [10].

Even if the practical aspect of the teaching/learning process depends on the specific didactic topics, it is possible to underline various common steps that Gagné and Briggs [11] have focused on in order to describe the learning process events. The author has broken down the process into an elementary task sequence or behavioural objectives that were presented to the learner who was given immediate feedback on his/her responses (Fig. 2).

How to accomplish these steps and how to promote and stimulate learning are relevant issues that have been variously interpreted in psychological literature. Here we report three ap‐ proaches that provide interpretative frameworks and operational guidelines that are signifi‐ cant in educational psychology and pedagogy too: behaviourist, cognitive and embodied cognition approaches. These three approaches can be seen as points along a continuum, with continuity and discontinuity elements, leading to embodied cognition notions that represent the starting point of Block Magic project rationale referred to in this chapter.

Theoretical Perspectives of Hands-On Educational Practices — From a Review of Psychological Theories to… http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/60922 65

**Figure 2.** Basic principles of learning process
