integrating somatic learning into everyday life

Integrating Somatic Learning into Everyday LifeAuthor(s): Charlotte BeaudoinSource: Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l'éducation, Vol. 24, No. 1(Winter, 1999), pp. 76-80Published by: Canadian Society for the Study of EducationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1585773 .

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Integrating Somatic Learning into Everyday Life

Charlotte Beaudoin university of ottawa

People who take courses or workshops in body-centred approaches in somatic education often seek "wellness" or relief from discomfort. Somatic education approaches like the Feldenkrais and Alexander techniques and Eutonia help individuals to develop greater awareness of their body in movement. Each method uses different movement sequences and different approaches to explore movement, but all aim to increase body awareness in order to allow individuals "to act with efficiency, pleasure, increased expression and less pain" (Regroupement pour l'6ducation somatique, 1997).

To date, very little research has been done on the integration of somatic learning into everyday life. In this research note I report how proponents of somatic education transfer their learning to the context of everyday life. Various researchers (D'Hainaut, 1985; Mongrain & Besanqon, 1995; Royer, 1979) have identified different types of transfer. For example, D'Hainaut (1985) offers this definition:

Integral transfer [is] carrying out the learned activity in all circumstances in which it is appropriate. This transfer is expressed in free activities, occupational activities in which the individual plays an important role, or in activities related to solving life problems. (p. 286)

I formulated two research questions: (a) In what areas of daily life do follow- ers of somatic education use their learning to improve their efficiency and quality of life? and (b) What degree of integration do they achieve? To answer these questions, I chose the Experiential Taxonomy of Education (C6t6, 1991; Stein- aker & Bell, 1979), because it has been used extensively for reliable description of learning experiences (C68t, 1998; C68t, Khanh-Thanh, & Lavoie, 1990). I also chose the Taxonomy of the Affective Domain (Krathwohl, Bloom, & Masia, 1964) to classify the affective reactions.

METHOD

Six people participated in this study, five women and one man. They ranged in age from 21 to 47 years (an average of 36 years) and had an average of six years' experience with body-centred approaches including the Eutonia method, the Alexander and Feldenkrais techniques, yoga, and Somarythm.

76 CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 24, 1 (1999): 76-80



RESEARCH NOTES / NOTES DE RECHERCHE 77

During interviews, I asked participants to describe the life circumstances in which they used somatic learning, paying particular attention to how they trans- ferred this learning to their daily lives. Over six months, I conducted 39 interviews, each lasting 90 minutes; on average, each person was interviewed six times. Participants told from 1 to 3 stories in each interview, providing a total of 70 integration stories.

RESULTS

Use of Techniques

The results showed that participants used their somatic learning techniques when they were experiencing discomfort in any of a wide range of activities. Of the 70 stories, 23 involved the participants dealing with a specific discomfort (e.g, back pain, migraine). Nineteen stories described participation in recreational activities. Eleven stories involved self-care activities (e.g., taking a bath, doing relaxation exercises). In 7 stories the participants used somatic techniques at their workplace; in 7 other stories they used them during housework. The last 3 stories involved observation of another person moving.

I was surprised to find that participants chose to use somatic techniques mainly when they were suffering from emotional discomfort (fear, anger, or distress). Of the 70 stories, 59 directly involve discomfort, 42 of these involving "emotional" discomfort. For example, one female participant explained how she used Eutonia exercises when she experienced discomfort in crowds.

Six somatic learning elements were most helpful to individuals: (1) doing some movement, (2) modifying body posture, (3) coming back to body sensa- tions, (4) being attentive to what was happening, (5) letting themselves go along with what was happening or what they were feeling, and (6) developing a quality of "presence."

Most participants mentioned that after using these somatic learning elements, they experienced such beneficial outcomes as (1) feeling happy, (2) having a new attitude, (3) enjoying life's pleasures, (4) having a new way to look at life's difficulties, (5) welcoming life's events differently, (6) feeling changes, (7) feeling the reduction of tension or stress, and (8) noticing an overall feeling of wellness. Referring back to the previous example, Eutonia exercises allowed this woman to see her problem differently, to feel a reduction of the tension created by the crowd and to be able to stay in that environment.

Level of Integration Attained

I used the Experiential Taxonomy of Education to identify the processes participants used to integrate somatic learning into their everyday life and to classify the integration level they attained.



78 RESEARCH NOTES / NOTES DE RECHERCHE

The first stage, exposure to learning, is characterized by the learner coming into contact with a learning opportunity and being receptive to this opportunity. I heard only three stories that stayed at this level, probably because I selected participants who had prior experiences with somatic learning and who were therefore unlikely to be at this first level. An example of a story which stayed at this level was that of a woman who knew how the Feldenkrais technique could help her to lose weight, but she never tried it. She was open to this learning opportunity, but she stayed at the level of exposure.

During the second stage, participation, learners explore the object of learning. Seventeen stories were classified at this level. When participants explored somatic learning in an everyday situation, they adopted two types of behaviours: (1) reproducing the action model (e.g., performing the Eutonia exercises at home by reproducing the sequences of movements learned) and (2) adapting the action model (e.g., applying the Eutonia principles to change their sitting position at a computer workstation). According to the Affective Taxonomy, students at this level are in a state of willingness to act. Krathwohl et al. (1964) explain that during exploration, people who feel doubt about their original goal will revise their state of openness to include the possibility of using the learning. In this case, exploration will likely be limited to the second level. However, if they experience personal satisfaction, they may pursue further exploration. For example, one woman told me that when the pain in her back is "light," she is willing to try some Eutonia exercises, but when the pain gets "stronger," she doubts the exercises could help her and she goes directly to the chiropractor.

Forty-four stories were classified at the identification stage, in which individuals appropriate somatic learning (it becomes their learning, they identify with it). At this stage individuals then establish guidelines they will follow to attain their initial goal. On the affective level, they prefer to act the way their somatic learning has allowed them to act rather than to choose another possibility. For example, one person developed a new strategy to alleviate her migraines. When she felt a migraine coming, she immediately stopped her daily activity to check for potential stressors in the environment around her. She would then concentrate on her breathing to reduce any stress she may have felt and would do movements with her neck and shoulders. This strategy did not always work, but the most important thing for her was that she had learned to see her problem differently and so had a different attitude when the migraines returned.

Five stories reached the internalization stage, the highest level present in the interview data. At this stage, individuals generalize the course of action sug- gested by their somatic learning on the basis of experience. On the affective level, they seek increased opportunities to benefit from the learning and are con- stantly on the alert; this is what Krathwohl et al. (1964) call "the personal commitment." In those five stories, participants explained how they used their somatic techniques in all circumstances of everyday life.



RESEARCH NOTES / NOTES DE RECHERCHE 79

The fifth level, dissemination, was not observed in the stories, probably because participants were asked to tell how they used the learning themselves. At the fifth level, people would tell others how their learning experiences had affected their way of being and living.

New Guidelines for Practitioners

Integrating somatic learning into everyday life is a long process that involves a willingness to try different types of actions. According to the Experiential Taxonomy of Education, participants who reached higher levels of integration transformed the original somatic learning into their ways of doing things and developed a different attitude toward themselves and their everyday problems.

The value of this taxonomy in understanding these processes led me to develop a complementary intervention strategy for practitioners of somatic methods who wish to include a new pedagogical approach in their professional frame- work. The complementary intervention approach takes the form of a personalized follow-up based on the information provided by the stages of development in the taxonomy. This frame of reference then becomes a tool that allows practitioners to help proponents resolve problems in their everyday lives, by situating them in their integration process and by jointly developing a strategy for action that they can test in the context of their everyday lives. Elaboration of this strategy can be found in Beaudoin (1997) and Brunelle and Beaudoin (1996).

REFERENCES

Beaudoin, C. (1997). Le pheInomene d'integration des apprentissages somatiques dans la vie quotidienne de l'apprenant. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Universite Laval, Quebec.

Brunelle, J., & Beaudoin, C. (1996, October). Suggestion d'une taxonomie et d'une de1marche d'intervention complementaire pour aider I 'adepte a' atteindre le plus haut niveau d'integration possible de ses apprentissages en sophrologie pour aborder les probli mes de la vie quotidienne. Paper presented at the Colloque sur l'Intervention educative organized by the Association des profes- sionnels/les en sophrologie du Quebec, Quebec City.

C6te, R. L. (1991). Processus experientiel de changement et d'apprentissage: principes d'apprentissage, processus de changement et interventions pidagogiques facilitantes. Unpublished manu-

script, Universit6 Laval, Quebec.

C6te, R. L. (1998). Psychologie de l'apprentissage et enseignement. (2nd ed.) Boucherville: Gactan Morin 6diteur.

C6te, R. L., Khanh-Thanh, T., & Lavoie, M. (1990). Validation d'un module expdrientiel d'education:

application au primaire et au secondaire. In Contenus et impacts de la recherche universitaire actuelle en sciences de l'Vducation (Vol. 3, pp. 897-907). Sherbrooke: Universit6 de Sherbrooke, Editions des Cahiers de la Recherche en Education.

D'Hainaut, L. (1985). Des fins aux objectify de l'education. Paris: Editions Fernand Nathan.

Krathwohl, D. R., Bloom, B. S., & Masia, B. B. (1964). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The

classification of educational goals. Handbook 2: Affective domnain. New York: David McKay Company.



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Mongrain, P., & Besangon, J. (1995). lItude du transfert des apprentissages pour les programmes de formation professionnelle. Revue des sciences de l'Vducation, 21, 263-288.

Regroupement pour I'education somatique. (1997, April). Par delki les apparences: nos differences. Brochure presented to the Forum 1997 du Regroupement pour l'6ducation somatique, Montreal.

Royer, J. M. (1979). Theories of the transfer of learning. Educational Psychologist, 14, 53-69.

Steinaker, N. W., & Bell, M. R. (1979). The Experiential Taxonomy: A new approach to teaching and learning. New York: Academic Press.

Charlotte Beaudoin is a professor in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa, 125 University Street, P.O. Box 450, Station A, Ottawa, Ontario, KIN 6N5.



integrating somatic learning into everyday life

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