Roots
Why the body is central to learning. Sixty articles in five strands.
3 of 60 published
Newest
Before birth: what the body begins to learn in the womb
Learning begins in the body, moves through emotion, and settles in thought.
A child meets the world first through movement, touch and posture. What that contact feels like decides what gets noticed, and only then does any of it become a concept.
I research how bodies learn, advise schools and universities on curriculum, and train teachers to work with what a learner's body is already doing.
Assistant Professor · Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bengaluru
What's new
Workshop · 1 November 2026
Using AI in Your Research Without Risking Your Career
A three-hour, hands-on online workshop for researchers in the humanities and social sciences, with AIRnD Lab. Sunday 1 November 2026, 10:00 AM…
Reserve a seat
The book
Education for the Embodied Human
A Contemporary Understanding of Human Nature for Holistic Education
Every education system rests on an answer to one question, usually unasked: what is a human being? The book examines how those buried assumptions shape our educational concepts, and builds an evidence-based account of human nature in their place, drawing on embodied cognition.
It reads Freire, Dewey and Krishnamurti to show that each one's educational thought follows from a view of human nature, and argues that the view most schools still run on has been overtaken by the evidence. The final chapters set out the outer and inner curriculum as the practical consequence.
Brill · 2025Global Education in the 21st Century, Vol. 14Scopus indexed
Where to begin
Who are you here as?
School leaders
See what your school assumes about bodies
Your timetable, rooms and assessment already carry a theory of the child. An embodied curriculum audit makes it visible, then changes it without dismantling the school.
For schools
Teacher educators and universities
Theory teachers can defend
Faculty development, AI in research workshops, and curriculum review for B.Ed, ITEP and education departments.
For teacher education
Parents Coming soon
The first two years, when the body does the learning
Guidance for parents of babies and toddlers is on its way. Join the list to hear first.
For parents
Researchers
Exacting guidance, not encouragement
Doctoral guidance in philosophy and education, publication strategy and qualitative methods.
For researchers
A series
The Body Curriculum.
Why the body is where learning begins. Two series of articles, in English and Hindi, built one piece at a time.
Practices
How a teacher works with the body, moment by moment through the school day.
2 of 60 published
Newest
Three breaths before beginning
Try this
Your hands know first.
Two rounds, under a minute. Decide by looking, then decide by touching, and compare.
Three more experimentsRound one of two
Can the shape be turned to fill the socket? Decide by looking. Don't touch it.
The shape
The socket
For schools
What does your classroom assume?
Six questions about an ordinary day. Answer for the classroom as it is, not as the policy says it should be. Nothing is stored.
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Is a still child usually taken to be an attending child?
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Do children move during lessons, not only between them?
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Do children handle objects while learning number and language?
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Can children use fingers, notes or tools during assessment?
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Does the day begin by settling bodies before content begins?
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Do teachers get time to observe children, not only to deliver?
For parents
What your baby's body is learning.
In the first two years, almost all learning happens through movement, touch and voice. Slide to your baby's age.
0 to 3 months
- Moving
- The head lifts, a little higher each week, mostly during time on the tummy.
- Hands and touch
- Hands open and close and find the mouth. Your skin is the first map.
- Voice
- Coos, and long looks at your face while you talk.
Try todayLie back and put your baby on your chest, face to face, for a few minutes.
3 to 6 months
- Moving
- Rolling, pushing up on the arms, kicking hard at the air.
- Hands and touch
- Reaching for things and pulling them to the mouth. The mouth is how a baby checks.
- Voice
- Laughs, squeals, and sounds that answer yours.
Try todayHold a toy just within reach and wait. Let your baby do the last bit of reaching.
6 to 9 months
- Moving
- Sitting, first with a hand down for balance, then without.
- Hands and touch
- Passing things from hand to hand. Banging. Dropping, then watching it fall.
- Voice
- Babbling in strings, ba-ba, da-da.
Try todayGive two steel spoons and a bowl. Let the noise happen.
9 to 12 months
- Moving
- Crawling, pulling up on furniture, stepping sideways along the sofa.
- Hands and touch
- Thumb and finger pick up small things. Pointing begins.
- Voice
- Understands far more than they can say. First words may come.
Try todayName what your baby points at, then wait for them to look back at you.
12 to 18 months
- Moving
- First steps, wide and wobbly, with many falls.
- Hands and touch
- Stacking two or three blocks, scribbling, turning thick pages.
- Voice
- Single words, and copying what you do around the house.
Try todayLet them carry something real, a small cloth or a light bag, from one room to another.
18 to 24 months
- Moving
- Running, climbing, squatting down to look closely.
- Hands and touch
- Feeding themselves with a spoon, more or less.
- Voice
- Words arrive quickly now, then two words together. Pretend play begins.
Try todayPretend together. A cup of tea that isn't there is serious work.
Every baby moves on their own timetable, and these ranges are wide on purpose. If something worries you, your paediatrician is the right person to ask.
Recent work
Writing and talks.
Lectures
- Panellist: international launch of Bodies of Learning, by Guy Claxton and Emily Poel Sep 2026 · Online
- Bordering survival: gender, care and unequal futures in contemporary Asia July 2026 · Seoul, South Korea
Publications
- Embodied learning and NEP 2020: a theoretical and practical framework for ECCE in India Book chapter · 2026
- Ensuring cultural sustainability and rural development through the concept of Chiti in Integral Humanism Book chapter · 2026