Embodied Learning in Physical Education and Sport: Bridging Cognitive Science, Motor Abilities, and Professional Practice

Embodied cognition (the view that cognitive processes are fundamentally shaped by the body's sensory, motor, and perceptual interactions with the environment) has become one of the most influential theoretical orientations in the learning sciences. For example, in STEM education, integrative reviews have identified distinct theoretical traditions (grounded, enactive, ecological, extended), specified learning mechanisms (gesture-based representation, perceptual-spatial structuring, cognitive offloading, socially mediated interaction), and documented the boundary conditions under which these mechanisms operate. Function-based frameworks have further proposed that what matters for learning is not the degree of bodily engagement but the specific epistemic function that embodiment serves, such as grounding abstract concepts, structuring representations, reducing cognitive load, generating meaning, supporting transfer, and enabling social sensemaking.Yet physical education (PE) and sport science (disciplines inherently centered on bodily activity, motor skill acquisition, and movement-based learning) have developed largely independently of these theoretical advances. This separation represents a missed opportunity in both directions. On the one hand, PE and sport contexts offer uniquely rich settings for investigating embodied learning, as the body is simultaneously the medium and the object of instruction. On the other hand, structural realities well documented in PE research (including declining teaching time, inadequate facilities, curriculum-practice gaps, and the professional marginalization of PE teachers) fundamentally determine whether embodied learning principles can be realized in authentic school and sport settings.Research on motor abilities has demonstrated, for example, that diverse ball-handling skills share a general underlying ability structure that significantly predicts performance across tasks, raising questions about how general motor abilities relate to embodied cognition's claims about learning transfer and abstraction. Simultaneously, research on PE teacher professionalization has shown that institutional frame factors (constitutional, organizational, and material) substantially constrain instructional autonomy and innovation. These findings suggest that advancing embodied learning in sport and PE requires attending not only to cognitive and motor mechanisms but also to the professional and institutional conditions of practice.This Research Topic invites original empirical studies, reviews, conceptual analyses, and perspective articles that bridge embodied cognition theory, motor learning, and PE/sport professional practice. We welcome contributions addressing: • Theoretical integration: How can embodied cognition frameworks inform PE and sport learning, and how can PE/sport research refine or extend these frameworks? • Motor abilities, learning, and transfer: How do general versus specific motor ability structures relate to embodied learning and skill development? • Professional practice and institutional conditions: How do organizational, material, and curricular conditions enable or constrain embodied learning in PE and sport? • Technology-mediated embodiment: How can technologies (motion capture, AR/VR, sensor-based feedback, exergaming) serve specific embodied learning functions in sport and PE? • Boundary conditions: Under what conditions (learner age, expertise, task complexity, functional alignment between movement and learning goals) do embodied approaches enhance or impede learning? • Methodological innovation: What measurement approaches can better capture the embodied dimensions of learning in movement-based settings?By connecting cognitive science, motor ability research, and professional practice, this Research Topic aims to establish a more integrated, practice-relevant understanding of how bodily interaction contributes to learning in sport and physical education. Topic editors: Konstantin Kougioumtzis, Dr. Dilsad Ahmed, Manolis Adamakis, Zuzanna Mazur Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79433/embodied-learning-in-physical-education-and-sport-bridging-cognitive-science-motor-abilities-and-professional-practice