Embodied learning in the age of intelligent technology: dilemmas and solutions for children from the perspective of “Living Education” theory

In the context of digital technologies profoundly reshaping the educational landscape, children’s learning increasingly exhibits trends of disembodiment, decontextualization, and desocialization. This paper, grounded in Chen Heqin’s “Living Education” theory, systematically analyzes three key dilemmas facing embodied learning under technological intervention: the detachment from bodily experience, the weakening of social interaction, and the rupture of contextual learning environments. To address these challenges, the paper proposes a framework for reconstructing embodied learning: firstly, revitalizing bodily engagement by creating practical learning spaces through project-based learning, dynamic classrooms, and supportive technologies; secondly, reinforcing group collaboration by leveraging cooperative learning and real-world tasks to restore the educational function of collective life; thirdly, expanding lived contexts by rooting curricular content in children’s everyday experiences and designing open-ended tasks to reopen experiential pathways for knowledge construction. This study aims to integrate embodied learning theory with indigenous Chinese educational wisdom, promoting a contemporary articulation of “Living Education” in the digital age and offering practical implications for pedagogical reform and curriculum design in technology-mediated learning environments.