PhD candidates getting started with embodied learning: boxing as the bridge between head and body
In a well-lit room with big windows, ten young people stand in a circle. They are wearing sports clothes, black boxing gloves on their hands, their focus on the instructor in the centre of the circle. Entering this room, you wouldn’t think you were among ten PhD candidates. But you would be.
These ten young people have come together to follow a training course as part of their educational programme. Every PhD candidate at our university has to take 140 compulsory hours of what are known as transferable skills courses, intended to support their personal and professional development. As programme coordinator, Suzan Kommers, who herself has a PhD, aims to offer more training courses that focus on personal development through experiential and ‘embodied’ learning, in which she tries to get candidates out of their head and into their body.
Boxing as a learning tool
The term speaks for itself: embodied learning integrates physical experience in the learning process. ‘That’s how you learn. You can understand things with your head, but behaviour only changes at the point when something falls into place in your body,’ Suzan believes. In other words, look and listen less, and experience more.
There are different ways of doing that. Today’s session, ‘boxing for researchers’, is one of them. Instructor Raimond Hafkenscheid, who also has a PhD, aims to bridge the gap between the hard and soft skills. Boxing has all the characteristics that can facilitate that, says Raimond: ‘It’s just outside your comfort zone, so it demands all your attention; it’s super physical, and interactional, so you have to really pay attention to what the other person is doing.’ Not only that, it’s also great fun, according to the candidates taking part. ‘I have never done any boxing, but I think it’s really cool. I can really let everything out. And I’m not at all tired; in fact I seem to have more energy,’ one of them says.
‘Behaviour only changes at the point when something falls into place in your body.’
Balance between head and body
The physical aspect of the training really appeals, another participant explains. ‘It’s a completely different experience from when you follow a theoretical course. There, you can agree or disagree with what is said and have a discussion about it, but that’s as far as it goes. Here, you’re challenged to open up a discussion. It’s a complete break from your daily routine. More and more of these kinds of innovative training courses are being offered and I think that’s really positive.’
Although these courses are not yet common in the academic world, they have a lot to offer this particular target group. ‘PhD candidates excel in the cognitive. That’s what a PhD is about. But when you’re functioning on an emotional level, your mind often gets in the way,’ Raimond explains. In that case, experiential and embodied learning can be the answer. It gives you the opportunity to strike a balance between the mind and the body.
‘The more stories you hear, the more you realise that we’re all in the same boat.’
A sense of fellowship
Although PhD candidates can find themselves in a vulnerable position because of their dependent relationship with their supervisor, Raimond regards them as far from vulnerable: ‘These people are incredibly smart and they have a lot of good qualities. This morning they picked things up really quickly and had the courage to get to the heart of the matter. They learned to observe themselves and one another very closely and give open feedback.’
This is also due to the feeling of solidarity which, according to the PhD candidates, developed very quickly: ‘We connected with one another, in spite of our different backgrounds. The more stories you hear, the more you realise that we’re all in the same boat. It creates a sense of fellowship.’
A glimpse into the future
After this training course, Suzan and Raimond hope the candidates who took part will not only be aware of their potential and dare to voice their criticisms, but also that they have experienced how the head and body can truly reinforce one another so that thinking, feeling and acting become more closely connected.
Suzan hopes that a broader movement will emerge involving all university staff: ‘There are undoubtedly people who also question why we do so much with our heads while real change actually begins in the body. I hope those people will get in touch and that we can work on that together.’
Text and photos: Jitske Verhagen