Together with Dr.s Rachel Chen and Christina Krause, I started the Special Education Embodied Design (SpEED) initiative in 2020. The goals of this interdisciplinary research initiative are to
1) develop guiding principles for an embodied approach to accessibility and instructional equity; and
2) inform models of embodied cognition through study of learners with disabilities.
Since 2020, SpEED has expanded to include researchers with learners on the autism spectrum, blind and visually impaired learners, Deaf learners, learners with learning disabilities, and learners with complex communication needs, in dialogue with education practitioners and researchers in Europe, Asia, and North America.
Read about SpEED
Tancredi, S., Chen, R. S. Y., Krause, C., Abrahamson, D., & Gomez Paloma, F. (2021). Getting up to SpEED: Special Education Embodied Design for Sensorially Equitable Inclusion. Education Sciences & Society – Open Access, 12(1), 114–136. https://doi.org/10.3280/ess1-2021oa11818
Tancredi, S., Chen, R. S. Y., Krause, C. M., & Siu, Y.–T. (2022). The need for SpEED: Reimagining accessibility through Special Education Embodied Design. In S. L. Macrine & J. M. B. Fugate (Eds.), Movement matters: How embodied cognition informs teaching and learning (pp. 197–216). M.I.T. Press.
Presentation Excerpt
The following is an excerpt from the introduction to a panel titled “SpEEDing towards equitable instruction: Special Education Embodied Design for sensory diversity” that I organized with Rachel S.Y. Chen and Christina Krause in May 2021 at the Uncommon Senses III virtual conference hosted by Concordia University in Montréal:
SpEED Projects
To read more about some of my research projects and collaborations within the SpEED framework, check out Balance Board Math and TeleTangibles.
SpEED Presentations and Workshops
Krause, C. (Chair) & Tancredi, S. (Discussant) (2024, September 4th). The way it makes me feel – embodied educational designs for grounding conceptual learning and interaction. Symposium presented for the Future Education Conference, Graz, Austria.
Tancredi, S. & Vickery, M. (upcoming in June 2024). Learning for every body: Intersectional dimensions of embodied learning. International Society for the Learning Sciences (ISLS), Buffalo, NY. [Symposium]
Lambert, S. G., Tancredi, S., Fiedler, B. L., Gorlewicz, J. L., Abrahamson, D. (2022, April). Building the Quad: A tangible manipulative for inclusive geometry learning. In F. C. Peluso (Chair),The 2nd International Conference on Research on Educational Neuroscience: School, Sports, & Society (REN). Rome, Italy, April 1.
Krause, C. M., Chen, R. S. Y., Tancredi, S., Cooper, B., Foley, E., Anton, J., Kim, J., & Abrahamson, D. (2021, October). Catching up with SpEED: Applying a framework for inclusive equitable learning opportunities through Special Education Embodied Design. Invited workshop, Unimc for Inclusion Settimana dell’inclusione (Inclusion Week), University of Macerata, Italy, October 25, 2021.
Krause, C. M., Chen, R. S. Y., Tancredi, S., Cooper, B., Foley, E., Anton, J., Kim, J., & Abrahamson, D. (2021, October). Catching up with SpEED: Applying a framework for inclusive equitable learning opportunities through Special Education Embodied Design. Invited colloquium talk, Graduate Group in Science and Mathematics Education (SESAME) Colloquium, University of California Berkeley, California, United States, October 21, 2021.
Krause, C.M., Tancredi, S., Chen, R. S. Y. (2021, July). Time for SpEED: Ansätze für inklusiv-gleichberechtigte Lerngelegenheiten durch Special Education Embodied Design [Time for SpEED: Reimagining equitable learning opportunities through Special Education Embodied Design]. Invited colloquium presentation, Thursday colloquium of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Educational Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.
Tancredi, S., Chen, R., Krause, C. The Need for SpEED: Special Education Embodied Design. Presentation at the Graduate Group in Science and Mathematics Education (SESAME) Colloquium, University of California Berkeley, November 13, 2020.
Tancredi, S., Chen, R. S. Y., Krause, C., & Abrahamson, D. (2021, March). Getting up to SpEED: Special education embodied design for sensorially equitable inclusion. Invited keynote in F. Gomez Paloma (Convener), Inclusion Week. University of Macerata, Italy, March 16, 2021.
Tancredi, S., Chen, R., & Krause, C. The need for SpEED: Special Education Embodied Design. Presentation and panel presented at UC-SpEDDR, UCLA, February 2, 2020.
Chen, R. & Tancredi, S. Centering disability and neurodiversity in embodied design. Presentation at the EMIC Synthesis and Design Workshop: The Future of Embodied Design for Mathematical Imagination and Cognition, University of Wisconsin, Madison, May, 2019.
Tancredi, S. Embodied cognition and educational design. Guest lecture for Introduction to Cognitive Science, University of California, Berkeley, April, 2019.
Tancredi, S. Sensory regulation and embodied design. Presentation at AccessCyberlearning Capacity Building Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, January, 2019.
Sofia Tancredi 