Source: "Gesturing Gives Children New Ideas About Math"
"How does gesturing help children learn? ... Gesturing may not only identify children as ready to learn, ... it may actually help them learn" (Goldin-Meadow et al, 267)
This statement seems to be meant to point to the fact that gesturing helps students learn, but the beginning part is actually what caught my attention. The fact that gesturing identifies which children are ready to learn made me stop and think. How easy would it be to teach, if we knew that every single student was engaged because they were participating in the gestures that were required in the moment?!
Goldin-Meadown, Cook, and Mitchell bravely took on the task to push the question from "Does gesturing help students learn?" to "How does gesturing help students to learn?" Setting up a study, they used children who used no gestures, children who used incorrect gestures, and children who used correct gestures to judge the effectiveness of gestures in remembering and creating meaning in mathematics.
At the end of the study, they found that most students who were taught some sort of (correct) gesture along with the words/rules they were learning were more likely gain knowledge than other students.
I had a few "stop" moments throughout the article, the most important being that gestures engage the entire body in learning. Thinking, for a moment, about elementary school, it is best practice that teachers engage their young learners in movement breaks, body learning, and exercises that keep students focused and attentive. Somewhere along the way, we lose that. By the time students reach high school -- even middle school -- we have an unrealistic expectation that they be able to sit, learn, and regurgitate knowledge as we demand it.
Throughout all of the readings, activities, and material, I've been struck by the wondering of why we do this? Why do we require students to stop enthusiastically engaging? Why must their learning look static? Why do we expect that they learn the way we (may or may not) do? How do we use body movements in middle school and high school classes as learning tools?
How easy would it be to teach, if we knew that every single student was engaged because they were participating in the gestures that were required in the moment?!
ReplyDeleteThis comment was a stop for me when I was reading your post, like a big rock in my path that I had to get around (as described by Applebaum, 1995). I have always been big on student engagement. My thinking was, how can they learn if they are not engaged. I recently read somewhere (I cannot find the reference but if I do, I will include it) that questioned how engagement correlates with learning. Just because students are engaged, does it mean they are learning? I still believe there is a positive correlation with engagement and learning, but I consider this in a more critical way then I have in the past. I also agree that it would be easier to teach if every student were engaged but teaching is such a complex undertaking that I’m not sure it is ever ‘easy to teach’ and I’m not sure every single student is always engaged for extended periods of time. I wonder what your thoughts are on this.
I am also mulling over the idea of correct versus incorrect gestures. Having only skimmed the article, I wonder if a correct gesture is one that is agreed upon in that setting, or if there is a universally correct gesture, or maybe the ‘correct’ gesture is the gesture that is taught and if so who determines the gesture – teacher, students, curriculum supports? It seems to me that a meaningful gesture – one that communicates something to or for the student, is more important than a correct gesture. I think the distinction of the words (naming) matters for clarity.
I agree with the idea that engaging the entire body in learning is beneficial to learners, although not practical in all settings or all the time. A question I wonder is how much gesturing is beneficial? When does it become detrimental or distracting or just another thing to do/learn, rather than supporting the learning?
I do not have much experience with middle school or high school learners, but I wonder how accepting students would be of increased gesturing in the mathematics classroom. It is probably similar to young students in that it depends on many factors, including how it is introduced and expectations etc. Would students roll their eyes and resist or would they have fun and embrace the experience. It likely depends also on the individual students. But I believe it is a shift that educators could begin to make, slowly, here and there. It would be interesting to see the difference in gesturing and movement activities related to mathematics across a variety of cultures.
Thanks for sharing your thinking about the article.
Reading the title of the Research Report, Gesturing Gives Children New Ideas About Math, I thought it was about using gestures to explain something, like the shape of a graph or a pattern. Or something like the article by the Stanford group (Development and Research in Early Math Education) https://dreme.stanford.edu/news/math-your-fingertips-easy-counting-activities-using-number-gestures .
ReplyDeleteBut in this article, they are talking about hand gestures for grouping numbers. I wonder if it would have been better for comparison if the experimental design included the use of a marker to draw arcs or circles around the numbers for grouping purposes.
Fiona, as you pointed out, the authors ask “How does gesturing help children learn?” Since the result is analyzed statistically, I am not sure if they have answered that question.
The question, “Why do people gesture when they talk?”, might be too complicated to answer. One visitor to India explains the various head wobbles could mean yes, no, maybe, or a show of respect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoJ4Bvsq7gQ So gestures when people talk could be a cultural thing.
The questions that Joy asks “how much gesturing is beneficial? When does it become detrimental or distracting or just another thing to do/learn, rather than supporting the learning?” are important to consider. I think making gestures to enhance communication or understanding should be encouraged. But I am not sure whether requiring to make or not to make gestures as part of solving a math problem is a good idea.
Thanks Fiona and group for an interesting discussion! Fiona, I appreciate your statement about the courage it took for the authors of your article to push their research question to the "how" question. That is a lot more difficult to answer, but it's what we need to learn as teachers! Zaman, thanks for your links to further readings like the Stanford early learning/ finger counting piece and the one about the cultural/ linguistic relativity of iconic gestures. There's some great work on gesture by David McNeill of the University of Chicago that you might want to read if this interests you as part of your own inquiry https://mcneilllab.uchicago.edu/writing/publications.html
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