Gestures can help children learn mathematics: how researchers can work with teachers to make gesture studies applicable to classrooms

The gestures we produce serve a variety of functions-they affect our communication, guide our attention and help us think and change the way we think. Gestures can consequently also help us learn, generalize what we learn and retain that knowledge over time. The effects of gesture-based instruction...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological sciences 2024-10, Vol.379 (1911), p.20230156
Main Authors: Seccia, Amanda, Goldin-Meadow, Susan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Child
Cognition
Gestures
Humans
Learning
Mathematics - education
Review
School Teachers - psychology
Schools
Teaching
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Summary:The gestures we produce serve a variety of functions-they affect our communication, guide our attention and help us think and change the way we think. Gestures can consequently also help us learn, generalize what we learn and retain that knowledge over time. The effects of gesture-based instruction in mathematics have been well studied. However, few of these studies are directly applicable to classroom environments. Here, we review literature that highlights the benefits of producing and observing gestures when teaching and learning mathematics, and we provide suggestions for designing research studies with an eye towards how gestures can feasibly be applied to classroom learning. This article is part of the theme issue 'Minds in movement: embodied cognition in the age of artificial intelligence'.
ISSN:0962-8436
1471-2970
1471-2970
DOI:10.1098/rstb.2023.0156