Students, today and in the past, have always felt that certain teachers were better than others. Some because the teacher had easier tests, others because they felt like they understood the information presented better when one teacher did it over the other. Easier tests do not need an explanation from science, but comparing teachers teaching styles might. Recently, National Geographic News reported about a study published in Child Development about how students learn math more efficiently when hand gestures were used.
Kimberly Fenn of Michigan State University and Susan Wagner Cook of the University of Iowa did a similar experiment to Dr. Wakefield where they tested students abilities to solve a math problem. Half of the students watched a video in which hand gestures were used to teach the problem while the other half only had a verbal explanation. A test given moments after and twenty four hours after revealed that students who were taught using the hand gestures did better on both tests. They stated that the gestures help students understand the structure of the math problem and that the brain is stimulated when a student watches the gestures activating different parts that will be used when the problem is being solved.
Hand gesture learning has been studied by Dr.Wakefield at Loyola University Chicago. Her experiment was similar to the one in the National Geographic article. Wakefield focused on grouping certain numbers together using hand gestures to teach a problem while her control was the same as the other experiment where only verbal directions were given. Instead of measuring results by how well they performed on the test, she measured the eye movements of the students and saw they mostly focused when they only heard verbal instructions versus the gestures. Both studies show the benefits of teaching math with gestures. Students retain the information better and focus more on the problem in front of them instead of the teacher speaking. These results suggest that students retain information better when teachers use hand movements to highlight specific elements of the problem.
Furthermore, these results are supported by a study conducted by Seokmin Kang and Barbara Tversky that found using gestures help highlight the key points of a lesson which improve comprehension and learning. They suggest that gestures create a map that connect these key points which helps a student understand a lesson more accurately and retains it better. They explain that constant gestures connect important ideas to create a more complete understanding of a topic.
All findings suggest that the way to help improve education, especially in math, is to include specific and intentional hand gestures to help students learn different problem solving skills and connect ideas. So next time you think one teacher teaches a subject better, see if they use intentional hand gestures to get the information across.
Kang, Seokmin, and Barbara Tversky. “From Hands to Minds: Gestures Promote Understanding.” Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, Springer International Publishing, 2016, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5256437/.
Poon, Linda. “Hand Gestures May Boost Students' Math Learning.” National Geographic, 30 Apr. 2015, www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/4/hand-gestures-may-boost-students--math-learning/.
Kimberly Fenn of Michigan State University and Susan Wagner Cook of the University of Iowa did a similar experiment to Dr. Wakefield where they tested students abilities to solve a math problem. Half of the students watched a video in which hand gestures were used to teach the problem while the other half only had a verbal explanation. A test given moments after and twenty four hours after revealed that students who were taught using the hand gestures did better on both tests. They stated that the gestures help students understand the structure of the math problem and that the brain is stimulated when a student watches the gestures activating different parts that will be used when the problem is being solved.
Hand gesture learning has been studied by Dr.Wakefield at Loyola University Chicago. Her experiment was similar to the one in the National Geographic article. Wakefield focused on grouping certain numbers together using hand gestures to teach a problem while her control was the same as the other experiment where only verbal directions were given. Instead of measuring results by how well they performed on the test, she measured the eye movements of the students and saw they mostly focused when they only heard verbal instructions versus the gestures. Both studies show the benefits of teaching math with gestures. Students retain the information better and focus more on the problem in front of them instead of the teacher speaking. These results suggest that students retain information better when teachers use hand movements to highlight specific elements of the problem.
Furthermore, these results are supported by a study conducted by Seokmin Kang and Barbara Tversky that found using gestures help highlight the key points of a lesson which improve comprehension and learning. They suggest that gestures create a map that connect these key points which helps a student understand a lesson more accurately and retains it better. They explain that constant gestures connect important ideas to create a more complete understanding of a topic.
All findings suggest that the way to help improve education, especially in math, is to include specific and intentional hand gestures to help students learn different problem solving skills and connect ideas. So next time you think one teacher teaches a subject better, see if they use intentional hand gestures to get the information across.
Kang, Seokmin, and Barbara Tversky. “From Hands to Minds: Gestures Promote Understanding.” Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, Springer International Publishing, 2016, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5256437/.
Poon, Linda. “Hand Gestures May Boost Students' Math Learning.” National Geographic, 30 Apr. 2015, www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/4/hand-gestures-may-boost-students--math-learning/.
Wakefield E, Novack MA, Congdonn EL,Franconeri S, Goldin-Meadow S. Gesture helps learners learn, but not merely by guiding their visual attention. DevSci. 2018;e12664. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12664
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