Learning with Hand Gestures

When it comes to how we learn there are plenty of different techniques that can strengthen how we understand a concept. In Wakefield’s study she focused on how gestures can impact how a child grasps a topic. The experiment was put together so two groups of students would be taught a math problem of how one side of the equation equaled the other side. The difference between the groups was that one group would only have audio when the concept was taught and the second group would have the same audio, but hand gestures were added that would group the correct numbers together. When they measured the eye movements of these children they saw that the gestures that the instructor was demonstrating helped to guide the child where to look. The results also showed that the children who learned the topic with hand gestures performed better on math problems given at the end than the children who only learned with the audio. This topic was important to study because it shows a benefit to the students to have this teaching style with hand gestures used. It could help visual learners grasp and connect the concepts that they are taught.

            There was an article in Science News, that discussed a topic related to learning with hand gestures. The study that was mentioned was measuring how well children were able to understand a story with or without hand gestures. The idea mentioned in the article was a similar idea to the Wakefield study idea; that hand gestures can help connect what is being taught and emphasis certain points. For the hand gestures that were used when the child was being told a story they were used to emphasis certain keywords. The results from the children that received the story with gestures was that they were able to grasp the story’s narrative better than the children who only heard the story. This result could be from the children learning with the hand gestures being able to connect to the story more and being able to connect the emotion that went with each part of the story.

            Both of these topics were able to demonstrate the impact that hand gestures have on visual learning. Even though one of the topics was regarding a math problem and grouping objects together and the second was connecting emotion and emphasizing importance in a story, they both helped in guiding the learner to what they should focus on. Each of these strategies could be implicated in how teachers teach their students to cause a larger impact on how topics are relaid to students. 

citations: 

Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Barcelona. "Telling stories using rhythmic gesture helps children improve their oral skills." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 January 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190117142234.htm>.

Wakefield, Elizabeth, et al. “Gesture helps learners learn, but not merely by guiding their visual attention.” Wiley, 2018 February https://www.dropbox.com/sh/13j3ka06799we8d/AAAQwoivU_dbL2RWqrVqLy0sa/(09.24.19)%20-%20Elizabeth%20Wakefield-Connell?dl=0&preview=Wakefield+et+al.%2C+2018+copy.pdf&subfolder_nav_tracking=1