Gestures and Their Role in Mathematical Reasoning

As young children, we are often taught many methods of learning starting from elementary school. These methods may or not work for some students depending on their learning styles. In recent years, the method of using gestures while learning mathematics has been studied. These introductory studies of gesture-based learning may have massive impacts, particularly with the recent online school shift in the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding how gestures may affect learning may allow teachers to develop newer techniques to ensure that their students are learning what they should be as effective as possible. 

In the article “Learning math by hand: The neural effects of gesture-based instruction in 8-year-old children”, Dr. Elizabeth Wakefield and colleagues study the effects of gesture-based learning on neural activity with specific regard to mathematics. They were able to conduct this study using fMRI equipment, which is able to show changes due to blood flow in the brain. The results of this experiment indicate that children who participated in gesture-based learning had more activated brain regions than the children who did not participate in gesture-based learning. The areas that were activated are generally associated with the motor system, which presents the notion that learning through gestures activates this part of the brain, leading to a more complex neural mechanism. This mechanism shows that there is a lasting impact left of gesture learning on the brain in the form of a neural trace. 

However, they may be some evidence that indicates that personally generated gesture-based learning may only be effective if used at a certain stage in the learning process. In the article “Does restricting hand gestures impair mathematical reasoning?” Dr. Candace Walkington and colleagues study the impact of removing personally generated gestures during mathematical tasks in college students. They use a process called gesture inhibition, in which gestures are physically prevented from occurring to see the effect on the learning and answering process for tasks. The results of this experiment indicate that preventing gestures when solving a mathematical task does not have an effect on their mathematical problem-solving skills. Although this holds true in this particular set of conditions for personally generated gestures, this may not hold for other kinds of gestures. 

The results of both Wakefield et al. and Walkington et al. further demonstrate the need for more research on gesture-based learning across age groups. Although learning with gestures at a young age may be extremely helpful, the same cannot be said for certain for college students. The brain regions indicated by Wakefield et al. may show a possible neural mechanism for learning, but Walkington et al. brings up the difference in the type of gesture and in age. These studies do have a slight difference in gesture type and learning ability, but they both indicate the need for more research in this field to enhance optimal conditions for learning. These prospective findings may then be able to provide a successful approach for not only mathematical learning but perhaps as an approach for all types of learning. 

CITATIONS: 

 

Wakefield, E. M., Congdon, E. L., Novack, M. A., Goldin-Meadow, S., & James, K. H. (2019). Learning math by hand: The neural effects of gesture-based instruction in 8-year-old children. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 81(7), 2343–2353. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-019-01755-y 

Walkington, C., Woods, D., Nathan, M. J., Chelule, G., & Wang, M. (2019). Does restricting hand gestures impair mathematical reasoning? Learning and Instruction, 64, 101225. https://doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2019.101225