The year of 2020 has pushed many people outside of their comfort zones (and pushed them to their limits). A large category of these individuals are parents turned teachers. Filling in for an occupation they were not trained for effects not only them, but their children, the students, too. Teachers learn and develop methods that help engage and entertain their students, keeping them fully captivated in the learning experience. Adjusted online/hybrid classrooms don’t allow teachers to use many of these practices, and many parents do not attain these methods. Some of these practices can be complex, involving many different steps, but some can be as simple as hand gestures.
In her article, “Learning math by hand: The neural effects of gesture-based instruction in 8-year-old children,” Elizabeth M. Wakefield, and her colleagues, discuss their study on the effect gestures have in the process of learning. This study focused on two groups of children, those who learned by only speech, and those who learned by speech and gestures. By observing the children through fMRI while they solved mathematical problems led them to an interesting finding. The study showed that “the motor signatures found for children in the speech and gesture condition occurred in runs during which children were not producing gestures, providing evidence that, as in learning through action on objects, learning through gesture leads to a lasting and embedded neural trace of motor system involvement, which is activated when children later solve the math problems they had learned with gesture.” This is very important evidence to consider as the country continues online learning. This study illustrates the importance of two method learning, and ensuring students aren’t only being talked at.
In an article published by the New York Times titled “This Is Schooling Now for 200,000 N.Y.C. Children in Special Education” by Eliza Shapiro discusses the problems parents face when trying to provide an education for their special needs child at home during the pandemic. For many students who need special accommodations in their education, it means more than another teacher talking to them. For special needs kids gesturing can be a better form of communication than speaking. When they lose this ability to communicate effectively, their education declines. In the article parents note their child’s development going “backwards” when they were moved online. To continue educating special needs students there needs to be, at the very least, a dual-communicative program, where students can fully see the gestures happening, but also engaging with them.
As the country continues in these uncertain times it’s important that students still receive high-quality education. Through Wakefield’s study we see that students benefit from two-method learning, speech and gestures. Shapiro’s article speaks for many parents across the country who are concerned for their child’s education as they continue to only receive (virtual) speech method learning. As education continues to develop nationwide, it is important we take into account studies, like Elizabeth Wakefield’s, but also the views of the parents, like those highlighted in Eliza Shapiro’s article.
References
Shapiro, Eliza, and Elizabeth A. Harris. “This Is Schooling Now for 200,000 N.Y.C. Children in Special Education.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 16 Apr. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/nyregion/special-education-coronavirus-nyc.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article.
Wakefield, Elizabeth M., et al. “Learning Math by Hand: The Neural Effects of Gesture-Based Instruction in 8-Year-Old Children.” Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics. The Psychonomic Society, Inc, 2019.
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