In Gesture during math instruction specifically benefits learners with high visuospatial working memory capacity (WMC), a group of researchers conducted an experiment where 75 University of Iowa students participated in different mathematical tasks. In the first study, gestures were presented to this specific group of students during the instruction of various complex math problems shown through video. By the end of the study, the participants had to solve practice problems similar to those shown in the video with gestures. The results showed that those with higher visuospatial WMC were shown to do better on the abstract math tasks compared to those with lower visuospatial WMC. Therefore, this showed how in the presence of gesture, there is a significant positive relationship between visuospatial WMC and math learning. However, in the second study, new information emerged. The second study was similar to Study 1, where performance on an abstract math task was analyzed-- however, this time, a new, "fresh" group of participants were used, and the instruction took place with gestures absent. The results showed that individuals with higher WMC performed better on the math tasks, therefore meaning that those with greater verbal WMC benefit more without gesture in situations of learning mathematical concepts. The research study shows that though gesture may be beneficial in certain situations, it cannot be generalized in the context of learning abstract, complex concepts-- especially when dealing with various groups of people.
As gesture is a very heavily-studied topic, many other scientists and professors have done research on the impact of gesture on learning and comprehension, especially at Loyola University Chicago, where Dr. Elizabeth M. Wakefield and her then-student Natalia Zielinski explored the impact of gesture on comprehending and recalling stories in different languages. By the end of the experiment, they found that children were able to recall more important story points in their weaker language (Polish) due to the presence of co-gesture-- a benefit that wasn't shown in the story presented in their first language (English). This shows how gesture is not only useful in helping children understand mathematics or science in the classroom, but how it can also be used in their more personal lives when dealing with situations such as second languages. Most importantly, both articles address the concept of "weakness," and how gesture can help aid in learning these weak concepts. The first article mentions how math tends to have low proficiency rates in both public and private schools in the US, whereas Dr. Wakefield and Zielinski's research addresses the concepts of "first language" versus a weaker "second language." However, even more interestingly so, both articles address how the benefits of gesture are only useful in particular situations when it comes to these "weaknesses." For example, in the first research article, it is shown that gesture resulted in better abstract math task performance specifically** for people with higher visuospatial WMC, rather than just students in general. Likewise, Dr. Wakefield and Zielinski's research shows how the usage of gesture shows more benefits when children are in situations understanding a story in their second language, rather than just understanding stories in general. Perhaps the gray areas that both of these research studies cover show the true nature of why gesture is frequently debated on.
Therefore, with such innovative discoveries being made in the field of neuroscience and specifically the role of gestures in neuroscience, we should start viewing gesture as a useful tool for aiding in the understanding of harder-to-grasp concepts in our society. Rather than focusing on what gesture "seems" to be, the real emphasis can be put on what gesture can help us do and learn in particular situations, or how it can be used to benefit various groups of people. Most importantly, these findings can be applied to goals of science in general: finding what works for society while still acknowledging that everyone has their differences.
References:
Aldugom M., Fenn, K., & Cook, S. W. (2020, June 9). Gesture during math instruction specifically benefits learners with high visuospatial working memory capacity. Cognitive research: principles and implications. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7283399
Zielinski, N., & Wakefield, E. M. (2021, July 19). Language proficiency impacts the benefits of co-speech gesture for narrative understanding through a visual attention mechanism. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/63r5d3qq
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