Linking Gestures: Cross-Cultural Variation During Instructional Analogies

Instructors' Gestural Accuracy Affects Geology Learning in Interaction with Students' Spatial Skills

Complex and often unobservable STEM constructs and processes are represented using a variety of representations, including iconic gestures in which the body is configured or moved to resemble a referent's spatial properties or actions. Earlier researchers have suggested links between gesturing and expertise, leading some to recommend instructional gestures. Earlier research, however, has been largely correlational; furthermore, some gestures may be made with misleading positions or movements. Using the illustrative topic of strike in structural geology, we investigated the existence and impact of inaccurate instructional gestures. In Study 1, we examined videotapes of participants who had been asked to explain strikes to another person. We observed inaccurate (non-horizontal) strike gestures not only among novices (first introduced to strike during the study itself, n = 68) but also among participants who had greater expertise in geology (n = 21). In Study 2, we randomly assigned novices (N = 167) to watch video lessons in which the instructor accompanied verbal explanations of strikes with accurate, inaccurate, or no iconic gestures and tested students' learning on a strike-mapping task. Students with low spatial-perception skills showed no impact of their gestural condition on performance. Students with high spatial-perception skills showed no advantage from accurate gestures but performed significantly worse in the inaccurate-gesture condition. Findings suggest that recommendations to use gestures during instruction should include professional development programs that reduce the occurrence of inaccurate gestures.

Designing Exhibits to Support Relational Learning in a Science Museum

Science museums aim to provide educational experiences for both children and adults. To achieve this goal, museum displays must convey scientifically-relevant relationships, such as the similarities that unite members of a natural category, and the connections between scientific models and observable objects and events. In this paper, we explore how research on comparison could be leveraged to support learning about such relationships. We describe how museum displays could promote educationally-relevant comparisons involving natural specimens and scientific models. We also discuss how these comparisons could be supported through the design of a display—in particular, by using similarity, space, and language to facilitate relational thinking for children and their adult companions. Such supports may be pivotal given the informal nature of learning in museums.

Individual differences in gesture interpretation predict children's propensity to pick a gesturer as a good informant

To learn from others, children rely on cues (e.g., familiarity, confidence) to infer who around them will provide useful information. We extended this research to ask whether children will use an informant's inclination to gesture as a marker of whether or not the informant is a good person to learn from. Children (N = 459, ages 4-12 years) watched short videos in which actresses made statements accompanied by meaningful iconic gestures, beat gestures (which act as prosodic markers with speech), or no gestures. After each trial, children were asked "Who do you think would be a good teacher?" (good teacher [experimental] condition) or "Who do you think would be a good friend?" (good friend [control] condition). Results show that children do believe that someone who produces iconic gesture would make a good teacher compared with someone who does not, but this is only later in childhood and only if children have the propensity to see gesture as meaningful. The same effects were not found in the good friend condition, indicating that children's responses are not just about liking an adult who gestures more. These findings have implications for how children attend to and learn from instructional gesture.

New insights from children with early focal brain injury: Lessons to be learned from examining STEM-related skills

The study of cognitive development in children with early brain injury reveals crucial information about the developing brain and its plasticity. However, information on long-term outcomes of these children, especially in domains relevant to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) remains limited. In the current review, our goal is to address the existing research on cognitive development of children with pre- or perinatal focal brain lesion (PL) as it relates to children's STEM-related skills and suggest future work that could shed further light on the developmental trajectories of children with PL. We argue that examining STEM-related development in children with PL will have broader implications for our understanding of the nature of the plasticity children with PL exhibit as well as address theoretical questions in the field regarding the foundation skills for STEM, including visuospatial and mathematical skills.

Support of mathematical thinking through embodied cognition: Nondigital and digital approaches

Research on mathematics education has shown that learners’ actions can influence how they think and vice versa. Much of this work has been rooted in the use of manipulatives, gestures, and body movements. Our article dissects the mechanisms that underscore the impact of embodied activities and applies this lens to explore how to harness the affordances of new technology to enhance mathematical thinking. This is especially crucial given the increasing accessibility of technology—such as digital touch devices, 3D printers, and location sensors—for constructing embodied experiences. Providing guidance for incorporating those tools, we focus on the role that embodied cognition can play in communicating mathematical concepts as well as in allowing learners to experiment and evolve their ideas. To inspire future integration of theory in the development of technologically enhanced embodied mathematics experiences, we provide examples of how this can be done. Finally, we outline future directions in the areas of design, implementation, and assessment of embodied learning of mathematics.

Analogy and Higher Order Thinking

Linking ideas, concepts, and disciplinary content is an underused yet effective educational strategy for fostering students’ higher order thinking. A body of psychological research on analogical reasoning can inform the challenge of encouraging higher order thinking in schools. We focus in particular on the teaching of mathematics and highlight alignments between a psychologically based definition of higher order thinking and educational goals as described within U.S. mathematical practice standards. Finally, this analysis implicates policies for supporting students’ higher order thinking including requiring assessments that capture these skills; disseminating assessment data meaningfully to help improve teachers, schools, or curricula; and designing professional development that draws explicit attention to these skills.