Characterizing instructor gestures in a lecture in a proof-based mathematics class

Abstract

Researchers have increasingly focused on how gestures in mathematics aid in thinking and communication. This paper builds on Arzarello's (2006) idea of a semiotic bundle and several frameworks for describing individual gestures and applies these ideas to a case study of an instructor's gestures in an undergraduate abstract algebra class. We describe the role that the semiotic bundle plays in shaping the potential meanings of gestures; the ways gestural sets create complex relationships between gestures; and the role played by polysemy and abstraction. These results highlight the complex ways in which mathematical meaningsboth specific and general-are expressed in gesture, and to highlight the integrated nature of elements of the semiotic bundle.

Using films and TV series for ESP teaching: A multimodal perspective

“…Gesture_description, where all the gestures used by the speaker are annotated using labels based on Querol-Julián's ( 2011) model (e.g., 'Pu', standing for 'palm up'), 3) Gesture_function, following Kendon (2004) and Weinberg et al (2013)'s classifications of gesture functions (i.e., modal, performative, parsing, and indexical, representational, social, respectively), 4) Gaze (e.g., up, down, etc. ), 5) Face (e.g., frowning, smiling, etc.…”

“…1) while uttering the word aside, which also bears a prosodic stress (see the Prosody tier). This is an iconic gesture that helps to understand what is being said, thus performing a representational function (Weinberg et al 2013) (as indicated in the Gesture_function tier). Before using Clip 1 in the Political Science class, political speech as a genre should be introduced first by pointing out its main features, i.e., monologic, planned, and usually written for politicians by dedicated speech writers (Beard 2000).…”

Encouraging engineering undergraduates to voice their ideas worth sharing

“…These types of gestures help speakers punctuate important stretches of their discourses, regulating the flow of speech and coherently integrating the overall discourse. Beat gestures also perform a social pragmatic function (Weinberg, Fukawa-Connelly & Wiesner, 2013) that contributes to enhancing audience awareness of the key ideas in speakers' talks. Speakers address their audiences with a beat to get them involved with an issue that concerns all of them (i.e.…”

Research on Teaching and Learning Mathematics at the Tertiary Level: State-of-the-Art and Looking Ahead

“…Continuing with how university mathematics teachers communicate mathematical ideas, Weinberg et al (2015) describe teachers' gestures and how these contribute to opportunities to communicate mathematical ideas in an abstract algebra lecture. Gestures, and specifically teacher use of the hand and fingers to point during undergraduate mathematics lectures, is the focus of a study from Hare and Sinclair (2015), who observed a teacher in a third-year Group Theory lecture.…”

“…Furthermore, Güçler (2016) suggests an "instruction that explicitly attends to the metalevel rules of the discourse on functions has the potential to support student learning" (p. 391). Also in the mathematical communication field, some recent studies focus on gestures and semiotics to describe university mathematics teachers' practices (Lee et al 2009;Weinberg et al 2015;Wheeler and Champion 2013).…”