Students learn more when their teacher has learned to gesture effectively

Abstract

Teachers’ gestures are an integral part of their instructional communication. In this study, we provided a teacher with a tutorial about ways to use gesture in connecting ideas in mathematics instruction, and we asked the teacher to teach sample lessons about slope and intercept before and after this tutorial. In response to the tutorial, the teacher enhanced his communication about links between ideas by increasing the frequency with which he expressed linked ideas multi-modally (i.e., using both speech and gesture), and by increasing the frequency with which he used simultaneous gestures to linked ideas. We then presented videos of a lesson the teacher provided before the tutorial (thebaselinelesson) and one he provided after the tutorial (theenhanced-gesturelesson) to 42 seventh-grade students and assessed their learning. Students who received the enhanced-gesture lesson displayed greater learning about y-intercept than did students who received the baseline lesson. Thus, students learned more when their teacher had learned to gesture effectively.

Pedagogical Gestures as Interactional Resources for Teaching and Learning Tense and Aspect in the ESL Grammar Classroom

“…In addition, at lines 10–12, Lisa gestures forward with her left hand while her right hand holds pointing backward (see Figure ). Here, the teacher's gestures, maintained in the students’ view, mark comparison and contrast, thus enhancing learners’ comprehension of the instructional content, specifically the relationship between the two tenses (Alibali et al., ; Sime, ).…”

How Teachers Link Ideas in Mathematics Instruction Using Speech and Gesture: A Corpus Analysis

“…We obtained some preliminary evidence on this possibility in a recent study. We videotaped a teacher instructing small groups of students both before and after a professional development tutorial in which we encouraged the teacher to use simultaneous gestures to link related ideas (Alibali, Young, et al, 2013). The lessons focused on slope and intercept and how they are represented in Cartesian graphs and algebraic equations.…”

The instructor's gaze guidance in video lectures improves learning

“…However, most previous studies have focused only on the instructor's gestures (Alibali et al, 2013;Pi et al, 2017a;Rueckert, Church, Avila, & Trejo, 2017;Yeo, Ledesma, Nathan, Alibali, & Church, 2017). However, most previous studies have focused only on the instructor's gestures (Alibali et al, 2013;Pi et al, 2017a;Rueckert, Church, Avila, & Trejo, 2017;Yeo, Ledesma, Nathan, Alibali, & Church, 2017).…”

“…Human cues in video lectures not only include the instructor's gestures but also include gaze guidance. However, most previous studies have focused only on the instructor's gestures (Alibali et al, 2013;Pi et al, 2017a;Rueckert, Church, Avila, & Trejo, 2017;Yeo, Ledesma, Nathan, Alibali, & Church, 2017). Gaze guidance in video lectures means that the instructor is not merely looking into the camera but switches between looking at the camera and the content representation domain.…”