Teaching stereoisomers through gesture, action, and mental imagery

Ping, Raedy M.; Parrill, Fey; Church, R. Breckinridge; Goldin‐Meadow, Susan

doi:10.1039/d1rp00313e

Cited by 7 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 87 publications

(106 reference statements)

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“…While robust effects of gestures have been found in the domain of mathematical equivalence (e.g., Cook et al, 2013), and there is also evidence for effects of gesture on foreign word learning (e.g., Sweller et al, 2020), there are other cases where gesture does not appear to improve recall or performance (e.g. Guarino & Wakefield, 2020; Ping et al, 2022). Steffens et al (2015) present a list of comparisons between action performance and observation, in which over a dozen studies show no benefit.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Steffens et al (2015) present a list of comparisons between action performance and observation, in which over a dozen studies show no benefit. Similarly, while Stieff et al (2016) found that gesture helped students understand chemical molecules, a study directly comparing gesture instruction to action on a molecule and mental imagery (Ping et al, 2022) found no benefit for gesture relative to other kinds of training (see also DeSutter & Stieff, 2020; Rollinde et al, 2021). And studies failing to find an effect are harder to publish than those showing an effect.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using the hands to learn about the brain: Testing action‐based instruction in brain anatomy

Parrill,

Shymanski,

Cook

2023

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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Brain anatomy is typically taught using static images. We asked participants to use their own hands to represent the brain and perform gestures during learning. We measured learning via a pretest/postest design. We compared five video trainings in which participants heard similar audio and repeated terminology aloud. Conditions were: (1) Image: Participants saw images of a physical model of the brain. (2) Physical model: Participants saw hands pointing to the physical model. (3) Physical model + action: Participants performed actions on the physical model. (4) Hand model: Participants saw images of hands being used to represent the brain. (5) Hand model + action: Participants performed gestures seen in the video. All trainings improved post‐test performance. Performance in the hand model condition was worse compared to conditions with action. We connect these findings to the larger claim that gesture benefits learning.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using the hands to learn about the brain: Testing action‐based instruction in brain anatomy

Parrill,

Shymanski,

Cook

2023

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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“…Considerable research also shows the role gesture has in reasoning and cognition. ,, In chemistry education research, there has been an effort focused on gesture and problem-solving tasks in organic chemistry. For example, Ping and co-workers examined how students used gesture when mentally manipulating stereoisomers and generating a given compound’s stereoisomer (if one existed) . Stieff, Lira, and Scopelitis demonstrated that gesture can support students when tasked with translating between Newman, Fischer, and dash-wedge representations comparable to using a model kit …”

Section: Literature Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our work draws on the framework of embodied cognition, which has been used in education research in chemistry, 21,22 physics, 23,24 and mathematics. 25 The central premise of embodied cognition is that learning and thinking about the world "••• is grounded in the interactions our bodies••• have with the world around us."…”

Section: ■ Literature Framework Embodied Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symmetry Elements Embodied by Students’ Hands: Systematically Characterizing and Analyzing Gestures in Inorganic Chemistry

Markut,

Wink

2024

J. Chem. Educ.

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We previously observed students gesturing during a symmetry and group theory activity. This prompted additional interviews, wherein we attempted to understand the semiotic function of these gestures. We report here on the gestures that students used in this context to represent symmetry elements, symmetry operations, and other related ideas. In the process, we developed a scheme to code gestures in a systematic way that enables qualitative analysis and may lend itself to quantitative methods. This analysis leads to two observables: physical forms and motions enacted while representing or thinking about symmetry. These gestures are metaphorical and allow us to infer cognitive notions underlying the gesture as part of the student's reasoning, their communication, or both. Characterizing these gestures and associated notions offers the opportunity to add to our understanding of how gesture and other embodied representations can systematically support student learning in relation to spatial concepts and descriptions in chemistry. This characterization also has implications for instruction to support student learning about symmetry in inorganic chemistry.

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“…30,31 Investigations in this area also highlight the need for a critical analysis of teacher-centered versus student-centered instructional strategies used to guide students in the unpacking/packing of chemical representations. 28,108 Existing research in chemistry education has shown the positive effects that different types of tasks, such as comparecontrast 109 and drawing activities 13,25 as well as tasks that take advantage of adaptive technologies 110 or embodied cognition 111,112 (e.g., gestures, simulated action), have on different aspects of students' representational competency in chemistry. These investigations, however, typically do not consider how the distinctive characteristics and dimensions of different chemical representations interact with task characteristics to affect student performance.…”

Section: ■ Conclusion and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Complexity of Reasoning about and with Chemical Representations

Talanquer

2022

JACS Au

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External visual representations of chemical entities and processes (chemical representations) play a critical role in chemical thinking and practice. They support reasoning by serving as bridges between the macroscopic world and the chemical models that help us make sense of the properties and behaviors of substances in our surroundings. Consequently, many chemistry education research studies have been carried out to explore and foster students' representational competency in our discipline. Nevertheless, in this Perspective I argue that investigations in this area would benefit from a more in-depth analysis of how the distinctive characteristics of chemical representations affect student reasoning. I identify four dimensions of variation in these representations (iconicity, quantitativeness, granularity, dimensionality) that affect students' ability to interpret, connect, generate, and use chemical representations. I discuss how these features influence the unpacking or packing of information during different types of tasks, affecting sense-making and perceptual competency. Implications for chemistry education research and practice are considered.

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Teaching stereoisomers through gesture, action, and mental imagery

Abstract: Many undergraduate chemistry students struggle to understand the concept of stereoisomers, molecules that have the same molecular formula and sequence of bonded atoms but are different in how their atoms...

Cited by 7 publications

References 87 publications

Using the hands to learn about the brain: Testing action‐based instruction in brain anatomy

Using the hands to learn about the brain: Testing action‐based instruction in brain anatomy

Symmetry Elements Embodied by Students’ Hands: Systematically Characterizing and Analyzing Gestures in Inorganic Chemistry

The Complexity of Reasoning about and with Chemical Representations

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