Reading Response
Goldin-Meadow et al (2009). Gesturing gives children new ideas about math.
The focus of the article was on whether gesturing influences learning. For the purpose of this article, the authors did a test and divided children into 3 groups: first group where children were taught a particular math concept using correct hand gestures, second group where they were taught using partially correct gestures, and lastly where they were taught using no-gestures. The data from this study suggests that gesturing can indeed facilitate learning as it helps children extract information more effectively when they are pointing at the numbers they were supposed to regroup.
This following quote in the article made me stop and ponder more about teaching correct gestures to young children: Gesturing has been manipulated in studies of memory––children told to gesture when trying to recall an event do, in fact, remember more about the event than children prevented from gesturing (Stevanoni & Salmon, 2005).
I found this particularly interesting as this is something we experience at home with my own pre-school age daughter. Oftentimes we model and encourage her to do the thinking gesture as when trying to recall any event. In my mind, the gesture simply gives them time to process and recall information. But now after reading more about gesturing, this definitely goes beyond a simple gesturing, but holds more value as it might be triggering thoughts about the gestures related to past event which helps recall.
I personally have never thought of gesturing as something that can be actively taught. I have also considered gesturing as a secondary act that accompanies our speech- it definitely adds impact to what we are saying. But I have always considered it to be a passive learnt behaviour. But now after reading this article, and reflecting back on how we have been passively teaching /correcting hand gestures for my own two young children, I definitely see the importance of Teaching correct hand gestures.
Activity Experience and Reflection
The activity aimed at contextualising Mathematics- so that students can see the real life application of Math without disregarding it as too abstract. The activity of using the body as a tool of measurement is a perfect example of how Math is part of everybody's life and is embedded in our everyday bodily experiences of the world. The TED talk by Roger Antosen also highlights that how a change in perspective helps us realise how we are using and can use mathematics to understand the world. There are so many aspects of our life which use the underlying concepts of mathematics without us even fully realising.
This activity was relatable to me as I grew up on a farm in a rural community. My grandparents often used body parts as measurement references for everyday items and activities. References to these measurement tools have been an integral part of my everyday life and doing this activity made me reflect about how my young children have also picked up a few references from us in regards to measuring things. A few days back, my 3 yr old made a comment about how she could cover the naan with her both hands. That was a teaching moment for us to tell her how she can use hands to measure things.
We are currently in the process of rearranging our 3 yr old’s room as she transitions from crib to a toddler bed. I used my footsteps as a tool to measure the various dimensions of her room to figure out if we can fit a queen bed in her room and is there will be a room for a dresser. I involved my daughter in the process too and it was a good learning experience for her too watching me measure the room with my steps and then doing the same with her steps. This led to a very long discussion about why her step count of the room is more than mommy’s? I have recorded this information and hope to come back to this next year and by that time she will have a more evolved and deeper understanding of using steps as a measurement tool.
This was really interesting! I'm wondering if you could elaborate on the correct vs. partially correct gestures? Now that I've read about the use of gestures, I'm noticing how often I use them when I'm speaking and teaching. This left me wondering if I'm using effective gestures, as I've never considered that they could possibly inhibiting communication.
ReplyDeleteI loved how your toddler was able to compare the size of her hands with the naan! My youngest has ADHD and one of the side effects that she struggles with the most is recalling the correct words during conversations. It's as though that part of her brain blips and the word can't come out of her mouth. To help mitigate the frustration that causes, we've encouraged her to use gestures when that happens. It's been really helpful (also hilarious sometimes), and I wish I'd encouraged gesturing more with my older children when they were younger. I feel like it would have enhanced their ability to communicate their ideas when they were sometimes lacking the vocabulary to do so orally.
Hi Courtney, The difference b/w correct gestures vs partially correct is if the students were pointing to the correct numbers or not.
ReplyDeleteIn the examples given in the article, group of students were taught to solve mathematical equations such as:
6+3+4 = _____+4
Correct Gesture - Children in the correct-gesture condition were were taught the following gestures: point with V-hand to 6 and 3,
and point with index finger to the blank.
Partially Correct Gesture - Children in this were pointing with V-hand to 3 & 4 and point with index finger to the blank.
That sounds like an interesting study. Their conclusion that gesturing helped learners focus on the math operation they needed to do makes sense. Using gestures when reading or talking (or teaching/explaining/lecturing) is something that we all do but for the most part it's done automatically without much intention. This has made me pay more attention to my own gesturing today. I notice sometimes when reading something complex or dense I'll point my finger towards the screen or page... This gesture must somehow help focus more intensely on the text I'm trying to understand. I wonder if the gesturing we teachers do when explaining something to our students helps us pull that information out of our memory more effectively? or perhaps it helps to emphasize to the listeners the importance of the information?
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your experience measuring the bedroom with your feet and your child's feet. What a great teachable moment when she wondered about why her measurement numbers were more than yours! I have 5 and 8 year old daughters it reminds me of a discussion with the younger one when she noticed her older sister's lunch was bigger than hers. She thought that it wasn't fair, but then we talked about how her sister has a bigger tummy and in fact a bigger body that needs more food than her smaller body. She seemed to happily accept this new idea of fairness, and has brought it up a number of times in the future, usually when our family is eating cake or something like that. She likes to point out that my piece is bigger than hers but that's ok since I'm so much bigger than her.