Gesturing Deepens Kids’ Grasp of Math Problems

[bananas]

http://psychcentral.com/news/2014/03/16/gesturing-deepens-kids-grasp-of-math-problems/67136.html

Gesturing Deepens Kids’ Grasp of Math Problems
By Traci Pedersen Associate News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on March 15, 2014

Children who gesture with their hands during a math lesson gain a better understanding of the problems being taught, according to a new study by the University of Chicago’s Department of Psychology.

“We found that acting gave children a relatively shallow understanding of a novel math concept, whereas gesturing led to deeper and more flexible learning,” explained the study’s lead author, Miriam A. Novack, a Ph.D. student in psychology.

During the study, published in Psychological Science, third-grade children were taught a strategy for solving one type of mathematical equivalence problem, for example, 4 + 2 + 6 = ____ + 6. The researchers then tested the students on similar math problems to determine how well they understood the overall principle.

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Children in all three groups learned the problems they had been taught during the lesson. However, only children who gestured during the lesson were successful in generalizing on the next problem.

<snip>

“Our findings provide the first evidence that gesture not only supports learning a task at hand but, more importantly, leads to generalization beyond the task. Children appear to learn underlying principles from their actions only insofar as those actions can be interpreted symbolically.”

[bananas]

1. We used to call it "thinking with your hands". nt

[DamnYankeeInHouston]

2. I use gestures when teaching letter sounds, as well,

using the Jolly Phonics program with my 3 - 5 year students. I wish the article provided practical information such as what gestures and they were used.