Gestures

Overview

Adding motions to complement learning activates more cognitive processes for recall and understanding. Supplementing verbal information with gestures that represent real-world objects, like angles or shapes, can facilitate thinking about mathematical ideas that are not easily described by words alone.

Use It in the Classroom

Watch how this teacher use hand gestures to increase students' understanding of slope, linear functions, and an overall algebraic problem. As students mimic these gestures with each other, they deepen their understanding of the content material.

Both teachers and students can use pointing and representational gestures to communicate and visually convey their mathematical thinking. Visual gestures that complement spoken language also allow for the processing of information in multiple ways, supporting greater retention of information in Short- and Long-term Memory.

Design It into Your Product

Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.

Watch how ST Math allows learners to visualize math concepts in an interactive way. Through multimodal instructions and representations, learners increase their math comprehension and, in doing so, become more motivated to learn difficult mathematical concepts.

Seeing visualizations or animation in addition to audio or text helps students integrate information and frees up space in their Working Memory. Developers can also use these visualizations or enactments to capture and maintain learners' Attention on key content.

View References

Resources

Below are additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.

Examples

Body Language & Classroom Management

NEA suggestions for teacher body language

Examples

Teacher Gestures

How movement and gestures are important in the learning process

Research

Cognition & Memory

Topic that includes cognitive science theories about how the brain processes information on Digital Promise's Research Map

Research

Prospective Memory

Subtopic that includes research on the different ways the brain creates prospective memories on Digital Promise's Research Map