Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between gestures and mathematical problem solving. It concentrates on the idea that gestures can improve the student’s mathematical conceptual abilities. The educational aim of the current study was to understand whether Penelope sewing the cloth every day will be eventually able to finish it in 50 days, before Ulysses returns in his home-town. To analyse children’s gestures we applied the McNeill classification. The participants were five children aged between 9 and 10 years, attending the fifth-grade class of a primary school in Turin, Italy. We used the observational method to analyse the children’s gestures behaviour. At the end of the analysis, we collected a corpus of 538 gestures. Results show that children use different gesture patterns to communicate their own mathematical ideas. Overall, these findings suggest that gestures facilitate children’ learning of mathematical concepts and improve their cognitive strategies to the problem solution.
Highlights
In the last years many studies have attempted to better understand how the integration of gestures and spoken language can be used to improve the student’s learning process of Mathematics means, and to assess problem solving strategies (Alibali et al, 1999; Edwards, 2009; Radford, Edwards, & Arzarello, 2009; Rasmussen, Stephan, & Allen, 2004)
Examining participant’s behaviour, we found that gestures reinforced the scientific communication, so they tried to find a solution bearing in mind the hand representation
We have examined the role of gestures as facilitators to solve mathematical problems
Summary
In the last years many studies have attempted to better understand how the integration of gestures and spoken language can be used to improve the student’s learning process of Mathematics means, and to assess problem solving strategies (Alibali et al, 1999; Edwards, 2009; Radford, Edwards, & Arzarello, 2009; Rasmussen, Stephan, & Allen, 2004). Focusing on gestures role in the educational setting, researchers have examined the cognitive mechanisms of the gesture production as mental strategies that help children to reduce they cognitive effort when discusses about mathematical problems (Cook & Goldin-Meadow, 2006; Goldin-Meadow et al, 2001). The purpose of this study was to investigate how children use gestures to communicate mathematical ideas, improving the sharing of knowledge within the group. We consider the gestures as cognitive scaffolding that help children to solve mathematical problems. Another concurrent aim of this study was to contribute to the collection of a corpus of gestures within the domain of Mathematics. In a typical cooperative work setting, gestural behaviours take the place of the images to communicate ideas about structured or abstract scientific topics
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
