Hand Gesture and Mathematics Learning: Lessons From an Avatar

Teaching human anatomy before during and after COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study on kinesiology students' performance, cognitive load, and congruent embodied learning

During the COVID-19 pandemic, anatomy educators have demonstrated their ability to respond to face-to-face (F2F) teaching restrictions and offer emergency remote teaching and learning (ERTL) approach. Another educational model that was intensified during COVID-19 was blended learning (BL) which is a combination of F2F and online settings. Studies on the effects of the methods employed during COVID-19 pandemic on anatomy students' learning outcomes are sparse and show slightly similar but nuanced results. There is poor evidence on how the transition to online-only or to BL in response to COVID-19 impacted anatomy students' performance, cognitive load, and embodied learning. The main aim of this longitudinal study is to evaluate the effectiveness of ERTL and BL on anatomy performance in kinesiology students. The second aim of this study was to better understand students' performance in terms of cognitive load embodied learning, and the use of 3D digital tools. The results indicate no significant differences between F2F and ERTL students' performance. However, the results yielded significantly better performance for the BL students in comparison with both F2F (p = 0.001) and ERTL cohort (p = 0.001). The rapid transition to online-only teaching and learning neither enhanced nor deteriorated students' performance. The BL modality appears to be the most efficient. Learning outcomes were discussed in relation to cognitive load, embodied learning, and the use of 3D digital tools.

Teachers' Gestures and How They Matter

How do teachers' gestures influence students' learning? This article reviews research investigating the role of gestures in communication, focusing on teachers' communication with their students, primarily in mathematics and science instruction. We first briefly consider gesture's role in communication more generally as a backdrop for considering teaching as a special context for communication. We then describe teachers' spontaneous gesturing in teaching contexts, and we consider how teachers' spontaneous gestures might influence students' learning. We then consider experimental studies that provide causal support for the effects of teachers' gestures on students' learning. We conclude by discussing future directions and implications for educational practice.

How Prior Knowledge, Gesture Instruction, and Interference After Instruction Interact to Influence Learning of Mathematical Equivalence

Although children learn more when teachers gesture, it is not clear how gesture supports learning. Here, we sought to investigate the nature of the memory processes that underlie the observed benefits of gesture on lasting learning. We hypothesized that instruction with gesture might create memory representations that are particularly resistant to interference. We investigated this possibility in a classroom study with 402 second- and third-grade children. Participants received classroom-level instruction in mathematical equivalence using videos with or without accompanying gesture. After instruction, children solved problems that were either visually similar to the problems that were taught, and consistent with an operational interpretation of the equal sign (interference), or visually distinct from equivalence problems and without an equal sign (control) in order to assess the role of gesture in resisting interference after learning. Gesture facilitated learning, but the effects of gesture and interference varied depending on type of problem being solved and the strategies that children used to solve problems prior to instruction. Some children benefitted from gesture, while others did not. These findings have implications for understanding the mechanisms underlying the beneficial effect of gesture on mathematical learning, revealing that gesture does not work via a general mechanism like enhancing attention or engagement that would apply to children with all forms of prior knowledge.

Exploring the impact of interactive movement-based anatomy learning in real classroom setting among kinesiology students

Descriptive and functional anatomy is one of the most important sciences for kinesiology students. Anatomy learning requires spatial and motor imagery abilities. Learning anatomy is complex when teaching methods and instructional tools do not appropriately develop spatial and motor imagery abilities. Recent technological developments such as three-dimensional (3D) digital tools allow to overcome those difficulties, especially when 3D tools require strong interactions with the learners. Besides interactive digital tools, embodied learning or learning in motion is an effective method for a wide variety of sciences including anatomy. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of combining movement execution with 3D animation visualization on anatomy learning in a real classroom teaching context. To do so, the results of two groups of kinesiology students during three official assessments were compared. The experimental group (n = 60) learned functional anatomy by combining movement execution with traditional knowledge acquisition (e.g., 3D animations visualization, problem-based learning exercises). The control group (n = 61) had the same material but did not execute the movements during problem-solving exercises. Although no differences were found between both groups on early and mid-semester examinations, significant difference appeared at the end of the semester with an advantage for the experimental group. This exploratory study suggests that embodied learning is beneficial in improving functional anatomy learning. Therefore, it would be interesting to integrate such type of pedagogical approach within the kinesiology curriculum.

Integrating Embodied Cognition and Information Processing: A Combined Model of the Role of Gesture in Children's Mathematical Environments

Children learn and use various strategies to solve math problems. One way children's math learning can be supported is through their use of and exposure to hand gestures. Children's self-produced gestures can reveal unique, math-relevant knowledge that is not contained in their speech. Additionally, these gestures can assist with their math learning and problem solving by supporting their cognitive processes, such as executive function. The gestures that children observe during math instructions are also linked to supporting cognition. Specifically, children are better able to learn, retain, and generalize knowledge about math when that information is presented within the gestures that accompany an instructor's speech. To date, no conceptual model provides an outline regarding how these gestures and the math environment are connected, nor how they may interact with children's underlying cognitive capacities such as their executive function. In this review, we propose a new model based on an integration of the information processing approach and theory of embodied cognition. We provide an in-depth review of the related literature and consider how prior research aligns with each link within the proposed model. Finally, we discuss the utility of the proposed model as it pertains to future research endeavors.

Five Strategies for Optimizing Instructional Materials: Instructor- and Learner-Managed Cognitive Load

Researchers of cognitive load theory and the cognitive theory of multimedia learning have identified several strategies to optimize instructional materials. In this review article we focus on five of these strategies or solutions to problematic instructional designs in multimedia learning: (a) the multimedia principle (use visualizations and drawings to complement texts); (b) the split-attention effect or spatial contiguity principle (show texts contiguously or integrated with visualizations); (c) the redundancy effect, alike the coherence principle (remove nonessential learning information); (d) the signaling principle (cue or signal essential learning information); and (e) the transient information effect or segmenting principle (segment or control the pace of animations and videos). Usually, both cognitive theories have investigated solutions that instructors, teachers, and designers should pursue to optimize students’ learning. Here, in a novel approach, we show that these strategies can also be used by learners who want to self-manage their cognitive load and learning process. We provide several examples of both instructor- and learner-managed solutions aligned with these strategies. When assessing which agent, either the instructor or the learner, was most effective, we observed mixed results in the literature. However, the expertise reversal effect may help predict the direction of these effects: novice students may learn better under instructor-managed conditions, whereas more expert students may learn more under learner-managed conditions.

Non-verbal Enrichment in Vocabulary Learning With a Virtual Pedagogical Agent

Non-verbal enrichment in the form of pictures or gesture can support word learning in first and foreign languages. The present study seeks to compare the effects of viewing pictures vs. imitating iconic gestures on learning second language (L2) vocabulary. In our study participants learned L2 words (nouns, verbs, and adjectives) together with a virtual, pedagogical agent. The to-be-learned items were either (i) enriched with pictures, or (ii) with gestures that had to be imitated, or (iii) without any non-verbal enrichment as control. Results showed that gesture imitation was particularly supportive for learning nouns, whereas pictures showed to be most beneficial for memorizing verbs. These findings, suggesting that the type of vocabulary learning strategy has to match with the type of linguistic material to be learned, have important educational implications for L2 classrooms and technology-enhanced tutoring systems.

Gesture during math instruction specifically benefits learners with high visuospatial working memory capacity

Background

Characteristics of both teachers and learners influence mathematical learning. For example, when teachers use hand gestures to support instruction, students learn more than others who learn the same concept with only speech, and students with higher working memory capacity (WMC) learn more rapidly than those with lower WMC. One hypothesis for the effect of gesture on math learning is that gestures provide a signal to learners that can reduce demand on working memory resources during learning. However, it is not known what sort of working memory resources support learning with gesture. Gestures are motoric; they co-occur with verbal language and they are perceived visually.

Methods

In two studies, we investigated the relationship between mathematical learning with or without gesture and individual variation in verbal, visuospatial, and kinesthetic WMC. Students observed a videotaped lesson in a novel mathematical system that either included instruction with both speech and gesture (Study 1) or instruction with only speech (Study 2). After instruction, students solved novel problems in the instructed system and transfer problems in a related system. Finally, students completed verbal, visuospatial, and kinesthetic working memory assessments.

Results

There was a positive relationship between visuospatial WMC and math learning when gesture was present, but no relationship between visuospatial WMC and math learning when gesture was absent. Rather, when gesture was absent, there was a relationship between verbal WMC and math learning.

Conclusion

Providing gesture during instruction appears to change the cognitive resources recruited when learning a novel math task.

Embodied Learning: Why at School the Mind Needs the Body

Despite all methodological efforts made in the last three decades, Western instruction grounds on traditional principles. Most educational programs follow theories that are mentalistic, i.e., they separate the mind from the body. At school, learners sit, watch, listen, and write. The aim of this paper is to present embodied learning as an alternative to mentalistic education. Similarly, this paper wants to describe embodied learning from a neuroscientific perspective. After a brief historical overview, I will review studies highlighting the behavioral effectiveness of embodied instruction in second language learning, mathematics and spatial thinking. On this base, I will discuss some of the brain mechanisms driving embodied learning and describe its advantages, clearly pleading in favor of instructional practice that reunites body and mind.

Animation Stimuli System for Research on Instructor Gestures in Education

Education research has shown that instructor gestures can help capture, maintain, and direct the student's attention during a lecture as well as enhance learning and retention. Traditional education research on instructor gestures relies on video stimuli, which are time consuming to produce, especially when gesture precision and consistency across conditions are strictly enforced. The proposed system allows users to efficiently create accurate and effective stimuli for complex studies on gesture, without the need for computer animation expertise or artist talent.