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02 March 2005: A Nice Gesture (1 of 5)
On February 23, 2005, the University of Chicago Science Daily published a report by the University of Chicago entitled "Teaching Math Two Ways at the Same Time Boosts Learning." For a link to the complete report, click .
The premise of the study was to determine how teaching math algorithms verbally and with gestures would enhance the learning of third and fourth grade students. But the study wasn't just about teaching with gestures. It was about using gestures to offer a different problem solving method than the one being described verbally.
This is how the mismatched gesture-and-speech lesson worked:
The students were taught to find a missing number in an equation with two separate approaches. For example, the problem 6 + 4 + 3 = __ + 3 can be solved in two ways: either by following the algorithm "add up the numbers on the left side of the equation and subtract the number on the right," or by following the principle "both sides of the equation must add up to the same number."
A child was given the equation and the teacher explained the equalizing principle by saying both sides need to have the same numerical value. But at the same time, the teacher pointed at the 6, 4 and 3 on the left side of the equation and then produced a "flick away" subtract gesture under the 3 on the right side of the equation, which signaled the "add-subtract" algorithm.
The other interesting thing noted by the researchers was that students who were taught both strategies verbally (without any gestures) performed significantly lower on the performance task. Where the "mismatched gesture-and-speech lesson" was given, students averaged three out of six correct answers. Where only verbal instruction was used, students averaged only one out of six.
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