Neuroscience
Encouraging children to gesture when they are working on maths problems helps them benefit more from subsequent maths tuition. Sara Broaders and colleagues, who made the observation, say this is because gesturing activates children's implicit maths knowledge, which they are not yet able to consciously access or talk about.
In an initial study, 106 children aged nine to ten years were asked to solve problems like 6 + 3 + 7= ? + 7 and talk through their solutions. Later on, some of the children were also told that they must use their hands when explaining their answers. All the children got the maths problems wrong, but the hand movements of the children told to gesture revealed they had insight into new, often appropriate strategies, which they hadn't previously spoken of.
For example, the researchers said a sweeping movement of a child's palm, first under the left, then under the right side of the problem revealed that they understood both sides of the equation needed to be the same.
A second study with 70 children showed that the activation of this implicit knowledge in gesture has actual practical benefits. Again the children were presented with maths problems and asked to explain their answers; again some were told they must gesture when explaining, while others were told not to gesture. As before, the children told to gesture revealed novel strategies in their hand movements, even though they continued to get the answers wrong. Next, the children received some tuition in how to solve the problems. Critically, in a final test, the children previously told to gesture solved an average of 1.5 more problems correctly than the kids told not to gesture - in other words they seemed to have benefited more from the tuition.
The researchers concluded that being told to gesture reveals "previously unexpressed implicit knowledge that, in turn, makes learning more likely".
_________________________________
Broaders, S.C., Cook, S.W., Mitchell, Z. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2007). Making children gesture brings out implicit knowledge and leads to learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 136, 539-550.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
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Neuroscience
Gesturing unlocks children's maths skills
Encouraging children to gesture when they are working on maths problems helps them benefit more from subsequent maths tuition. Sara Broaders and colleagues, who made the observation, say this is because gesturing activates children's implicit maths knowledge, which they are not yet able to consciously access or talk about.In an initial study, 106 children aged nine to ten years were asked to solve problems like 6 + 3 + 7= ? + 7 and talk through their solutions. Later on, some of the children were also told that they must use their hands when explaining their answers. All the children got the maths problems wrong, but the hand movements of the children told to gesture revealed they had insight into new, often appropriate strategies, which they hadn't previously spoken of.
For example, the researchers said a sweeping movement of a child's palm, first under the left, then under the right side of the problem revealed that they understood both sides of the equation needed to be the same.
A second study with 70 children showed that the activation of this implicit knowledge in gesture has actual practical benefits. Again the children were presented with maths problems and asked to explain their answers; again some were told they must gesture when explaining, while others were told not to gesture. As before, the children told to gesture revealed novel strategies in their hand movements, even though they continued to get the answers wrong. Next, the children received some tuition in how to solve the problems. Critically, in a final test, the children previously told to gesture solved an average of 1.5 more problems correctly than the kids told not to gesture - in other words they seemed to have benefited more from the tuition.
The researchers concluded that being told to gesture reveals "previously unexpressed implicit knowledge that, in turn, makes learning more likely".
_________________________________
Broaders, S.C., Cook, S.W., Mitchell, Z. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2007). Making children gesture brings out implicit knowledge and leads to learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 136, 539-550.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- Why Are Boys Better Than Girls At Maths In Some Countries But Not Others?
There are many reasons for the paucity of women in science and technology careers, but arguably one early contributing factor is the relatively weaker performance of girls in maths at school, compared with boys. Is this because girls are inherently poorer...
- Children See Obesity As Contagious
Young children see obesity as if it were a kind of contagious illness. That's according to Paul Klaczynski who says his research helps explain why the stigmatisation of fat people is so prevalent, and why obesity prejudice is committed by children...
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When we praise a child, our wording can either be specific (e.g. “You did a good job drawing”) or generic (e.g. “You are a good drawer”). According to Andrei Cimpian and colleagues this subtle distinction can make a big difference to children's...
- Adults Are Unable To Tell When Children Are Lying
With their wide eyes and innocent hearts, you might think it's easy to tell when a child is lying. Oh no it isn't. Not according to Leif Stromwall and colleagues, who found adults were useless at detecting when children were lying. Thirty children...
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Complement your speech with gestures if you want people to remember what you’re telling them, but make sure they’re related to what you’re saying and not just random gesticulations. Pierre Feyereisen at the University of Louvain in Belgium showed...