Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:57:22.489Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

21 - Gesture in Learning and Education

from Part IV - Gestures in Relation to Cognition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2024

By
Miriam A. Novack  and
Susan Goldin-Meadow
Edited by
Alan Cienki
Alan Cienki
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Get access

Summary

Gesture is a powerful tool for learning. Gestures reflect a learner’s knowledge and also have the power to change that knowledge. But how early does this ability develop and how might it change over time? Here we discuss the effects of gesture on learning, taking a developmental perspective. We compare how young learners benefit from gesture prior to developing full language skills, as well as how gesture and language work together to support instruction in older children. For both developmental stages, we explore three ways in which gesture can influence learning: (1) by indexing or reflecting a learner’s knowledge, (2) by changing that knowledge through the gestures that learners themselves produce, and (3) by changing that knowledge through the gestures that learners see. Taken together, the evidence suggests that gesture plays a powerful role in learning and education throughout development.

Keywords

babychildreneducationinfancyknowledgelearningmathmismatchpointingteacher
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Gesture Studies , pp. 556 - 576
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alibali, M., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (1993). Gesture-speech mismatch and mechanisms of learning: What the hands reveal about a child′s state of mind. Cognitive Psychology, 25(4), 468–523. https://doi.org/10.1006/cogp.1993.1012CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alibali, M., Nathan, M., Wolfgram, M., Church, R. B., Jacobs, S., Johnson Martinez, C., & Knuth, E. J. (2014). How teachers link ideas in mathematics instruction using speech and gesture: A corpus analysis. Cognition and Instruction, 32(1), 65–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370008.2013.858161CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alibali, M. W., Flevares, L. M., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (1997). Assessing knowledge conveyed in gesture: Do teachers have the upper hand? Journal of Educational Psychology, 89(1), 183–193. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.89.1.183CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alibali, M. W., & Nathan, M. J. (2012). Embodiment in mathematics teaching and learning: Evidence from learners’ and teachers’ gestures. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 21(2), 247–286. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2011.611446CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bates, E., Camaioni, L., & Volterra, V. (1975). The acquisition of performatives prior to speech. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly of Behavior and Development, 21(3), 205–226.Google Scholar
Beaudoin-Ryan, L., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2014). Teaching moral reasoning through gesture. Developmental Science, 17(6), 984–990. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12180CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Behne, T., Liszkowski, U., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M. (2012). Twelve-month-olds’ comprehension and production of pointing. The British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 30, 359–375. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-835X.2011.02043.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bertenthal, B. I., Boyer, T. W., & Harding, S. (2014). When do infants begin to follow a point? Developmental Psychology, 50(8), 2036–2048. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037152CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Booth, A. E., McGregor, K. K., & Rohlfing, K. J. (2008). Socio-pragmatics and attention: Contributions to gesturally guided word learning in toddlers. Language Learning and Development, 4(3), 179–202. https://doi.org/10.1080/15475440802143091CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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(4), 539–550. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.136.4.539CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Butterworth, G. (2003). Pointing is the royal road to language for babies. In Kita, S. (Ed.), Pointing: Where language, culture, and cognition meet (pp. 9–33). Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Capone, N. C., & McGregory, K. K. (2005). The effect of semantic representation on toddlers’ word retrieval. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 48(6), 1468–1480. https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2005/102)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carey, S. (2009). The origin of concepts. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Church, R., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (1986). The mismatch between gesture and speech as an index of transitional knowledge. Cognition, 23(1), 43–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(86)90053-3CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Colonnesi, C., Stams, G. J. J. M., Koster, I., & Noom, M. J. (2010). The relation between pointing and language development: A meta-analysis. Developmental Review, 30(4), 352–366. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2010.10.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Congdon, E., Kwon, M.-K., & Levine, S. (2018). Learning to measure through action and gesture: Children’s prior knowledge matters. Cognition, 180, 182–190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.07.002CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Congdon, E. L., Novack, M. A., Brooks, N., Hemani-Lopez, N., O’Keefe, L., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2017). Better together: Simultaneous presentation of speech and gesture in math instruction supports generalization and retention. Learning and Instruction, 50, 65–74 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2017.03.005CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cook, S. W., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2006). The role of gesture in learning: Do children use their hands to change their minds? Journal of Cognition and Development, 7(2), 211–232. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327647jcd0702_4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, S. W., Mitchell, Z., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2008). Gesturing makes learning last. Cognition, 106(2), 1047–1058. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2007.04.010CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Emmorey, K. (1999). Do signers gesture? In Messing, L. & Campbell, R. (Eds.), Gesture, speech, and sign (pp. 133–159). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, D. J., Gunderson, E. A., Spaepen, E., Levine, S. C., & Goldin‐Meadow, S. (2019). Number gestures predict learning of number words. Developmental Science, 22(3), e12791. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12791CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldin-Meadow, S. (2003). Hearing gesture: How our hands help us think. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, S., Alibali, M. W., & Church, R. B. (1993). Transitions in concept acquisition: Using the hand to read the mind. Psychological Review, 100(2), 279–297. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.100.2.279CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldin-Meadow, S., Cook, S. W., & Mitchell, Z. A. (2009). Gesturing gives children new ideas about math. Psychological Science, 20(3), 267–272. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02297.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldin-Meadow, S., Kim, S., & Singer, M. (1999). What the teacher’s hands tell the student’s mind about math. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91, 720–730. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.91.4.720CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, S., Levine, S. C., Zinchenko, E., Yip, T. K., Hemani, N., & Factor, L. (2012). Doing gesture promotes learning a mental transformation task better than seeing gesture. Developmental Science, 15(6), 876–884. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2012.01185.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldin-Meadow, S., Shield, A., Lenzen, D., Herzig, M., & Padden, C. (2012). The gestures ASL signers use tell us when they are ready to learn math. Cognition, 123(3), 448–453. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2012.02.006CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldin-Meadow, S., & Singer, M. A. (2003). From children’s hands to adults’ ears: Gesture’s role in the learning process. Developmental Psychology, 39(3), 509–520. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.39.3.509CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodrich, W., & Hudson Kam, C. L. (2009). Co‐speech gesture as input in verb learning. Developmental Science, 12(1), 81–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greenfield, P. M., & Smith, J. H. (1976). Structure of communication in early language development. New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gunderson, E. A., Spaepen, E., Gibson, D., Goldin-Meadow, S., & Levine, S. C. (2015). Gesture as a window onto children’s number knowledge. Cognition, 144, 14–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2015.07.008CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hostetter, A. B. (2011). When do gestures communicate? A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 137(2), 297–315. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022128CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Iverson, J. M., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2005). Gesture paves the way for language development. Psychological Science, 16(5), 367–371. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.01542.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendon, A. (2004). Gesture: Visible action as utterance. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koumoutsakis, T., Church, R. B., Alibali, M., Singer, M., & Ayman-Nolley, S. (2016). Gesture in instruction: Evidence from live and video lessons. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 40(4), 301–315. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-016-0234-zCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krehm, M., Onishi, K. H., & Vouloumanos, A. (2014). I see your point: Infants under 12 months understand that pointing is communicative. Journal of Cognition and Development, 15(4), 527–538. https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2012.736112CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LeBarton, E. S., Goldin-Meadow, S., & Raudenbush, S. (2015). Experimentally induced increases in early gesture lead to increases in spoken vocabulary. Journal of Cognition and Development, 16(2), 199–220. https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2013.858041CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lucca, K., & Wilbourn, M. P. (2018). Communicating to learn: Infants’ pointing gestures result in optimal learning. Child Development, 89(3), 941–960. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12707CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lucca, K., & Wilbourn, M. P. (2019). The what and the how: Information-seeking pointing gestures facilitate learning labels and functions. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 178, 417–436. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2018.08.003CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McGregor, K. K., Rohlfing, K. J., Bean, A., & Marschner, E. (2009). Gesture as a support for word learning: The case of under. Journal of Child Language, 36(4), 807–828. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000908009173CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McNeill, D. (1992). Hand and mind: What gestures reveal about thought. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
McNeill, N. M., Hornburg, C. B., Devlin, B. L., Carrazza, C., & McKeever, M. O. (2019). Consequences of individual differences in children’s formal understanding of mathematical equivalence. Child Development, 90(3), 940–956. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12948CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macedonia, M., Müller, K., & Friederici, A. D. (2011). The impact of iconic gestures on foreign language word learning and its neural substrate. Human Brain Mapping, 32(6), 982–998. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.21084CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Novack, M. A., Congdon, E. L., Hemani-Lopez, N., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2014). From action to abstraction: Using the hands to learn math. Psychological Science, 25(4), 903–910. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613518351CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Novack, M. A., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2017). Gesture as representational action: A paper about function. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 24(3), 652–665. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-016-1145-zCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Novack, M. A., Goldin-Meadow, S., & Woodward, A. L. (2015). Learning from gesture: How early does it happen? Cognition, 142, 138–147, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2015.05.018CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Novack, M. A., Wakefield, E. M., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2016). What makes a movement a gesture? Cognition, 146, 339–348. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2015.10.014CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Özçalışkan, Ş. , & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2005). Gesture is at the cutting edge of early language development. Cognition, 96(3), B101–B113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2005.01.001CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Özçalışkan, Ş. , & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2011). Is there an iconic gesture spurt at 26 months? In Stam, G., & Ishino, M. (Eds.), Integrating gestures: The interdisciplinary nature of gesture (pp. 163–174). Amsterdam, the Netherlands: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, M., Church, R. B., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (1988). Transitional knowledge in the acquisition of concepts. Cognitive Development, 3(4), 359–400. https://doi.org/10.1016/0885-2014(88)90021-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohlfing, K. J., Longo, M. R., & Bertenthal, B. I. (2012). Dynamic pointing triggers shifts of visual attention in young infants. Developmental Science, 15(3), 426–435. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2012.01139.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rowe, M. L., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2009). Early gesture selectively predicts later language learning. Developmental Science, 12(1), 182–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00764.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sandler, W. (2009). Symbiotic symbolization by hand and mouth in sign language. Semiotica, 2009(174), 241–275. https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.2009.035CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sarnecka, B. W., & Carey, S. (2008). How counting represents number: What children must learn and when they learn it. Cognition, 108(3), 662–674. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2008.05.007CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarnecka, B. W., & Lee, M. D. (2009). Levels of number knowledge during early childhood. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 103(3), 325–337. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2009.02.007CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Singer, M. A., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2005). Children learn when their teacher’s gestures and speech differ. Psychological Science, 16(2), 85–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.00786.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Son, J. Y., Ramos, P., DeWolf, M., Loftus, W., & Stigler, J. W. (2018). Exploring the practicing-connections hypothesis: Using gesture to support coordination of ideas in understanding a complex statistical concept. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 3, Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-017-0085-0Google ScholarPubMed
Valenzeno, L., Alibali, M. W., & Klatzky, R. (2003). Teachers’ gestures facilitate students’ learning: A lesson in symmetry. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 28(2), 187–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0361-476X(02)00007-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wakefield, E. M., Congdon, E. L., Novack, M. A., Goldin-Meadow, S., & James, K. H. (2019). Learning math by hand: The neural effects of gesture-based instruction in 8-year-old children. Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics, 81(7), 2343–2353. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-019-01755-yCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wakefield, E. M., Foley, A. E., Ping, R., Villarreal, J. N., Goldin-Meadow, S., & Levine, S. C. (2019). Breaking down gesture and action in mental rotation: Understanding the components of movement that promote learning. Developmental Psychology, 55(5), 981–993. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000697CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wakefield, E. M., Hall, C., James, K. H., & Goldin‐Meadow, S. (2018). Gesture for generalization: Gesture facilitates flexible learning of words for actions on objects. Developmental Science, 21(5), e12656. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12656CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wakefield, E. M., & James, K. H. (2015). Effects of learning with gesture on children’s understanding of a new language concept. Developmental Psychology, 51(8), 1105–1114. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039471CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wakefield, E., Novack, M. A., Congdon, E. L., Franconeri, S., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2018). Gesture helps learners learn, but not merely by guiding their visual attention. Developmental Science, 21, e12664. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12664CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wakefield, E. M., Novack, M. A., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2017). Unpacking the ontogeny of gesture understanding: How movement becomes meaningful across development. Child Development, 89(3), e245–e260. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12817Google ScholarPubMed
Woodward, A. L. (2004). Infants’ use of action knowledge to get a grasp on words. In Hall, D. G., & Waxman, S. R. (Eds.), Weaving a lexicon (pp. 149–172). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, A. L., & Guajardo, J. J. (2002). Infants’ understanding of the point gesture as an object-directed action. Cognitive Development, 17(1), 1061–1084. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2014(02)00074-6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wynn, K. (1990). Children’s understanding of counting. Cognition, 36(2), 155–193. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(90)90003-3CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wynn, K. (1992). Children’s acquisition of the number words and the counting system. Cognitive Psychology, 24(2), 220–251. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(92)90008-PCrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×