Cover not available

Article published In: Gesture
Vol. 14:1 (2014) ► pp.26–45

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

The effect of gestured instruction on the learning of physical causality problems

 | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
 | University of Chicago
 | Northeastern Illinois University
Published online: 30 March 2015
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.14.1.02car
Recent research has demonstrated instruction that includes gesture can greatly impact the learning of certain mathematics tasks for children and much of this work relies on face-to-face instruction. We extend the work on this problem by asking how gesture in instruction impacts adult learning from a video production for a science concept. Borrowing from research by Perry and Elder (1997), the research presented here examines what role adding gesture to instruction plays for adults learning about gear movement. In this pretest-instruction-posttest design, 56 college-aged participants were asked to complete problems relating to gear movement. Participants viewed either an instructional video in which an instructor used speech only (control) or speech-plus-gesture (experimental) to explain a fundamental principle in the physics of gear movement. Results showed that adults who knew less actually learned more and that instruction was effective, but significantly more effective when gesture was added. These findings shed light on the role of gesture input in adult learning and carry implications for how gesture may be utilized in asynchronous instruction with adults.
References (62)
Alibali, Martha W. & Mitchell J. Nathan (2007). Teachers’ gestures as a means of scaffolding students’ understanding: Evidence from an early algebra lesson. In Ricki Goldman, Roy Pea, Brigid Barron, & Sharon J. Derry (Eds.), Video research in the learning sciences (pp. 349–365). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011): Embodiment in mathematics teaching and learning: Evidence from learners’ and teachers’ gestures. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 21 (2), 247–286. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Alibali, Martha W., Mitchell J. Nathan, & Yuka Fujimori (2011). Gestures in the mathematics classroom: What’s the point? In Nancy L. Stein & Stephen W. Raudenbush (Eds.), Developmental cognitive science goes to school (pp. 219–234). New York: Routeledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Alibali, Martha W., Robert C. Spencer, Lucy Knox, & Sotaro Kita (2011). Spontaneous gestures influence strategy choices in problem solving. Psychological Science, 22 (9), 1138–1144. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Allen, I. Elaine & Jeff Seaman (2006). Making the grade: Online education in the United States, 2006. Needham, MA: The Sloan Consortium.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2010). Learning on demand: Online education in the United States, 2009. Newburyport, MA: The Sloan Consortium.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barr, Dale, Spencer D. Kelly, Ruth Breckinridge Church, & Kathryn Lynch (1999). Gesture is not just second-hand information: The interdependence of speech and gesture in comprehension and memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 401, 577–592. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beilock, Sian L. & Susan Goldin-Meadow (2010). Gesture changes thought by grounding it in action. Psychological Science, 211, 1605–1610. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bem, Jolanta, Steven A. Jacobs, Susan Goldin-Meadow, Susan Levine, Martha W. Alibali, & Mitchell Nathan (2012, June). Gesture’s benefit for instruction: Attention coordination or embodied cognition? Poster presented at the Jean Piaget Society Conference , Toronto, CA.
Ben-Zeev, Talia & Jon R. Star (2001). Spurious correlations in mathematical thinking. Cognition and Instruction, 191, 253–275. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chi, Michelene T.H., Marguerite Roy, & Robert G.M. Hausmann (2008). Observing tutorial dialogues collaboratively: Insights about human tutoring effectiveness from vicarious learning. Cognitive Science, 321, 301–341. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chu, Mingyuan & Sotaro Kita (2008). Spontaneous gestures during mental rotation tasks: Insights into the microdevelopment of the motor strategy. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 1371, 706–723. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chu, Mingyuan, & Sotaro Kita (2011). The nature of gestures’ beneficial role in spatial problem solving. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 1401, 102–116. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Church, Ruth Breckinridge, Saba Ayman-Nolley, & Shahrzad Mahootian (2004). The role of gesture in bilingual education: Does gesture enhance learning? International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 71, 303–319. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Church, Ruth Breckinridge, Phillip Garber, & Kathryn Rogalski (2007). The role of gesture in memory and social communication. Gesture, 71, 137–158. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Church, Ruth Breckinridge, Spencer D. Kelly, & Kathryn Lynch (2000). Immediate memory for mismatched speech and representational gesture across development. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 241, 151–174. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Church, Ruth Breckinridge, Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, Nancy Goodman, Spencer D. Kelly, & Saba Ayman-Nolley (1995). The role of gesture and speech communication as a reflection of cognitive understanding. Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues, 61, 123–154.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cook, Susan Wagner & Susan Goldin-Meadow (2006). The role of gesture in learning: Do children use their hands to change their minds? Journal of Cognition and Development, 71, 211–232. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cook, Susan Wagner, Zachary Mitchell, & Susan Goldin-Meadow (2008). Gesture makes learning last. Cognition, 1061, 1047–1058. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cook, Susan Wagner, Ryan G. Duffy, & Kimberly M. Fenn (2013). Consolidation and transfer of learning after observing hand gesture. Child Development, 84 (6), 1863–1871. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corballis, Michael (1999). The gestural origins of language: Human language may have evolved from manual gestures, which survive today as a “behavioral fossil” coupled to speech. American Scientist, 87 (2), 138–146. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Craig, Scotty D., Michelene T.H. Chi, & Kurt Van Lehn (2009). Improving classroom learning by collaboratively observing human tutoring videos while problem solving. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1011, 779–789. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dixon, James A. & Ashley Bangert (2002). The prehistory of discovery: Precursors of representational change in solving gear-system problems. Developmental Psychology, 381, 918–933. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ekman, Paul & Wallace V. Friesen (1974). Nonverbal behavior and psychopathology. In Raymond J. Friedman & Martin M. Katz (Eds.), The psychology of depression: Contemporary theory and research (pp. 203–232). Washington, DC: Winston and Sons.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flevares, Lucia M. & Michelle Perry (2001). How many do you see? The use of nonspoken representations in first-grade mathematics lessons. Journal of Educational Psychology, 931, 330–345. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gholson, Barry & Scotty D. Craig (2006). Promoting constructive activities that support vicarious learning during computer-based instruction. Educational Psychology Review, 181, 119–139. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, Susan (2003). Hearing gesture: How our hands help us think. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011). Learning through gesture. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 21, 595–607. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, Susan, Martha W. Alibali, & Ruth Breckinridge Church (1993). Transitions in concept acquisition: Using the hand to read the mind. Psychological Review, 1001, 279–297. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, Susan, Suyeon Kim, & Melissa Singer (1999). What the teacher’s hands tell the student’s mind about math. Journal of Educational Psychology, 911, 720–730. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, Susan & Melissa Singer (2003). From children’s hands to adults’ ears: Gesture’s role in the learning process. Developmental Psychology, 391, 509–520. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, Susan, Debra Wein, & Cecilia Chang (1992). Assessing knowledge through gesture: Using children’s hands to read their minds. Cognition and Instruction, 91, 201–219. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hostetter, Autumn B. (2011). When do gestures communicate? A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 1371, 297–315. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jacobs, Steven A., Ruth Breckinridge Church, Mitchell J. Nathan, Eric J. Knuth, Matthew S. Wolfgram, & Martha W. Alibali (2009, April). How teachers use linking gestures to establish cohesion across multiple representations. Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development , Denver, CO.
Kelly, Spencer D. & Ruth Breckinridge Church (1997). Can children detect conceptual information conveyed through other children’s nonverbal behaviors? Cognition and Instruction, 151, 107–134. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1998). A comparison between children’s and adults’ ability to detect conceptual information conveyed through representational gesture. Child Development, 691, 85–93. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kelly, Spencer D., Sarah M. Manning, & Sabrina Rodak (2008). Gesture gives a hand to language and learning: Perspectives from cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology and education. Language and Linguistics Compass, 21, 569–588. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kendon, Adam (2004). Gesture: Visible action as utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klahr, David & Milena Nigam (2004). The equivalence of learning paths in early science instruction. Effects of direct instruction and discovery learning. Psychological Science, 151, 661–667. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, George & Rafael E. Nunez (2000). Where mathematics comes from: How the embodied mind brings mathematics into being. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mayer, Richard E. (2009). Multimedia learning (2nd ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McNeill, David (1992). Hand and mind: What gestures reveal about thought. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2005). Gesture and thought. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morford, Marolyn & Susan Goldin-Meadow (1992). Comprehension and production of gesture in combination with speech in one-word speakers. Journal of Child Language, 191, 559–580. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Perry, Michelle & Anastasia D. Elder (1997). Knowledge in transition: Adults’ developing understanding of a principle of physical causality. Cognitive Development, 121, 131–157. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Perry, Michelle, Jacqueline Wooley, & John Ifcher (1995). Adults’ abilities to detect children’s readiness to learn. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 181, 365–381. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Piaget, Jean (1954). The construction of reality in the child. New York: Ballantine Books. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ping, Raedy P., Susan Goldin-Meadow, & Sian L. Beilock (2013). Understanding gesture: Is the listener’s motor system involved? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Advance online publication. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Quandt, Lorna C., Peter J. Marshall, Thomas F. Shipley, Sian L. Beilock, & Susan Goldin-Meadow (2012). Sensitivity of alpha and beta oscillations to sensorimotor characteristics of action: An EEG study of action production and gesture observation. Neuropsychologia, 501, 2745–2751. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reilly, Susan S. & Louis H. Muzekari (1986). Effects of emotional illness and age upon the resolution of discrepant messages. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 621, 823–829. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reynolds, Fiona J. & Robert A. Reeve (2001). Gesture in collaborative mathematics problem solving. Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 20 (4), 447–460. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roseth, Cary J., Andy J. Saltarelli, & Chris R. Glass (2011). Effects of face-to-face and computer-mediated constructive controversy on social interdependence, motivation, and achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1031, 804–820. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schwartz, Daniel L. & Tamara Black (1999). Inferences through imagined actions: Knowing by simulated doing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 251, 116–136. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Singer, Melissa A. & Susan Goldin-Meadow (2005). Children learn when their teacher’s gestures and speech differ. Psychological Science, 16 (2), 85–89. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Singer, Melissa A., Joshua Radinsky, & Susan R. Goldman (2008). The role of gesture in meaning construction. Discourse Processes, 451, 365–386. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth A.L. (2007). The Dumbledore hypothesis of cognitive aging. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 161, 295–299. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stürmer, Birgit, Gisa Aschersleben, & Wolfgang Prinz (2000). Correspondence effects with manual gestures and postures: A study on imitation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 261, 1746–1759. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thompson, Laura A. & Dominic W. Massaro (1994). Children’s integration of speech and pointing gestures in comprehension. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 57 (3), 327–354. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Valenzeno, Laura, Martha W. Alibali, & Roberta Klatzky (2003). Teachers’ gestures facilitate students’ learning: A lesson in symmetry. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 28 (2), 187–204. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Woodall, W. Gill & Joseph P. Folger (1985). Nonverbal cue context and episodic memory: On the availability and endurance of nonverbal behaviors as retrieval cues. Communication Monographs, 521, 319–333. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (19)

Cited by 19 other publications

Church, R. Breckinridge, Michelle Perry, Melissa A. Singer, Susan Wagner Cook & Martha Wagner Alibali
2025. Teachers’ Gestures and How They Matter. Topics in Cognitive Science 17:3 ► pp. 545 ff. DOI logo
Goldin‐Meadow, Susan
2025. The Mind Hidden in Our Hands. Topics in Cognitive Science 17:3 ► pp. 443 ff. DOI logo
Choi, Yoon-Sung
2024. Descriptive Characteristics of Systematic Functional Gestures Used by Pre-Service Earth Science Teachers in Classroom Learning Environments. Journal of the Korean earth science society 45:4 ► pp. 377 ff. DOI logo
Li, Wenjing, Ziyi Kuang, Xiaoxue Leng, Richard E. Mayer & Fuxing Wang
2024. Role of Gesturing Onscreen Instructors in Video Lectures: A Set of Three-level Meta-analyses on the Embodiment Effect. Educational Psychology Review 36:3 DOI logo
Young, Sylvia E., Sarah Grey & Laura M. Morett
2024. Hand-y scaffolding:. Gesture 23:1-2 ► pp. 97 ff. DOI logo
Beege, Maik, Noah L. Schroeder, Steffi Heidig, Günter Daniel Rey & Sascha Schneider
2023. The instructor presence effect and its moderators in instructional video: A series of meta-analyses. Educational Research Review 41 ► pp. 100564 ff. DOI logo
Parrill, Fey, Jeffrey J. Shymanski & Susan Wagner Cook
2023. Using the hands to learn about the brain: Testing action‐based instruction in brain anatomy. Applied Cognitive Psychology 37:5 ► pp. 967 ff. DOI logo
Alemdag, Ecenaz
2022. Effects of instructor-present videos on learning, cognitive load, motivation, and social presence: A meta-analysis. Education and Information Technologies 27:9 ► pp. 12713 ff. DOI logo
Ping, Raedy, Fey Parrill, Ruth Breckinridge Church & Susan Goldin-Meadow
2022. Teaching stereoisomers through gesture, action, and mental imagery. Chemistry Education Research and Practice 23:3 ► pp. 698 ff. DOI logo
Guilbert, Daniel, Naomi Sweller & Penny Van Bergen
2021. Emotion and gesture effects on narrative recall in young children and adults. Applied Cognitive Psychology 35:4 ► pp. 873 ff. DOI logo
McKern, Nicola, Nicole Dargue, Naomi Sweller, Kazuki Sekine & Elizabeth Austin
2021. Lending a hand to storytelling: Gesture’s effects on narrative comprehension moderated by task difficulty and cognitive ability. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 74:10 ► pp. 1791 ff. DOI logo
Reuter, Timo & Miriam Leuchter
2021. Children's concepts of gears and their promotion through play. Journal of Research in Science Teaching 58:1 ► pp. 69 ff. DOI logo
Wang, Jixin, Tingting Liu & Xuan Wang
2020. Human hand gesture recognition with convolutional neural networks for K-12 double-teachers instruction mode classroom. Infrared Physics & Technology 111 ► pp. 103464 ff. DOI logo
Lubrick, Mark, George Zhou & Jingsheng Zhang
2019. Is the Future Bright? The Potential of Lightboard Videos for Student Achievement and Engagement in Learning. EURASIA Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 15:8 DOI logo
Parrill, Fey, Alison McKim & Kimberly Grogan
2019. Gesturing standard deviation: Gestures undergraduate students use in describing their concepts of standard deviation. The Journal of Mathematical Behavior 53 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Cook, Susan Wagner
2018. Enhancing learning with hand gestures: Potential mechanisms [Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 69], ► pp. 107 ff. DOI logo
Rueckert, Linda, Ruth Breckinridge Church, Andrea Avila & Theresa Trejo
2017. Gesture enhances learning of a complex statistical concept. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications 2:1 DOI logo
Abels, Simone
2016. The role of gestures in a teacher–student-discourse about atoms. Chemistry Education Research and Practice 17:3 ► pp. 618 ff. DOI logo
Senior, Carl
2016. Innovation in education. Commentary: Teaching statistics using dance and movement and a case for neuroscience in mathematics education. Frontiers in Psychology 7 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 9 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue