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Article published In: Gesture
Vol. 23:1/2 (2024) ► pp.64–96

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Understanding conditions leading to student gestures during fractions lessons

ORCiD logo with link | University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign
ORCiD logo with link | University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign
Published online: 7 July 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.24020.rey
Abstract
Previous studies have shown that students’ gestures can support their learning, yet little is known about what might prompt students to use gestures while learning in mathematics classrooms. To address this, we observed the same fraction lesson, taught by 8 different teachers, in which we identified students’ mathematics-related gestures and traced back to how and who prompted the gestures. We also searched for all instances of these prompts within a 4-minute window, to assess the probability that those prompts led to student gestures. Logistic regressions indicated that students were likely to engage in gesturing when they spontaneously offered elaborations (without prompting), and after teachers’ higher-order prompts. We also found that students produced more concatenated gestures after teachers provided higher-order prompts (requesting strategies or rationale) than factual prompts (requesting facts or results of mathematical problems). This study provides new insights about the conditions that elicit students’ embodied mathematical thinking.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Theoretical framework: Grounded and embodied mathematical knowledge
  • Gestures in mathematical learning
    • Pointing gestures
    • Representational gestures
  • Internal and external factors contributing to spontaneous gesture production
  • Types of gesture elicitation
    • Experimental and laboratory studies
    • Classroom studies
  • Classroom prompts (independent of gesture)
  • Classroom prompts and gestures
  • The mathematical concept under investigation: Fraction magnitude
  • Current investigation
  • Study 1
    • Method
      • Participants, lessons, and analytical scope
      • Detecting students’ spontaneous gesture responses and the prompts preceding gesture responses
      • Coding
        • Classroom prompts
        • Student gesture types
    • Results
      • Pointing
      • Representational gestures
      • Inscriptions and materials
  • Study 2
    • Method
      • Detecting complexity of student gestures
      • Analysis
    • Results
  • Study 3
    • Method
      • Coding
      • Analysis
    • Results
  • General discussion
    • Summary of major findings
    • Features of prompts that could contribute to student gesturing
    • Prompts that impact concatenated gestures
  • Limitations and future directions
  • Conclusions
  • References
References (86)
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