Gesturing during learning improves retention and reduces cognitive load¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · review r2–r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2011 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Encouraging children to gesture while learning a new arithmetical strategy made them more likely to retain the learned strategy, whereas speaking without gesturing did not. → Björn B. de Koning & Huib K. Tabbers 2011 q2 i? Both children and adults remembered more items during a dual task when they gestured while explaining a mathematical solution, suggesting gesturing frees cognitive resources. → Björn B. de Koning & Huib K. Tabbers 2011 (2)

Evidence¶

Björn B. de Koning & Huib K. Tabbers 2011¶

Björn B. de Koning & Huib K. Tabbers. (2011). Facilitating Understanding of Movements in Dynamic Visualizations: an Embodied Perspective. Educ Psychol Rev. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-011-9173-8

q2 · i? · review · r3

The review reports a study by Cook et al. in which children encouraged to gesture while learning an arithmetical strategy retained it, while children asked to speak without gesturing did not. The review attributes the benefit to gesturing providing an alternative, action-embodied representation; no effect size is printed.

"Cook et al. (2008) found that encouraging children to make gestures while learning a new arithmetical strategy are more likely to retain the knowledge they gained during instruction. In contrast, asking children to speak but not gesture during learning did not result in retention of the strategy."

Björn B. de Koning & Huib K. Tabbers 2011 (2)¶

Björn B. de Koning & Huib K. Tabbers. (2011). Facilitating Understanding of Movements in Dynamic Visualizations: an Embodied Perspective. Educ Psychol Rev. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-011-9173-8

q2 · i? · review · r2

The review reports Goldin-Meadow et al.'s study in which children and adults explained a mathematical solution while remembering letters or words; both age groups remembered more when gesturing. The review concludes gesturing freed cognitive resources; no effect size is printed.

"Both age groups remembered more items when they gestured during their explanations than when they did not gesture. It was concluded that gesturing freed up cognitive resources needed for the explanation task"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Pointing and tracing gestures improved retention and comprehension over no gesturing (review attributes this to Macken & Ginns, 2014) — related
• Tracing and pointing during a paper-based multimedia lesson improves comprehension test performance in Chinese-speaking adults — related
• The reviewed tracing studies consistently confirm learning benefits of tracing across retention, comprehension, and transfer measures, though cognitive-load hypotheses were not confirmed in all studies — a broader claim this one bears on
• Gestures and bodily actions lighten cognitive load and extend mathematical ideas across group members during collaboration — related
• Suppressing or restricting hand movements disrupts children's arithmetic performance, suggesting gestures play a functional role in calculation — related
• Mimicking tracing and pointing gestures on a touchscreen during timed multimedia worked examples hindered adolescent learners' geometry learning — reports the opposite
• Enacting support—gestures and manipulatives—facilitates explanation quality and problem-solving, partly by adding strategies to verbal explanations — related
• Gesturing while explaining problem solving reduces cognitive load — related
• Stimming and fidgeting are associated with improved cognitive performance, while suppressing stimming consumes cognitive resources — related