The Role of Gesture in Learning

孩子们说话时做出的手势反映了他们所知道的东西。但手势也可以改变孩子们的认知，并以这种方式在学习中发挥作用。这项由美国国家科学基金会资助的研究项目是由芝加哥大学的苏珊·戈尔丁-梅多（Susan Goldin-Meadow）进行的，该项目探讨了手势对学习的影响是如何与手势所代表的行为相关联的。具体来说，戈尔丁-梅多和她的同事将研究一个动作手势在促进学习方面是否和动作本身一样好，甚至可能比动作本身更好。手势具有比动作本身更有效地塑造学习的潜力，正是因为手势可以将学习者的注意力集中在与解决任务特别相关的动作的特定方面。最近的研究询问了手势是否会影响学习，结果发现确实如此。目前的研究询问手势如何影响学习，希望开发出更好的方法来操纵手势，以最大限度地提高学习效果。戈尔丁-梅多和同事们将通过操纵孩子们在教学过程中做出的或看到老师做出的手势，探索产生或感知与直接行动相似度不同的手势影响学习的方式。本研究项目的一个主要目标是利用手势来最大化学习，充分利用在教学和学习情境中自发产生的所有交流方式。像任何教学和学习的工具一样，手势的使用或多或少都是有效的。例如，一些手势可能会突出有助于学习的动作成分，而另一些手势则会突出分散注意力和妨碍学习的成分。这个研究项目探讨了在学习过程的不同阶段，哪种类型的手势能促进学习。通过这种方式，该研究有望推进优化教学和课堂表现的最佳实践的知识库。例如，有可能改变儿童做出手势的速度和类型，从而改善学习。这一点很重要，因为孩子们自发做出的手势数量差异很大。有趣的是，社会经济地位较低家庭的孩子往往比社会经济地位较高家庭的孩子更少做出自发的手势。此外，手势在不能直接作用于物体的情况下可能特别有用。

The gestures that children produce when they talk reflect what they know. But gesturing can also change what children know, and, in this way, play a role in learning. The NSF-funded research project by Susan Goldin-Meadow at the University of Chicago explores how the impact that gesture has on learning is related to the actions that gestures represent. Specifically, Goldin-Meadow and her colleagues will study whether an action gesture is as good as, or perhaps even better than, the action itself in promoting learning. Gesture has the potential to shape learning more effectively than action itself, precisely because gesture can focus the learner's attention on those specific aspects of an action that are particularly relevant to solving a task. Recent research has asked if gesture impacts learning, and has found that it does. The current research asks how gesture impacts learning, in hopes of developing better ways to manipulate gesture to maximize learning. By manipulating the gestures that children either produce or see their teachers produce during instruction, Goldin-Meadow and colleagues will explore the ways in which producing or perceiving gestures that vary in their similarity to direct action influences learning.One major goal of this research project is to harness gesture to maximize learning, taking fullest advantage of all communication modalities that spontaneously arise in teaching and learning situations. Like any tool for teaching and learning, gesture may be used more or less effectively. For example, some gestures may highlight action components that facilitate learning, whereas others highlight components that are distracting and get in the way of learning. This research project explores which types of gestures promote learning at different points in the learning process. In this way, the research promises to advance the knowledge-base underlying best practices that optimize teaching and classroom performance. As an example, it may be possible to alter the rate and types of gestures children produce, and thus improve learning. This is important because children vary quite a bit in the number of gestures they spontaneously produce. Interestingly, children from lower socio-economic homes tend to produce fewer spontaneous gestures than children from higher socio-economic homes. Moreover, gesturing may be particularly useful in situations where acting directly on objects is not practical.