Harnessing Gesture and Action to Improve Pre-Algebra Instruction

在代数上取得成功的学生更有可能在高级STEM课程上取得成功。代数不及格的学生更有可能从高中辍学。芝加哥大学（University of Chicago）和芝加哥洛约拉大学（Loyola University Chicago）的一组研究人员将进行一系列实验研究，以探索手势和操作的使用如何提高对数学等价的理解。基本的，前代数的构件小孩子经常对这个概念有误解。他们可以正确地解决像3+4+5=___这样的问题，但当面对像3+4+5=___+5这样的问题时，他们会把所有的数字加在一起，或者只是把等号左边的数字加起来。这种误解常常导致学习代数的困难。研究人员将测试学生和教师在课堂环境中已经使用的两种运动形式如何用于改善学习效果：直接在物体上执行的动作，以及可以通过语言交流思想的手势。先前的研究表明，动作和手势对儿童的思考和学习方式都有很大的影响。通过一系列的研究，研究团队将探索(1)儿童如何通过动作或手势学习、概括和保持对数学等价的理解；(2)口语教学如何与动作和手势一起影响学习结果；(3)在教学中如何将动作和手势结合起来促进学习。为了激励未来的工作和改进教育实践，行为方法和神经成像技术将被用来理解动作和手势是如何产生效果的。通过考虑大脑在学习过程中是如何变化的，我们将有可能更清楚地了解手势和动作的各个方面，这些方面在教学工具的创建中应该得到强调。该项目由EHR核心研究项目资助，该项目支持推进STEM学习研究文献的基础研究。这项研究的首要目标是调查动作和手势指导对儿童的影响。学习、概括和保留与发展数学等价的前代数概念有关的信息的能力。动作和手势都是塑造认知的强大工具。然而，这些工具可能以不同的方式促进学习，因此可能在学习过程的不同阶段有益。支持的项目探索了这一假设，并有3个具体目标：(1)确定如何最好地使用动作和手势来促进数学等效的初始学习，同时促进新学习概念的概括和保留。动作和手势训练的效果将从行为和神经两个层面来考虑。行为数据将表明总体结果；神经成像方法将用于区分可能导致行为影响的各种机制。这些方法的结合将导致循证教育技术的发展，目标是通过动作和手势学习。(2)确定动作和手势如何与口语指令相互作用，以促进数学等效的学习、概括和保留。口语教学是教师最常用的教学方法，先前的研究表明，手势与语言的结合比动作更紧密。理解语言如何与手势和动作相互作用以促进学习，从而有可能增加这些教学工具的效用。(3)确定手势和动作如何结合起来促进数学等值的学习、泛化和记忆。行动可能是介绍概念的有效方式；手势可以鼓励孩子概括概念。这个问题之所以显得重要，是因为课堂上对教具采取行动的频率很高；虽然在向学习者介绍一个概念方面很好，但操纵教学可能有一个重要的缺点：它们可能会阻碍对新问题的概括。这些目标将通过对9-10岁儿童进行一系列组间研究来实现。

Students who succeed in algebra are more likely to be successful in advanced STEM courses. Students who fail algebra are more likely to drop out of high school. A team of researchers at the University of Chicago and Loyola University Chicago will conduct a set of experimental studies to explore how gesture and use of manipulatives may improve understanding of mathematical equivalence. a fundamental, pre-algebraic building block. Young children often have misconceptions about this concept??they can correctly solve problems like 3+4+5=___ , but when faced with a problem like 3+4+5=___+5, they add all of the numbers together, or just add the numbers to the left of the equal sign. This misconception often leads to difficulties with algebra. The researchers will test how two forms of movement that students and teachers already use in a classroom setting can be used to improve learning outcomes: actions, performed directly on objects, and gestures, movements of the hands that can communicate ideas along with speech. Previous work shows that both action and gesture have powerful effects on how children think and learn. Through a series of studies, the research team will explore (1) how children learn, generalize, and retain an understanding of mathematical equivalence after learning through action or gesture, (2) how spoken instruction can be used with action and gesture to affect learning outcomes, and (3) how action and gesture can be combined in instruction to bolster learning. To motivate future work and refine educational practices, behavioral methods and neuroimaging techniques will be used to understand how action and gesture produce their effects. By considering how the brain changes over the course of learning, it will be possible to gain a clearer understanding of the aspects of gesture and action that should be emphasized in the creation of teaching tools. The project is funded by the EHR Core Research program, which supports fundamental research that advances the research literature on STEM learning.The overarching goal of the research is to investigate how action and gesture instruction affect children?s ability to learn, generalize, and retain information relevant to developing the pre-algebraic concept of mathematical equivalence. Action and gesture are both powerful tools that can shape cognition. However, these tools may promote learning in different ways and thus may be beneficial at different stages of the learning process. The supported projects explore this hypothesis, and have 3 specific goals: (1) To determine how action and gesture can best be used not only to promote initial learning of mathematical equivalence, but also to promote generalization and retention of the newly learned concept. The effects of action and gesture training will be considered on both a behavioral and neural level. Behavioral data will indicate general outcomes; neuroimaging methods will be used to differentiate between various mechanisms that could underlie the behavioral effects. Combining these methods will lead to the development of evidence-based educational techniques that target learning through action and gesture. (2) To determine how action and gesture interact with spoken instruction to promote learning, generalization, and retention of mathematical equivalence. Spoken instruction is the most common instructional method used by teachers, and prior work suggests that gesture is more tightly integrated with speech than action. Understanding how speech interacts with gesture and action to promote learning thus has the potential to increase the utility of each of these teaching tools. (3) To determine how gesture and action can be combined to promote learning, generalization and retention of mathematical equivalence. Action may be a useful way to introduce a concept; gesture may encourage children to generalize the concept. This issue takes on importance because of the frequency with which actions on manipulatives are used in classrooms; although good at introducing learners to a concept, manipulatives may have an important downside: They may inhibit generalization to new problems. These goals will be addressed through research with 9-10 year old children in a series of between-group studies.