Hand Gestures Help Students Mentally Organise New Information

By Emma L. Barratt Retaining new information can be tricky, especially with topics far outside of what we’re familiar with. A good teacher can make a huge difference, but effective teaching techniques can add new dimensions to our ability to really take on what we’re being told. A new study by academics from the University of California and University of Georgia identifies one such technique, and it turns out to be incredibly simple: hand gestures. The team wanted to know if gestures used by teachers could assist in mental organisation of new information, and help students retain and understand lesson content. To do this, they devised two experiments, looking specifically at two types of hand motion: structure gestures, which indicated which of two groups was being discussed by gestures made to the left or right, and surface gestures, which illustrated physical characteristics. In the first experiment, student participants (N=123) were shown one of four videos depicting an instructor using one, both, or neither of these types of gestures to embellish their lesson on steamboats. Structure gestures — moving their hands to the left or right — were used to indicate whether they were discussing eastern or western steamboats, respectively. Surface gestures, on the other hand, were used to indicate physical features about the depth of the hull, with the instructor moving their hands apart or together to illustrate comparative depths. Once the video lesson...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Educational Source Type: blogs