Gestures are an integral component of mathematics classroom discourse. There is a need to
classify the types of gestures that teachers use according to their purposes towards supporting and extending students’ mathematical thinking. We analyzed 16 algebra tutoring sessions between pre-service teachers (PSTs) and high school students to categorize the PSTs’ gestures. We identified 10 categories of PST gestures that we roughly organized into three supercategories: gestures that facilitate shared attention and communication, gestures that emphasize written visual representations, and gestures that support verbal explanations. A taxonomy of gestures based on their purposes will enable further analyses of teacher gesturing and help preservice and practicing teachers use gestures in more purposeful ways.
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This content will become publicly available on May 8, 2025
Semiotic mediation ofgestures intheteaching ofearly algebra: thecase oftheequal sign
Gestures are one of the ways in which mathematical cognition is embodied and have been elevated as a potentially important semiotic device in the teaching of mathematics. As such, a better understanding of gestures used during mathematics instruction (including frequency of use, types of gestures, how they are used, and the possible relationship between gestures and student performance) would inform mathematics education. We aim to understand teachers’ gestures in the context of early algebra, particularly in the teaching of the equal sign. Our findings suggest that the equal sign is a relatively rich environment for gestures, which are used in a variety of ways. Participating teachers used gestures frequently to support their teaching about the equal sign. Furthermore, the use of gestures varied depending on the particular conception of the equal sign the instruction aimed to promote. Finally, teacher gesture use in this context is correlated with students’ high performance on an early algebra assessment.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1721192
- PAR ID:
- 10523645
- Publisher / Repository:
- Springer
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Educational studies in mathematics
- ISSN:
- 1573-0816
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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