Distributed Cognition, Gesture, and Impromptu Teaching

• In Event: 66.067 - Learning Sciences: Processes of Learning and Interaction in Context

Abstract

On a beach in France, a lifeguard makes three unplanned attempts to teach a colleague how to find compass directions using a wristwatch and the sun. The lifeguard’s challenge is how to represent the elements of this distributed system and their functional coordination such that the novice can learn to perform the task successfully. The lifeguard meets this challenge by using his hands, eyes, and body to build and link representations in four spaces: in the sand, in the surroundings, on a digital wristwatch (construed as analog), and in the air (gesture space). Our paper explores the roles of gesture, gaze, and bodily enactment in this instructional discourse, emphasizing a situated view of instruction and embodied view of teaching.

Authors

• Robert F. Williams, Lawrence University

• Simon Harrison, University of Nottingham Ningbo