Why Are You Gesturing? Elicited Gestures and Learning Gains in an Embodied Learning Environment

• In Event: 16.062 - Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: 16.062-4 - Learning Sciences SIG Poster Session

Abstract

There is increasing recognition that gesture plays an important role in cognition and learning, and due to concurrent advances in technology that can build upon these gestures, more and more educational researchers have explored how gestures can and do support learning. While many studies have focused on spontaneous gestures, fewer have examined how those that are solicited explicitly by the experimenter or the design of educational software might influence students’ explanations and resulting learning. In the present study, we examine how a simulation-based tutorial designed to help students explore ecosystems dynamics using elicited gestures to indicate the levels of related populations (e.g., foxes and rabbits) influenced their explanations and learning.

Authors

• Alejandro Andrade, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Joshua Adam Danish, Indiana University

• Adam V. Maltese, Indiana University