The Purposes of Preservice Teachers' Gestures During One-on-One Algebra Tutoring

• In Event: Division C Section 1C: Promoting Success in Mathematics Education

Abstract

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 super-categories: 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 pre-service and practicing teachers use gestures in more purposeful ways.

Authors

• Anna Fricano DeJarnette, University of Cincinnati

• Casey Hord, University of Cincinnati