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Article published In:
Gesture
Vol. 18:1 (2019) ► pp.31–56

Teachers’ attitudes about gesture for learning and instruction

| University of Wisconsin–Madison
| National Institute of Education, Singapore
| Central Connecticut State University
| Kalamazoo College
| University of Wisconsin–Madison

We developed and tested a survey instrument to measure teachers’ attitudes about gesture in learning and instruction (TAGLI). Teachers (N = 192) generally believed that instructional gestures are beneficial for learning, and not distracting for students. Teachers had positive expectations, both for gestures that are redundant with (i.e., match) the accompanying speech, and gestures that are complementary to (i.e., mismatch) speech. However, teachers’ attitudes varied with teachers’ grade bands (middle v. high school) and curricular content areas (STEM v. non-STEM). Teachers endorsed a range of reasons for gesture’s pedagogical effectiveness. These reasons largely mirror the reasons teachers reported for why they produced gestures: gestures help make connections between representations and ideas, make abstract concepts more concrete, and they appropriately direct learners’ attention. Teachers reported that they frequently use gestures while teaching, explaining, and in everyday conversation.

Keywords: classroom learning, instructional gestures, teacher beliefs
Article outline
  • Gestures in instruction
  • Teachers’ gestures and students’ learning
  • Focal areas of teachers’ beliefs about instructional gestures
  • Research questions
  • Method
    • Developing the survey instrument
    • Participants and procedure
  • Results
    • Reliability
    • Scale scores
    • Group differences
  • Discussion
    • Empirical summary
    • Implications for research on teachers’ gestures
    • Implications for improving instruction
    • Limitations and future directions
  • Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 11 September 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.00032.nat
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