83 research outputs found
Gesture analysis for physics education researchers
Systematic observations of student gestures can not only fill in gaps in
students' verbal expressions, but can also offer valuable information about
student ideas, including their source, their novelty to the speaker, and their
construction in real time. This paper provides a review of the research in
gesture analysis that is most relevant to physics education researchers and
illustrates gesture analysis for the purpose of better understanding student
thinking about physics.Comment: 14 page
Spatial Encoding Strategy Theory: The Relationship between Spatial Skill and STEM Achievement
Learners’ spatial skill is a reliable and significant predictor of achievement in STEM, including computing, education. Spatial skill is also malleable, meaning it can be improved through training. Most cognitive skill training improves performance on only a narrow set of similar tasks, but researchers have found ample evidence that spatial training can broadly improve STEM achievement. We do not yet know the cognitive mechanisms that make spatial skill training broadly transferable when other cognitive training is not, but understanding these mechanisms is important for developing training and instruction that consistently benefits learners, especially those starting with low spatial skill. This paper proposes the spatial encoding strategy (SpES) theory to explain the cognitive mechanisms connecting spatial skill and STEM achievement. To motivate SpES theory, the paper reviews research from STEM education, learning sciences, and psychology. SpES theory provides compelling post hoc explanations for the findings from this literature and aligns with neuroscience models about the functions of brain structures. The paper concludes with a plan for testing the theory’s validity and using it to inform future research and instruction. The paper focuses on implications for computing education, but the transferability of spatial skill to STEM performance makes the proposed theory relevant to many education communities
Tense and aspect in word problems about motion: diagram, gesture, and the felt experience of time
© 2014, Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, Inc. Word problems about motion contain various conjugated verb forms. As students and teachers grapple with such word problems, they jointly operationalize diagrams, gestures, and language. Drawing on findings from a 3-year research project examining the social semiotics of classroom interaction, we show how teachers and students use gesture and diagram to make sense of complex verb forms in such word problems. We focus on the grammatical category of “aspect” for how it broadens the concept of verb tense. Aspect conveys duration and completion or frequency of an event. The aspect of a verb defines its temporal flow (or lack thereof) and the location of a vantage point for making sense of this durational process
Telerobotic Pointing Gestures Shape Human Spatial Cognition
This paper aimed to explore whether human beings can understand gestures
produced by telepresence robots. If it were the case, they can derive meaning
conveyed in telerobotic gestures when processing spatial information. We
conducted two experiments over Skype in the present study. Participants were
presented with a robotic interface that had arms, which were teleoperated by an
experimenter. The robot could point to virtual locations that represented
certain entities. In Experiment 1, the experimenter described spatial locations
of fictitious objects sequentially in two conditions: speech condition (SO,
verbal descriptions clearly indicated the spatial layout) and speech and
gesture condition (SR, verbal descriptions were ambiguous but accompanied by
robotic pointing gestures). Participants were then asked to recall the objects'
spatial locations. We found that the number of spatial locations recalled in
the SR condition was on par with that in the SO condition, suggesting that
telerobotic pointing gestures compensated ambiguous speech during the process
of spatial information. In Experiment 2, the experimenter described spatial
locations non-sequentially in the SR and SO conditions. Surprisingly, the
number of spatial locations recalled in the SR condition was even higher than
that in the SO condition, suggesting that telerobotic pointing gestures were
more powerful than speech in conveying spatial information when information was
presented in an unpredictable order. The findings provide evidence that human
beings are able to comprehend telerobotic gestures, and importantly, integrate
these gestures with co-occurring speech. This work promotes engaging remote
collaboration among humans through a robot intermediary.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figure
An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks
Cognitive load theory is intended to provide instructional strategies derived from experimental, cognitive load effects. Each effect is based on our knowledge of human cognitive architecture, primarily the limited capacity and duration of a human working memory. These limitations are ameliorated by changes in long-term memory associated with learning. Initially, cognitive load theory's view of human cognitive architecture was assumed to apply to all categories of information. Based on Geary's (Educational Psychologist 43, 179-195 2008; 2011) evolutionary account of educational psychology, this interpretation of human cognitive architecture requires amendment. Working memory limitations may be critical only when acquiring novel information based on culturally important knowledge that we have not specifically evolved to acquire. Cultural knowledge is known as biologically secondary information. Working memory limitations may have reduced significance when acquiring novel
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