Don’t Just Tell Them, Show Them! Teachers Can Intentionally Alter their Instructional Gestures

Because gestures can ground abstract ideas in the physical world and make connections between ideas, they play a potentially important role in the classroom. This study examined whether teachers can intentionally alter their gesture production. Six teachers taught a brief mathematics lesson three times, once without any special instructions, once attempting to use gestures to link ideas, and once attempting to inhibit all gestures. All 6 teachers were able both to increase and inhibit their gesture production when asked to do so. These results suggest that teachers can alter their gesture production. This is promising evidence that interventions that require teachers to alter their gestures are feasible.