The Role of Gesture in Learning

手势在学习中的作用

基本信息

批准号：
7917515
负责人：
SUSAN J GOLDIN-MEADOW
金额：
$ 27.25万
依托单位：
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2004
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2004-07-01 至 2014-06-30
项目状态：
已结题

项目摘要

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): When children talk, they gesture and these gestures serve as an index of the child's readiness-to-learn. Work during the current grant period has shown that gesture does more than reflect thought--it plays a role in changing thought and, as a result, contributes to the learning process itself. The purpose of the proposed research is to explore the mechanism underlying this effect--specifically, whether gesture's impact on learning stems, at least in part, from its grounding in action and, if so, whether educators can capitalize on gesture's closeness to action to promote learning. The research has four aims. (1) To explore whether gesture and action work equally well to promote learning, Studies 1-4 manipulate whether children experience action (e.g., rotating an object) or gesture for that action (e.g., gesturing rotate) during training, and observe the effect of that manipulation on learning. (2) To explore whether gesture's closeness to action affects how well it promotes learning, Studies 5-8 manipulate whether children experience concrete gesture (e.g., rotate with the hand shaped as though it were actually moving the object) vs. abstract gesture (e.g., rotate with a pointing handshape) during training, and observe the effect of that manipulation on learning. (3) To explore whether concrete gesture serves as a stepping-stone to abstract thinking, Studies 9-12 manipulate the order in which children experience concrete and abstract gestures, and observe the effect of the manipulation on learning. (4) To explore whether gesture can hinder as well as help learning, Studies 13-16 provide children with gestures containing action features that are incompatible with the task, and observe the effect of incompatible gestures on learning. It is likely that the degree to which gesture resembles action has a larger or smaller effect on learning depending on the concreteness of the task to be learned. As a result, each series of studies uses two types of tasks--a task involving mental manipulation of concrete objects (mental rotation of parts of an object) and a task involving mental manipulation of symbolic objects (mathematical equivalence). In addition, because of the tight link between perceiving an action and performing the action, each series of studies varies whether the child produces gesture or action, or watches an experimenter produce gesture or action. Gesture is often used by children with impairments in language learning to compensate for their disabilities. Understanding the mechanism by which gesture promotes learning may be beneficial in both classroom and one-on-one tutorial situations, particularly in situations where acting directly on objects is not practical. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The gestures that children produce when they talk not only reflect what they know, they can also change what children know and, in this way, play a role in the learning process. The proposed research explores whether gesture's impact on learning stems from its grounding in action and, if so, whether educators can capitalize on gesture's closeness to action to promote learning. Since children who have impairments in language often use gesture to compensate for their disabilities, emphasizing gesture may be particularly beneficial for children with special needs in both classrooms and one-on-one tutorial or assessment situations where it may not be practical for children to act.

描述（由申请人提供）：当孩子说话时，他们的手势和这些手势是孩子准备学习的索引。在当前赠款期间的工作表明，手势的作用不仅反映了思想 - 它在改变思想中起着作用，因此有助于学习过程本身。拟议的研究的目的是探索这种效果的机制 - 特定于手势对学习的影响至少部分是由于其行动的基础，以及教育工作者是否可以利用手势与促进学习的行动的亲密关系。这项研究有四个目标。（1）探索手势和行动在促进学习方面是否同样效果，研究1-4操纵儿童是否经历了行动（例如，旋转对象）还是在训练过程中进行该动作（例如，手势旋转）并观察该操纵对学习的影响。（2）要探索手势与动作的亲密性是否会影响其促进学习的能力，研究5-8操纵孩子是否会经历具体手势（例如，用手动旋转，就像它实际上在移动对象一样移动对象）与抽象手势（例如，在训练过程中用指向握手旋转），并在训练过程中旋转并观察该手术的效果。（3）探索混凝土手势是否是抽象思维的垫脚石，研究9-12操纵孩子经历具体和抽象手势的顺序，并观察操纵对学习的影响。（4）为了探索手势是否可以阻碍以及帮助学习，研究13-16为儿童提供包含与任务不相容的动作特征的手势，并观察不兼容的手势对学习的影响。手势类似于动作的程度可能会根据要学习的任务的具体性而对学习产生更大或更小的影响。结果，每个研究都使用两种类型的任务 - 涉及混凝土对象的精神操纵（对象的精神旋转）和涉及符号对象的心理操纵（数学等效性）的任务。此外，由于感知行动和执行动作之间的紧密联系，每个系列研究都会改变孩子是否产生手势还是动作，或者观察实验者产生手势或动作。手势经常被语言学习障碍的儿童使用以弥补其残疾。了解手势促进学习的机制在课堂和一对一的教程中都可能是有益的，尤其是在直接在物体上作用的情况下是不切实际的。公共卫生相关性：孩子说话时产生的手势不仅反映了他们所知道的，还可以改变孩子所知道的知识，并以这种方式在学习过程中发挥作用。拟议的研究探讨了手势对学习的影响是否源于其行动的基础，如果是的话，教育者是否可以利用手势与促进学习的行动的亲密关系。由于语言受损的儿童经常使用手势来弥补自己的残疾，因此强调手势可能对在教室和一对一教程或评估情况中都有特殊需求的儿童特别有益，因为这可能对儿童行事不切实际。