Embodiment in Mathematics Teaching and Learning: Evidence from Learners' and Teachers' Gestures

Martha W. Alibali; Mitchell J. Nathan

Journal of the Learning Sciences Vol. 21, No. 2 (2012) pp. 247–286

Gestures are often taken as evidence that the body is involved in thinking and speaking about the ideas expressed in those gestures. In this article, we present evidence drawn from teachers' and learners' gestures to make the case that mathematical...

Variability in the natural number bias: Who, when, how, and why

Martha W. Alibali; Pooja G. Sidney

Learning and Instruction Vol. 37, No. 1 (June 2015) pp. 56–61

When reasoning about rational numbers, people sometimes incorrectly apply principles or rules for natural numbers. Many factors affect whether participants display this

Language: English

How do contrasting cases and self-explanation promote learning? Evidence from fraction division

Pooja G. Sidney; Shanta Hattikudur; Martha W. Alibali

Learning and Instruction Vol. 40, No. 1 (December 2015) pp. 29–38

Past research has shown that both contrasting cases instruction and prompts to self-explain promote students' learning in mathematics. However, it is not clear whether these instructional approaches enhance learning through similar mechanisms or...

Language: English

Actions speak louder with words: The roles of action and pedagogical language for grounding mathematical proof

Mitchell J. Nathan; Candace Walkington; Rebecca Boncoddo; Elizabeth Pier; Caroline C. Williams; Martha W. Alibali

Learning and Instruction Vol. 33, No. 1 (October 2014) pp. 182–193

Theories of grounded and embodied cognition posit that situated actions are central constituents in cognitive processes. We investigate whether grounding actions influence reasoning, and how pedagogical language influences the action–cognition...

Language: English

Children's interpretations of covariation data: Explanations reveal understanding of relevant comparisons

Andrea Saffran; Petra Barchfeld; Martha W. Alibali; Kristina Reiss; Beate Sodian

Learning and Instruction Vol. 59, No. 1 (February 2019) pp. 13–20

This research investigates children's understanding of the significance of comparisons between data categories for judgments of covariation. Past studies showed that children sometimes neglect some of the relevant data categories. This may occur...

Language: English

How Teachers Link Ideas in Mathematics Instruction Using Speech and Gesture: A Corpus Analysis

Martha W. Alibali; Mitchell J. Nathan; Matthew S. Wolfgram; R Breckinridge Church; Steven A. Jacobs; Chelsea Johnson Martinez; Eric J. Knuth

Cognition and Instruction Vol. 32, No. 1 (2014) pp. 65–100

This research investigated how teachers express links between ideas in speech, gestures, and other modalities in middle school mathematics instruction. We videotaped 18 lessons (3 from each of 6 teachers), and within each, we identified "...