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What We Say and How We Do: Action, Gesture, and Language in Proving

2017; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics; Volume: 48; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5951/jresematheduc.48.3.0248

1945-2306

Caroline Williams-Pierce, Elizabeth L. Pier, Candace Walkington, Rebecca Boncoddo, Virginia Clinton‐Lisell, Martha W. Alibali, Mitchell J. Nathan,

Education and Technology Integration

In this Brief Report, we share the main findings from our line of research into embodied cognition and proof activities. First, attending to students' gestures during proving activities can reveal aspects of mathematical thinking not apparent in their speech, and analyzing gestures after proof production can contribute significantly to our understanding of students' proving practices, particularly when attending to dynamic gestures depicting relationships that are difficult to communicate verbally. Second, directing students to produce physical actions before asking them to construct a mathematical proof has the potential to influence their subsequent reasoning in useful ways, as long as the directed actions have a relationship with the proof content that is clearly meaningful to the students. We discuss implications for assessment practices and teacher education, and we suggest directions for future research into embodied mathematical proof practices.