Personalized Multimodal Instruction and Conceptual Change Dynamics in Mathematics Learning

Math skills help children succeed in school and prepare for future jobs. Yet many children have difficulty mastering basic math concepts. For example, children often have difficulty grasping the meaning of the equal sign, which creates a barrier to later learning of algebra and other math topics. Teachers often spontaneously use gestures to help support children’s understanding, for example by circling each side of an equation to emphasize that the two sides have the same overall value. Such gestures help children learn and remember, but the same gestures may not help every child in the same way. This project tests how and when gestures facilitate learning, and how nonverbal communication can be adapted to meet the needs of individual learners. Children in this study receive one of three types of multimodal explanations about the meaning of the equal sign: a verbal explanation alone, a verbal explanation with gestures matched to the child’s current understanding, or a verbal explanation with gestures that are not matched to their current understanding. The project tests whether gestures that are tailored to children’s current understanding yield better learning. Additionally, the project uses eye tracking to determine how gestures influence children’s attention while solving math problems. Finally, the project uses computational modeling to test whether gesture-based instruction produces gradual or sudden shifts in children’s understanding. By combining instructional manipulations, eye tracking, and analyses of children’s learning trajectories, this project aims to advance understanding how and when gesture can guide attention and support math learning for individual children. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. NSF Award ID: 2545001 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Susan Cook | Institution: University of Iowa, IOWA CITY, IA | Award Amount: $574,558 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2545001 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2545001.html