PROCEEDINGS OF THE 20TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2017
San Diego, California
Student gesture use when explaining the second-derivative test and optimization
Page: 1311
The Second-Derivative Test and optimization can naturally evoke gestures from an instructor while he or she is teaching. We wanted to establish how student learning might be affected by an instructor’s use of gesture. Students viewed either a gesture-rich or gesture-free video of an instructor solving an optimization problem, and were interviewed a week later to assess both their understandings of optimization and how they used gesture to support their explanations. Very few gestures were used when the students explained how they solved the optimization problem. However, when describing the second derivative test separate from optimization, students used a number of gestures. We conclude that further study should be undertaken, but such study should be focused on the Second-Derivative Test without the context of optimization problems.