An alternative path of embodying geometrical concepts: Student gestures

Tuba Akcakoca; Gonul Yazgan-Sag; Ziya Argun

doi:10.29333/pr/12786

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Tuba Akcakoca ¹ , Gonul Yazgan-Sag ² ^* , Ziya Argun ²

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¹ Ministry of National Education, Ankara, TURKEY² Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Gazi Faculty of Education, Gazi University, Ankara, TURKEY^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This study aims to reveal how the embodied cognition of certain geometrical concepts of secondary-school students arises via gestures and what kinds of gestures they produce while engaging with different concepts. The study participants comprised four eleventh-grade students studying at a state high school in Turkey. The study focused on the gestures of students related to angle, a measure of an angle, congruence-similarity, and translation. Data were gathered via video-recorded focus group discussions and individual interviews, and the cognition of the students for each concept was coded using content analysis. According to the research findings, it was found that the deictic gestures of the participants reflect the grounding of cognition in the physical environment; representational gestures manifest mental simulations of action and perception, and some metaphoric gestures reflect body-based conceptual metaphors.

Keywords

cognition
embodied cognition
gestures
geometrical concepts
secondary students

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

PEDAGOGICAL RES, 2023, Volume 8, Issue 2, Article No: em0152

https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/12786

Online publication date: 02 Jan 2023

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How to cite this article

APA

Akcakoca, T., Yazgan-Sag, G., & Argun, Z. (2023). An alternative path of embodying geometrical concepts: Student gestures. Pedagogical Research, 8(2), em0152. https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/12786

Vancouver

Akcakoca T, Yazgan-Sag G, Argun Z. An alternative path of embodying geometrical concepts: Student gestures. PEDAGOGICAL RES. 2023;8(2):em0152. https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/12786

AMA

Akcakoca T, Yazgan-Sag G, Argun Z. An alternative path of embodying geometrical concepts: Student gestures. PEDAGOGICAL RES. 2023;8(2), em0152. https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/12786

Chicago

Akcakoca, Tuba, Gonul Yazgan-Sag, and Ziya Argun. "An alternative path of embodying geometrical concepts: Student gestures". Pedagogical Research 2023 8 no. 2 (2023): em0152. https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/12786

Harvard

Akcakoca, T., Yazgan-Sag, G., and Argun, Z. (2023). An alternative path of embodying geometrical concepts: Student gestures. Pedagogical Research, 8(2), em0152. https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/12786

MLA

Akcakoca, Tuba et al. "An alternative path of embodying geometrical concepts: Student gestures". Pedagogical Research, vol. 8, no. 2, 2023, em0152. https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/12786