TRACKING SCIENTIFIC THINKING AND REASONING IN THE FIELD THROUGH STUDENTS' GESTURES

Geoscience students use gestures in the field in order to identify, describe, communicate, and understand their surroundings. Previous studies have shown a strong link between gesture use and learning and the development of conceptual models. Typical scientific thinking begins with observation, identification, and description. Once observations are made, the thinking transitions into interpretation and synthesis of ideas. We observe this transition in the field by the kinds of gestures students use when interacting with their surroundings. We recorded students working in the field on a mapping project at a traditional geologic field camp. We looked for candid, unprompted instances of gesture use as students interacted with individual outcrops and as they discuss larger-scale geologic features, relationships, and processes. We coded the field footage and categorized gestures as “first-order” and “second-order” gestures after Van Boening & Riggs (2019). First-order gestures are simplistic in nature, and typically serve to identify and describe aspects about the outcrops. Second-order gestures are more complex and communicate information that typifies interpretation of multiple observations and/or attributes a temporal factor to the formation of the outcrops. As a student approaches an outcrop, the majority of their gestures are first-order gestures. These include gestures such as highlighting prominent features, tracing out structures, and determining orientations. Once students have identified and described the outcrops, and they switch to interpreting their surroundings. Likewise, their gestures switch to second-order gestures. Students begin to synthesize their observations into interpretations which involve more complex spatial and temporal aspects. In addition to scientific thought progression, these field-based gestures also demonstrate two key aspects of embodied cognition: 1) cognition is situated directly within the environment, and 2) people off-load cognition into the environment. Geoscience educators emphasize the importance of field experiences for students. The use of gestures in the field, their patterns of progression from first- to second-order gestures, and their connection to facets of embodied cognition all reinforce the significance of field-based study.