Weakest link or strongest link?

Teachers often use gestures to connect representations of mathematical ideas. This research examined (1) whether such linking gestures help students understand connections among representations and (2) whether sets of gestures that include repeated handshapes and motions – termed gestural catchments – are particularly beneficial. Undergraduates viewed one of four video lessons connecting two representations of multiplication. In the control lesson, the instructor produced beat gestures that did not link the representations. In the link-only lesson, the instructor used gestures to link representations, but the gestures did not form a catchment. In the consistent-catchment lesson, the instructor highlighted corresponding elements of the two representations using identical gestures. In the inconsistent-catchment lesson, the instructor highlighted non-corresponding elements of the two representations using identical gestures. Participants who saw the lesson with the consistent catchment – which highlighted similarities between representations – were most likely to understand the novel representation and to report learning from the lesson.