Elementary school children who err on mathematics problems sometimes know more than they can say. These children explain their flawed math reasoning while using gestures that betray budding insights. They might just as well announce to their teachers: “Read my hands! I’m on the verge of some serious learning here!”
Over the past decade, psychologist Martha W. Alibali of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her colleagues have tracked grade schoolers’ hand-to-mouth discrepancies in deciphering math problems.
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