Ways of questioning, ways of gesturing: how teachers elicit different ways of students’ thinking in elementary science classrooms

Questions and gestures used in pedagogical contexts have each received considerable attention. However, rarely have studies focused on the relationship between questions and gestures and what this relationship may mean for pedagogical practice and the development of higher-level thinking. Drawing on previous research into the cognitive levels of questions and gestures, this study addresses this issue through focusing on the type of gestures used when teachers ask questions in elementary science classrooms. Participants were two Grade One science teachers, and video recordings constitute the major data sources. The study is primarily qualitative, with frequency analyses conducted to analyse the cognitive levels of questions and the cognitive distribution of gestures in the questions. The results show that elementary science classrooms are dominated by low cognitive level questions, which reflects a direct instruction teaching method. However, the use of higher cognitive level questions suggests that teachers use some learner-centred approaches to challenge and encourage students for deeper levels of thinking. Overall, there is a correspondence between the cognitive levels of questions and of gestures, e.g. LCL gestures are most commonly distributed in LCL questions, although variations in the specific use of gestures in each type of question exist. This research contributes to the understanding of the interplay between questions and gestures within the elementary science teaching-learning context, and has implications for science teachers and teacher educators to consider the relationship between cognitive levels of gestures and questions and its role in developing higher-level thinking in elementary science pedagogy.