Teachers’ interpretation of school administrators’ gestures

Author : Darryl Hunter

Abstract :This paper describes work underway in Canada to develop a psychometrically sound instrument for measuring teacher candidates’ responses to school principals’ gestures when school principals are explaining statistical reports. Gesture studies have revealed at least five overlapping sources/ meanings for gestures: as cognitive expressions; as projections of emotion; as deliberate performances for an audience; as involuntary behaviours; as collateral expressions to speech. Video clips from a national study of school principals’ statistical literacy will be played. Tescher candidates’ focal points for interpreting gestures as forms of non-verbal communication will be identified. The implications for teacher training about the multiple facets of non-verbal communication will be explained. As well, the presentation presumes that statistics are best taught not as a subset of mathematics, but rather as the language of science.

Keywords :Teacher candidates, school principals, gestures, statistical reports, non-verbal communication, statistical literacy, cognitive expressions, teacher training, psychometric instrument, education research.

Conference Name :World Conference on Teacher Education (WCTE-24)

Conference Place Sao Paulo, Brazil

Conference Date 11th Dec 2024