#878: The Role of Gesture and Materiality In Co-Constructing Mechanistic Explanations

Despite increasing scholarly attention to the role of the physical body in student sensemaking, few studies have explored how gesture and materiality factor into students’ engagement in scientific modeling and co-construction of explanations. In this paper, we present a qualitative case study that examines children’s explanation construction through modeling over multiple days. We draw on a conceptual framework that interweaves theories of embodied learning and new materialism with resource-based views of explanations and classroom modeling practices. Our analysis illustrates how gesture and interactions with materials can support children to reason mechanistically, communicate their thinking, and co-construct explanations by 1) activating sensorimotor resources that help children formulate and experience new ideas, and, in the case of gesture, 2) serving as a discursive and modeling practice that supports meaning-making and conceptual progress.