There are multiple examples in the literature highlighting the connection between gestures and meaning-making by students learning chemical concepts in chemistry; however, there is little known about whether this connection extends to student learning in biochemistry. In particular, we focused on gestures used to conceptualize the function of the KcsA channel, which was presented as part of a unit on connecting macromolecular structure and function to membrane transport. We adopted phenomenography as our theoretical framework. Phenomenography focuses on the different ways that individuals experience, understand, and think about the same phenomenon. In this case, the focus is on the different ways that content knowledge about the KcsA channel is expressed through student produced gestures. We explore two research questions: what are the different biochemistry content knowledge that students express through gestures? What are the different types of gestures that students use to express content knowledge? Ultimately, the goal is to generate an outcome space describing the different content knowledge elements and the gestures that express them. Students were asked to describe the function of various protein structures and propose an explanation for KcsA channel’s selectivity during semi-structured interviews. Students were encouraged to use gestures throughout the interview to aid in their explanations. In the first stage of analysis, participants’ utterances were transcribed and their gestures were described in terms of hand shape and movement. Gesture descriptions were then inductively coded through constant comparison to generate a set of gesture categories, containing all gestures used by participants during their interviews. In the second stage of analysis, interview transcripts were coded for content knowledge elements, and gestures categories were coded according to gesture typology. Lastly, representational gestures were linked to content knowledge elements to create an outcome space that described the various ways that content knowledge can be expressed through gesture. Our findings add to the existing literature on student understanding of biochemistry content knowledge by including students’ embodied meaning-making through gesture. These insights can inform both biochemistry educators and education researchers about students’ nonverbal conceptual learning. Implications for assessing learning outcomes are also discussed.

Gesticulating biochemistry: Exploring the relationship between content knowledge and gesture production

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.