I’ve always used movement and noises to teach myself…now it appears that gestures by teachers help students of maths to learn.
I’m sure it helps when a teacher says “x is on this side (moves left hand) and y is on this side of the equation (moves right hand)”. I’m not sure why, but it seems we store this information as some kind of body memory. Einstein said that he could tell if an equation was right by feeling a tingling in his little fingers.
Gestures really help to place emphasis. One of my difficulties with learning from lectures is that people who write on the board whilst talking, usually fail to emphasise the important bits. Maybe the lack of gestures is what makes it particularly hard.
