Imag(in)ing three-dimensional movement with gesture: ‘playing turtle’ or pointing?

Abstract

Use of the metaphor of ‘playing turtle’ is commonly seen as an important and successful way in which students may make sense of construction of two-dimensional shapes in Logo turtle geometry. During teaching with a three-dimensional ‘turtle world’, teachers and researchers made extensive use of specialized hand gestures when attempting to communicate with students about three-dimensional movement. While students made use of similar gestures, we found that the meanings they appeared to make with the gestures were different from those anticipated and that the ‘playing turtle’ metaphor did not easily transfer into the three-dimensional context. We will discuss how use of gestures in this context related to other modes of representation available to the students.