Maths Teachers, Bring Your Body! a talk by Dr Danyal Farsani (University of Chile)
Abstract
Did you realise that small details of how teachers use their bodies in the classroom can have dramatic effects on students’ engagement and sense of safety? Conversely, teachers can use physical clues to infer a lot about their students’ attitudes towards the lesson, and the subject. This interactive seminar presents a cross-cultural analysis of mathematics teacher’s use of nonverbal language during their instructional information conveying pertinent mathematical ideas. It incorporates aspects of body language to understand the discourse around mathematics. In particular, this seminar examines teachers’ unconscious nonverbal cues for turn taking, addressing students with either an index finger pointing or an open hand palm-up gesture in the UK and in Chilean schools. Students very subtly not only follow the explicit nonverbal cues very well, but also displayed particular patterns relating to personal space. Prior knowledge on semiotics or body language is not needed; there will be exercises, so just bring your body to the seminar!
No charge is made to attend meetings and non-members are welcome.
