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Did you ever sit down to take a test and discover that the person next to you mumbles his way through the whole thing. You probably thought, “What kind of doofus can’t add a few numbers without moving his mouth?” Turns out the answer may be: a very clever doofus. Because a study published in the Electronic Journal of Research In Educational Psychology suggests that students who think out loud while taking a math test are more likely to get the right answer.
Counting things out on fingers is a time-honored tradition. But this study looked at what happens when students bring their lips in on the action.
A handful of mathematics students were ushered into separate rooms and given some problems to solve. The researchers videotaped their efforts and graded their exams. And they found that the students who reasoned through their thinking out loud, or who drew out pictures that represented the problem,were able to answer the questions more quickly—and more accurately—than students who were quiet and didn’t doodle.
How these sketches and monologues can help with your calculations remains a statement waiting for a proof. Until then, remember: sound it out; show your work; and when you run out of fingers, you can always count on your toes.
—Karen Hopkin
[The above text is an exact transcript of this podcast.]
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5 Comments
Add CommentTo me this is another example of mirror neurons at work...discussing issues with ones self helps point to solutions...I also like to think that pieces of others (in our mind(gestalts?)) help us to look at things from different perspectives(ie. how would such and such look at this)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSolving problems via multi-tasks, varied approaches and different perspectives certainly help to get the right answers, easier and faster, though not necessarily more accurate.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMore intense and in-depth researches need to be done in this interesting area. The subsequent impact on learning through problem-solving could be significant.
Can you give a citation? I would like to read the article.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOr maybe when one's brain is more active he tend to like to doodle.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@math teach,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYeah I concur, you'd think adding a citation would be easy, they already have it. A meta tag on the mp3 might be helpful too. I might be this paper:
Representations in Problem Solving: A Case Study with Optimisation Problems.
Jose L. Villegas et al.
ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 7 (1) - Issue online: 17 (April 8, 2009)
It bears a passing resemblance to the work covered here, but I've read physics papers more comprehensible.