Poster #3 - Exploring Teachers’ Visual Gaze Patterns Using Mobile Eye-tracking Glasses

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Attention, Learning, Memory

Integrative Statement

A growing body of research points to the importance of the quality of teacher-child interactions in kindergarten classrooms for early childhood learning and development (Burchinal
et al., 2008). Teachers’ gaze behavior plays an important role for students’ experiences in the classroom (Cortina et al., 2015; Van den Bogert et al., 2014). Using eye-tracking in the study of teacher-child interactions can offer a more detailed account of already well-known processes of interaction between one’s gazing behavior, and one’s thoughts and behavior, as well as provide insights into perceptual processes that otherwise would not be observable by others (van Gog & Scheiter, 2010). Applying the eye-tracking method in the secondary school classroom setting revealed significant differences between expert and novice teachers on the patterns of visual attention and also demonstrated intercultural differences (McIntyre et al., 2017). Still, less is known about the patterns of teachers’ visual attention and its relation to teacher-child interactions in lower-middle-income countries (LMICs), where general political and economic circumstances and working conditions may create context-specific demands for the teachers.
The present study aims to investigate various gaze patterns of kindergarten teachers in Kosovo and explore a possible relation between teachers’ gaze patterns and children’s learning outcomes.

Participants were 9 kindergarten teachers (Mage = 33.56, SD = 11.04) in Kosovo. The teachers were wearing eye-tracking glasses (SMI ETG 2, SensoMotoric Instruments) that recorded their eye movements for approximately 20 minutes during a teacher-centered activity (large or small group work, and management/transitions) on a typical morning in a kindergarten classroom. The average number of children in the classroom was 16.56 (SD = 3.05). Teachers’ gaze videos were coded by matching each fixation with semantic areas of interest (individual children) and distinguishing a “scan” (4 or less consecutive fixations) and a “long look” (5 or more consecutive fixations).

The findings provide initial descriptive examination of the patterns of teachers’ visual behavior in the classroom. Overall, all the teachers “scanned” the children more frequently than focused “long looks” on them in all activity settings. As such, only 55% of the children received “long looks” during large group teaching and only 10% during a management/transition period. The variance of the amount of “scans” a child received was the greatest during large group setting (349.63), followed by management/transition (50.93) and small group (26.5). This suggests that the teachers mainly focused on a few children during large group teaching, but allocated their visual attention more equally when they worked with a small group or supervised a transition. The patterns of teachers’ gaze were also further considered in relation to individual children’s learning outcomes.

The findings outline systematic patterns of teachers’ gaze related to activity settings and teachers’ strategies for distributing visual attention. Applying the eye-tracking methodology in educational settings can give novel ecologically valid insights into the processes of teaching and learning in the classroom. Furthermore, it can help teachers to improve their performance through providing a useful form of feedback to raise teachers’ self-awareness and help them evaluate and solve the problems.

Authors

• Fitim Uka, University of Prishtina “Hasan Prishtina”, Kosovo
  Non-Presenting Author

• Iryna Nadyukova, New York University Abu Dhabi
  Presenting Author

• Antje von Suchodoletz, New York University Abu Dhabi
  Non-Presenting Author