How teachers respond to children's eye gaze

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What are the implications?

In completing this digest the author began to ask the following questions about the implications for teachers and school leaders:

Teachers

According to the research, teachers find it difficult to interpret GA. Would it be helpful to observe and analyse pupils’ eye gaze behaviour and other cues in relation to their responses to questions in order to develop your knowledge in this area? Would it be helpful to invite a colleague to one of your lessons to carry out similar observations and compare results with you? You might find video recordings of the interactions even more helpful for later analysis.
The study suggests that teachers tend to interrupt pupils before they have given their answer to a question. Would it be helpful to consider gaze aversion, after a pupil has been asked a question, as an indicator of how long you should wait before interrupting them? Would it be helpful to ask a colleague to observe one of your lessons and give you feedback about how accurate you were in doing this?
Would you find it helpful to build into your lesson planning a range of possible strategies you could adopt when you interrupt your pupils’ thinking to support their learning? Could you use your knowledge of the different reasons why children avert their gaze to help you decide what support to give in particular situations?

School leaders

The study suggests that teachers need help in interpreting gaze behaviour. How aware are your teachers about the link between children’s gaze aversion and thinking? Would it be helpful to invite a specialist in to help you explore the findings in more detail?
The evidence presented in the study makes clear links with assessment for learning. Would it help the teachers in your school if they worked in subject or phase teams to develop a shared understanding of pupils’ eye gaze behaviour? Could they follow this up by creating a repertoire of strategies for supporting their pupils’ learning, including, for example, offering pupils prompts that help to sustain teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil dialogue? (see Where can I find out more?)

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Research Home Themes \| Find digests \| About the digests resources glossary researchers contact TRIPS Introduction What do we know about eye gaze? How did teachers respond to pupil's gaze aversion (GA) in observed pupil-teacher interactions? How aware were teachers of pupils' eye gaze behaviour and how did they interpret it? How was the study carried out? What are the implications? Where can I find more? Send us your feedback Collated digests To view/remove/add notes and save your collated digests click here Get Word Reader How teachers respond to children's eye gaze This digest found in Assessment for Learning Thinking skills Send to a friend Word doc 50KB Printer friendly Collate for later What are the implications? In completing this digest the author began to ask the following questions about the implications for teachers and school leaders: Teachers According to the research, teachers find it difficult to interpret GA. Would it be helpful to observe and analyse pupils’ eye gaze behaviour and other cues in relation to their responses to questions in order to develop your knowledge in this area? Would it be helpful to invite a colleague to one of your lessons to carry out similar observations and compare results with you? You might find video recordings of the interactions even more helpful for later analysis. The study suggests that teachers tend to interrupt pupils before they have given their answer to a question. Would it be helpful to consider gaze aversion, after a pupil has been asked a question, as an indicator of how long you should wait before interrupting them? Would it be helpful to ask a colleague to observe one of your lessons and give you feedback about how accurate you were in doing this? Would you find it helpful to build into your lesson planning a range of possible strategies you could adopt when you interrupt your pupils’ thinking to support their learning? Could you use your knowledge of the different reasons why children avert their gaze to help you decide what support to give in particular situations? School leaders The study suggests that teachers need help in interpreting gaze behaviour. How aware are your teachers about the link between children’s gaze aversion and thinking? Would it be helpful to invite a specialist in to help you explore the findings in more detail? The evidence presented in the study makes clear links with assessment for learning. Would it help the teachers in your school if they worked in subject or phase teams to develop a shared understanding of pupils’ eye gaze behaviour? Could they follow this up by creating a repertoire of strategies for supporting their pupils’ learning, including, for example, offering pupils prompts that help to sustain teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil dialogue? (see Where can I find out more?)