Helping children think: deliberately averting your gaze as a learning strategy
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Thinking skills
How does gaze aversion influence pupils’ problem solving?
The researchers in this study found that the test group, which had been trained to use gaze aversion, used gaze aversion more than the control group. The test group used the technique significantly more with difficult questions and were found to be more accurate than the control group in answering both verbal reasoning and mental arithmetic questions.
Results for the use of gaze aversion and answer accuracy
|
|
Use of gaze aversion |
Accuracy in answers to questions |
|
Test group |
52.5% |
72.5% |
|
Control group |
34.7% |
55.9% |
The researchers conclude that Year 1 (five-year-old) pupils can learn to use gaze aversion when working with arithmetic and verbal reasoning questions, and this has been found to increase their accuracy and performance. Gaze aversion works by giving pupils the opportunity to concentrate on the problem without immediate distractions.
Interestingly, the researchers found that when questions were too easy or trivial, gaze aversion did not significantly help pupils.
