How teachers respond to children's eye gaze

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What do we know about eye gaze?

In an earlier paper (see Where can I find out more?) the researchers reported on research evidence that showed that behaviours such as eye gaze, gesture and facial expression are important and useful cues during teaching and learning interactions.

The study found that, like adults, older children (aged 8 years) look away more when answering difficult questions than when answering easy ones. The researchers suggest they do so because it minimises the chance of distraction and allows them to concentrate their mental energies on cognition.

When young children (aged 5 years) were explicitly taught gaze aversion their accuracy in relation to answering numerical questions increased compared with a control group.

On the other hand children may look at the teacher while they are listening and trying to understand what s/he is saying because they are searching for visual clues. They may also maintain face-gaze with the teacher when they can’t think of the answer to a question.

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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 find out more about 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 do we know about eye gaze? In an earlier paper (see Where can I find out more?) the researchers reported on research evidence that showed that behaviours such as eye gaze, gesture and facial expression are important and useful cues during teaching and learning interactions. The study found that, like adults, older children (aged 8 years) look away more when answering difficult questions than when answering easy ones. The researchers suggest they do so because it minimises the chance of distraction and allows them to concentrate their mental energies on cognition. When young children (aged 5 years) were explicitly taught gaze aversion their accuracy in relation to answering numerical questions increased compared with a control group. On the other hand children may look at the teacher while they are listening and trying to understand what s/he is saying because they are searching for visual clues. They may also maintain face-gaze with the teacher when they can’t think of the answer to a question.