Through Teachers’ Eyes: An Eye-Tracking Study of Classroom Interactions

Lenka Sokolová, Miroslava Lemešová, Patrik Hlaváč and Silvia Harvanová

Summary:  Selective attention to classroom events is an important part of classroom management and teachers’ decision-making in the classroom. The present study investigates selective attention to classroom events in the context of teacher education. The study participants were junior (n = 43) and senior pre-service teachers (n = 46) and experienced in-service teachers (n = 17). Their eye movements were explored as objective measures of selective attention while watching video sequences from structured, semi-structured and low-structured classroom situations. The analyses revealed significant differences in the perception of classroom events across the career cycle, especially in semi-structured situations when disruptive behaviour occurs. More experienced teachers encountered a lower number of shorter fixations, which supports the hypothesis of information reduction. Senior pre-service teachers, who had passed a teaching practicum and a classroom management course, seemed to use different professional vision patterns from those of less experienced junior pre-service teachers.