Eye tracking insights in education research Q1 2024

Eye tracking serves as a powerful tool across a variety of empirical research areas: From usability research over cognitive research to educational research and applications in classrooms. However, data noise in eye tracking data poses a challenge to researchers and educators, as it leads to gaze positions being measured imprecisely under unfavorable conditions. In our previous study, we systematically investigated factors that influence data quality and are easily controllable in a classroom or laboratory environment, such as illumination, sampling freq...Show more

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This paper examines whether undergraduate students perform better and experience lower cognitive load when programming in Algot, a visual programming language that supports programming by demonstration, than in the textual programming language Python. We recruited 38 first-semester computer science university students who had received prior instruction in the programming language Python but were unfamiliar with Algot. Participants reviewed a 12-minute video tutorial about Algot and performed the same programming tasks in Python and Algot. We graded stude...Show more

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Previous research has incorporated physiological data such as heart rate and footsteps to enrich K-12 students' STEM and computing learning experiences. This qualitative study piloted a series of lessons leveraging a novel physiological computing environment with a small group of fifth-grade girls (n=5). The purpose of this study was to understand (1) how the physiological computing lesson activities promoted changes in the students' conceptual understanding of conditional logic and variables and their diverse perspectives in computing and (2) how the st...Show more

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Even though the engagement in self-regulated learning (SRL) has been shown to boost academic performance, SRL skills of many learners remain underdeveloped. They often struggle to productively navigate multiple cognitive, affective, metacognitive and motivational (CAMM) processes in SRL. To provide learners with the required SRL support, it is essential to understand how learners enact CAMM processes as they study. More research is needed to advance the measurement of affective and motivational processes within SRL, and investigate how these processes in...Show more

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Resonance is a crucial concept in Organic Chemistry that enables both deriving chemical properties from molecular structures and predicting reactions by considering electron density distribution. Despite its importance for problem-solving and learning success, learners encounter various difficulties with this concept. Although prior research suggests that learners struggle to reason about resonance in problem-solving tasks, existing studies are often limited to singular contexts. Given that task approaches and reasoning are context-dependent, little is k...Show more

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In the present study, we recorded the eye movements of 20 criterion-based selected trainee teachers in economics while they responded to 25 single choice (SC) items in an economic content knowledge (CK) test and rated their confidence for each response in a digital assessment. By using a multilevel modeling approach with crossed random effects, we confirmed prior findings from eye-tracking research on SC tests, which showed longer dwell time on the correct response options (attractor) and shorter dwell time on the distractors are positively linked to cor...Show more

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• Tobii Pro Lab

Background: There are still unanswered questions concerning the optimal design of educational videos, for instance with regard to the visibility of a talking head next to the learning content. Although visible talking heads in educational videos may stimulate deeper processing, they can also distract from the visual learning content. Aims: The current eye tracking study investigated how a talking head presented next to stepwise appearing (i.e., animated) graphic-based content affected learners' eye movements, learning, and ratings (e.g., social presence)...Show more

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• Tobii Pro Lab

Recognizing patterns is an essential skill in early mathematics education. However, first graders often have difficulties with tasks such as extending patterns of the form ABCABC. Studies show that this pattern-recognition ability is a good predictor of later pre-algebraic skills and mathematical achievement in general, or the development of mathematical difficulties on the other hand. To be able to foster children’s pattern-recognition ability, it is crucial to investigate and understand their pattern-recognition processes early on. However, only a few ...Show more

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• Tobii Pro Lab

This research investigates the impact of applying neuromarketing techniques to three practical examples of higher education (HE) branding: an official college website page, an official college Facebook page, and recorded online video lectures used for teaching at HE institutions. The study was conducted in three different HE institutions with a representative sample of 720 participants, with n = 529 used for testing the CARE college website, n = 59 for testing the HAZEF Facebook page, and n = 132 for testing the emotional response of students studying on...Show more

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Teacher–child interaction is central in pedagogical activities in early childhood education and care (ECEC). In these activities, teachers’ visual gaze is a valuable tool for communication, but this has received little attention in ECEC research. Recent technological advancements in eye-tracking provide an approach to take a deeper look at how teachers focus their visual gaze during activities. Our study focused on three ECEC teachers’ visual gaze behavior during pedagogical activities in a group of children under three years of age (later toddlers) in F...Show more

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• Tobii Pro Lab

Self-regulated learning (SRL) is an essential skill to achieve ones learning goals. This is particularly true for online learning environments (OLEs) where the support system is often limited compared to a traditional classroom setting. Likewise, existing research has found that learners often struggle to adapt their behaviour to the self-regulatory demands of OLEs. Even so, existing SRL analysis tools have limited utility for real-time or individualised support of a learners SRL strategy during a study session. Accordingly, we explore a reinforcement le...Show more

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Teachers with less classroom experience face major challenges in effectively observing complex group activities. To understand the differences between what experienced and preservice teachers notice, this study applied eye-tracking technology and video-based interviews to investigate 18 experienced teachers’ and 28 preservice teachers’ noticing during students’ collaborative problem-solving activities. The results showed that preservice teachers distributed their attention less evenly than experienced teachers when watching group videos, paying more atte...Show more

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• Tobii Pro Lab

Aiming at the low English reading proficiency of ESL (English as second language) students in online learning environments, this study proposed an eye-movement-based machine learning monitoring model to detect English reading proficiency in real time. Eye-movement data from 43 students while completing online English reading tasks were recorded and 31 eye-movement features were extracted from the taxonomy of fixation, saccade, movement direction and gaze velocity. During the model training phase, LightGBM achieved an accuracy of 96.51 % in detection. An ...Show more

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