INSTRUCTORS' GAZE DISTRIBUTION IN HIGHER EDUCATION CLASSROOMS: A MULTI CASE STUDY

Date

2023-9-5

Author

Tunga, Yeliz

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The present study aims to investigate instructors' gaze distribution within higher education classroom settings, exploring its influence by two factors: students’ seating locations and participation levels. Additionally, the study explores whether instructors' gaze distribution performance changes over time after they see their gaze distribution visualizations. The study employs a multi-case study design encompassing three distinct higher education classrooms, each characterized by unique attributes. Three instructors from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Faculty of Education voluntarily participated in the study. Data were collected over four consecutive weeks from the classes of these three instructors. Throughout the data collection process, participating instructors wore mobile eye-trackers during their regular lecture. The results revealed varying levels of unequal attentional distribution across all cases. Notably, gaze distribution improvement was observed in only one of the cases, and potential reasons were discussed in relation to classroom and instructor traits. The seating preferences of students appear to significantly influence the instructor's attentional distribution, particularly in larger classes. To elaborate, students occupying the frontier seats receive a notably higher amount of gaze duration from the instructors. Furthermore, it was observed that the level of in-class participation varied both between and within cases over the four weeks. Despite these changes, student participation remained limited, with the majority of classroom interactions initiated by the instructors across all cases. Finally, it appears that instructors did not significantly direct more gaze towards students who participated most frequently in the class.

Subject Keywords

eye tracking, higher education, gaze distribution, professional gaze

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/105453

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Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis