Eye-tracking glasses for improving teacher education: the e-Teach project

Abstract

This paper is about “Improvement of teaching techniques by eye tracking in technology enhanced classrooms” (e-Teach), an innovative project funded by the Erasmus Plus Programme (KA2 - Strategic Partnership in the field of School Education). The project aims to study teachers’ eye movements in real teaching situation using eye-tracking glasses and compares the teachers’ use of digital technologies between novices and experts teaching the same school subject. The purpose of this study was to provide indicators of skill gaps between novices and experts which can be addressed appropriately with highly targeted teacher education. The first part of the paper reviews recent developments in conceptual frameworks for digital competence and in digital competence descriptors. The second part describes the project status, the methods and its phases. In conclusion, the paper gives a brief overview of initial findings of ongoing research, focusing largely on the Italian experience, and development tasks for the next project phases. The initial findings suggest that teachers valued the benefits of using digital technologies in classrooms and recognized the necessity of professional development. They also provided specific insights for the purpose of developing an online course for teacher education in four languages: English, Turkish, Italian and Lithuanian.

Applying Eye-Tracking Technology in the Field of Entrepreneurship Education

“…At the same time, when relying only on participants who volunteered to take part in the study themselves, self-selection bias may appear (Stahnke & Blömeke, 2021). Along with that, introducing new data collecting equipment in the classroom directly may create a novelty effect and change the behaviour of the participants (Faiella et al, 2019). Additionally, privacy-related ethical issues arise.…”

“…-Training pre-service teachers for classroom work through EMME and discussion of the model's gaze -Recording pre-service teachers' classroom video and eye-tracking data for assessment and reflection-guiding purposes (Coskun & Cagiltay, 2021) -Developing country-specific resources based on the findings from classroom eye-tracking research in relation to a certain teacher competence (Faiella et al, 2019) However, for eye-tracking application to have direct and solid implications on teacher training, it is important to be reminded by McMahon et al (2019) on the perpetual tension between research on teaching and teaching practices in real life, where teacher training needs to construct life-long professional learning skills that would sustain effective practices within the ever-changing classroom. Teacher training cannot be simplified into a set of skills with routines to be re-enacted inside the classroom.…”

Professional Development of In-Service Teachers: Use of Eye Tracking for Language Classes, Case Study

“…Eye tracking research also includes research aimed at the general professional competences of teachers [28]. The focus is on analyzing teachers' professional behavior, leading to improvements in educational methods and teaching practices.…”