Teach at first sight: Expert teacher gaze across two cultural settings

Teacher gaze is central to learning, yet research in this area has been limited to Western and laboratory settings. Moreover, within these contexts, only attentional (i.e., information-seeking) gaze has been investigated so far. The research presented in this thesis aimed to extend existing literature by identifying culture-specific (UK and Hong Kong) patterns of expert teacher gaze in real-world classrooms, and going beyond attentional gaze to communicative (i.e., information-giving) gaze. Participants were n= 40 secondary school teachers with 20 (10 expert; 10 novice) from the UK and 20 (10 expert; 10 novice) from Hong Kong. All consented to wearing eye tracking glasses while teaching a class. Gaze proportion, duration, efficiency, flexibility and sequences were measured and analysed. The strategic consistency of the way in which teachers used gaze was also assessed, as was the relationship between measures of gaze and teachers’ interpersonal behaviour. In both cultures, expertise in teaching was demonstrated by giving students priority, that is, higher proportions and longer durations of teacher gaze directed towards students. Gaze flexibility was also a sign of expertise in both cultures, as was strategic consistency. Cultural differences also emerged in what constituted expert teacher gaze. Expertise specific to the UK was shown through teachers looking less at teacher materials and through strategic consistency. Expertise specific to Hong Kong was shown through looking less at non-instructional non-student targets and by gaze flexibility. Teacher interpersonal style (i.e., agency × communion) and teacher agency increased as non-student attentional gaze decreased and as non-student communicative gaze increased; and teacher communion was significantly related to attentional but not communicative gaze.