Visual Attention in Real Classrooms: A Study with Eye-Tracking in Urban and Rural Schools of Chile

TL;DR

This study examines how primary students in Chile look at different classroom elements and finds that context, not cognitive ability or gender, affects attention.

Contribution

The study provides new insights into gaze behavior in Latin American classrooms and its relation to cognitive development and environment.

Findings

Cognitive development showed adequate reliability but no gender-based relationship with eye behavior.

Urban and rural students showed significant differences in gaze behavior.

Gazing at the teacher’s and own materials predicts reduced classroom disconnection.

Abstract

Student gaze behavior has been scarcely studied in real Latin American primary school classrooms. The objective of this study is to analyze the relationship between primary students’ eye behavior and cognitive development in urban and rural contexts. A quantitative method was employed, including 126 primary school students aged 6 to 8 years old, from urban and rural schools in Chile. Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices (CPM) measured cognitive development, and students’ eye behavior was recorded during a real class using eye-tracking glasses. Eye behavior was analyzed in six areas of interest: (1) Own material (2) teacher, (3) teacher’s material, (4) peer, (5) peer’s material, and (6) non-interactional gaze. The results indicate that the CPM scale demonstrates adequate reliability (α = 0.89). In addition, no significant differences, nor relationship between eye behavior and cognitive development, were found by sex; however, significant differences were found by environment (urban versus rural). The regression analysis is significant (F(7, 102) = 6.173, p < 0.001) and suggests that gazing at the teacher’s material and one’s own material are negative predictors of non-interactional gaze or students’ disconnection from the class. In conclusion, distraction in the classroom is influenced by learning-related contextual variables rather than sex or cognitive development.

Figures