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This project investigates whether naturalistic patterns of childrens gaze aversion can be used to facilitate performance of cognitive tasks and whether teachers use gaze aversion as a cue to childrens understanding. In addition it investigates the relative role of social and cognitive factors in driving children to avert their gaze from the face of a questioner, recognising that the effects of gaze on speakers and listeners are heterogeneous.

Answering these questions allows assessment of the possibility of applying the research findings in real-life education, engagement/disengagement. The new work adds to earlier findings by determining the relative impact of social and cognitive factors in driving childrens gaze aversion.

The project will systematically assess whether teachers use patterns of gaze to judge comprehension and readiness to learn. Informal discussions with teachers, during earlier studies, suggest that they do not do this in an explicit way. We use a variety of methodologies to address the questions including analysis of childrens gaze patterns from video recordings; qualitative analyses of teachers self-reports; and contingency analysis of teacher-child interactions. The research has potentially important applications in education, adding to knowledge about the process of learning in one-on-one teacher-pupil encounters and commenting on aspects of teaching style.

Award/Grant Outputs and Documents
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