Interaction II: teachers' attentional and diagnostic processes of cognitive and motivational-affective student characteristics

The goal of the proposed research project is to study teacher attention processes preceding initial teacher actions for verbal interactions with students. The methodological approach of eye movement tracking (EMT) is applied and previous EMT research is systematically expanded by information about individual student characteristics. Two major research questions are addressed: (1) Can previously reported findings in a laboratory setting on expert-novice differences in eye movement patterns be replicated by integrating information about individual student characteristics? (2) How are teacher attention processes distributed across students with different characteristic profiles in the process of acting in an own classroom as a teacher? How are initial teacher actions inviting for verbal interactions with students distributed across student profiles and how are they related to EMT patterns? What role do teacher competences play for explaining teacher differences in EMT patterns and teacher actions? In order to answer the first research question a laboratory study with fixed EMT recording and a sample of N=30 experts and N=30 novices is realized. In a second (field) study mobile EMT is used in classrooms of N=20 teachers in order to answer the second set of research questions. Findings of the study will contribute to the understanding of the relationship between teacher attention processes and teaching actions with regard to dealing with student diversity. The study is set at the interface of research on student diversity in classrooms, teacher diagnostic competences and EMT process analyses. Based on the findings of this project interventions regarding the support of teacher attention processes and diagnostic decision making can be implemented.