Possibilities of Eye-tracking on Reflecting Teachers' Expertise in Early Childhood Education and Care

Teachers' visual gaze plays an important role in practicing pedagogy and interaction in early childhood education and care (ECEC). Combining the exploration of visual gaze with a think-aloud method enables the study of teachers’ reflections on the cognitive processes behind their gaze. Video observation has been stated to be an effective way for teachers to reflect on and learn from their actions. The aim of our study was to explore ECEC teachers’ reflections as they watched eye-tracking recordings of themselves and through interviews that aimed to evaluate and develop their expertise. The participants were six ECEC teachers of groups of under three-year-old children, who had participated in the data collection implemented with eye-tracking glasses during pedagogical activities. The data consisted of 12 semi-structured interviews (two per teacher). Interviews were accompanied with the visual observation of teachers’ own eye-tracking videos and retrospective think-aloud methods. The study applied discourse analysis. As result, three discourses, following three domains of knowledge-based reasoning, were identified: validating, advancing, and expanding expertise. These discourses demonstrate how teachers interpret toddlers’ communicative behaviors and align their visual attention and reasoning with the children's developmental needs. The combination of eye-tracking technology and reflective methods highlights the value of visual gaze in enhancing teachers' expertise and collaborative practices in ECEC.