Understanding the role of gaze in momentary teacher-student scaffolding interaction during collaborative problem solving

Gaze is a crucial part of interaction. Teacher-student relationship is constructed on momentary classroom interactions. Recent eye-tracking research has charted some patterns of teacher gaze in classrooms, but the dynamics of the relation between teacher’s gaze and pedagogical intentions and teacher-student eye contact have remained unexplored. The aim of this dissertation was to explore how teachers’ momentary scaffolding intentions and interpersonal behaviors are manifested in their gaze behaviors and in momentary teacher-student eye-contact communication. The research setting included multiple mobile eye tracking in naturalistic classroom contexts. The studies combined data collected on three 9th-grade mathematics lessons: gaze data, video recordings, and an interview with one teacher. The students solved a problem collaboratively and the teachers guided the problem solving. This mixed method research combines theoretical and methodological traditions of psychology and education and creates new information on teacher-student interaction and analytical methods. To present the main findings, student faces and solution papers were the most significant gaze targets for the teacher. Student papers were the most significant target during teacher-led cognitive scaffolding interaction, and student faces during affective scaffolding. Students’ hands and bodies were a common target during metacognitive scaffolding. Teacher gazes at student gestures were few but very long and occurred often during cognitive scaffolding. The student-started eye contacts were significantly more frequent than teacher-started eye contacts. The occurrence and durations of the dyadic eye contacts were dependent on the teachers’ scaffolding intentions. The students tended to look their teacher in the eye during cognitive scaffolding. During affective scaffolding, the teacher-started eye contacts were relatively frequent. The students looked at their teacher during high teacher communion often and with long gazes. To conclude, during cognitive scaffolding interaction and teacher behaviors of high communion and agency, the student gazes focus on the teacher and teacher gazes on the learning content. During affective scaffolding, dyadic eye contacts often formed between the teacher and students. The between-individual and even within-individual variation of attentional behaviors underline using situational data collection methods and continuous coding and developing theories on scaffolding intentions and interpersonal behaviors toward the inclusion of the momentary variation in instructive interaction.Katse on olennainen osa vuorovaikutusta. Opettaja-oppilassuhde rakentuu tilannekohtaisen luokkahuonevuorovaikutuksen pohjalle. Tuore katseenseurantatutkimus on kartoittanut opettajan katseen yleisiä piirteitä, mutta opettajan katseen ja pedagogisten tavoitteiden välistä dynamiikkaa tai opettajan ja oppilaan välisiä katsekontakteja ei ole tutkittu. Tämän väitöstutkimus selvitti, miten opettajan tilannekohtaiset ongelmanratkaisun ohjaamisen tavoitteet ja interpersoonallinen käyttäytyminen näkyvät hänen katsekäyttäymisessään ja opettajan ja oppilaan katsevuorovaikutuksessa. Tutkimuksessa oli aineistoa useista kannettavista päälle puettavista katseenseurantalaitteista aidoissa luokkahuoneympäristöissä sekä videonauhoitteita ja yhtä opettajahaastattelua. Oppilaat ratkaisivat ongelmatehtävää ryhmissä, ja opettajat ohjasivat tätä työskentelyä. Valitsin monimenetelmäisen lähestymistavan analyysiin saavuttaakseni syvällistä ymmärrystä tutkimusaiheesta. Oppilaiden kasvot ja tehtäväpaperit olivat opettajan keskeisimmät katsekohteet. Hän katsoi näitä usein ja pitkillä katseilla läpi koko ongelmanratkaisun. Oppilaiden paperit olivat keskeisin katseen kohde kognitiivisen ohjauksen ja kasvot affektiivisen ohjauksen aikana. Opettaja katsoi oppilaiden käsiä ja kehoa usein mutta lyhyillä katseilla metakognitiivisen ohjauksen aikana. Sen sijaan opettaja katsoi oppilaiden eleitä harvoin, mutta nämä katseet olivat pitkiä ja tapahtuivat usein kognitiivisen ohjauksen aikana. Oppilaat aloittivat kaksisuuntaisen katsekontaktin useammin kuin opettajat. Katsekontaktien esiintyvyys ja kesto riippuivat opettajan ohjauksen tavoitteista. Oppilaiden aloittamia katsekontakteja esiintyi eniten kognitiivisen ohjauksen aikana. Affektiivisen ohjauksen aikana opettajien aloittamat katsekontaktit olivat suhteellisen yleisiä. Oppilaat katsoivat opettajiaan kasvoihin useammin ja pidemmillä katseilla, kun nämä välittivät yhteyttä käyttäytymisellään. Oppilaiden aloittamat katsekontaktit oppimista tukevan opettaja-oppilasvuorovaikutuksen aikana olivat pitkiä. Yhteenvetona todetaan, että kognitiivinen ohjausvuorovaikutus ja opettajan välittämä korkea yhteys ja toimijuus ohjaavat oppilaiden katsetta kohti opettajaa ja opettajan katsetta kohti opetussisältöjä. Affektiivisen ohjaus tukee kaksisuuntaisen katsevuorovaikutuksen toteutumista. Tilannekohtaisten aineistonkeruu- ja jatkuvien analyysimenetelmien käyttäminen tutkimuksessa on tärkeää, jotta voidaan huomioida yksilöiden väliset ja sisäiset vaihtelut ja kehittää interpersoonallisen käyttäytymisen ja ongelmanratkaisun ohjaamisen teorioita kohti opetusvuorovaikutuksen tilannekohtaisuuden ymmärrystä

Educators’ perceptions of mathematically gifted students and a socially supportive learning environment – A case study of a Finnish upper secondary school

This article explores five educators’ conceptions of the characteristics of mathematically gifted students and a social learning environment that supports their development in a school for mathematically gifted adolescents in Finland. We conducted this qualitative study through semi-structured interviews and participant observations in a Finnish upper secondary school with a special mathematics program. The research shows that gifted students and their educators form a tight community, the social learning environment of which supports shared motivation, healthy perfectionism, and practicing social skills. The results deepen the understanding of gifted education in the Finnish context and the significance of educators’ shared understanding of social activities as a basis for successful gifted education.Peer reviewe

Teacher-student eye contact during scaffolding collaborative mathematical problem-solving

Teacher’s gaze communicates consciously and unconsciously her pedagogical priorities to the students. By creating and responding to eye contact initiatives, people can communicate both status and affection. This research explores the frequency of teacher-student eye contacts and their connection to teachers’ scaffolding intentions. The data consisted of mobile gaze tracking recordings of two teachers and stationary classroom videos during three collaborative mathematical problem-solving lessons. The quantitative analysis showed that most of the teacher gazes on student faces did not lead to dyadic eye contacts and those gazes that did, occurred often during affective and cognitive scaffolding. These results offer us novel and important insight in the nonverbal part of scaffolding interaction. Eeva Haataja, Miika Toivanen, Anu Laine and Markku S. Hannula University of Helsinki, FinlandTeacher’s gaze communicates consciously and unconsciously her pedagogical priorities to the students. By creating and responding to eye contact initiatives, people can communicate both status and affection. This research explores the frequency of teacher-student eye contacts and their connection to teachers’ scaffolding intentions. The data consisted of mobile gaze tracking recordings of two teachers and stationary classroom videos during three collaborative mathematical problem-solving lessons. The quantitative analysis showed that most of the teacher gazes on student faces did not lead to dyadic eye contacts and those gazes that did, occurred often during affective and cognitive scaffolding. These results offer us novel and important insight in the nonverbal part of scaffolding interaction.Peer reviewe

Can noncomplementarity of agency lead to successful problem solving? A case study on students’ interpersonal behaviors in mathematical problem-solving collaboration

In student collaboration, purposeful peer interaction crucial for success on the task. Such collaboration requires adequate and purposeful student agency. Theoretically, the between-individual complementarity of agency be-haviors enhances purposeful interaction. However, the level of agency of group members can disrupt the collaborative interactions. We conducted a case study of collaborative mathematical problem solving, where one student's behaviors of noncomplementary agency characterized the group interaction. We examined the video recording of the group by continuous quantitative coding of students' agency behaviors and segmented the interaction process into four phases. We analyzed qualitatively these phases based on the verbal transcript. We found that the target student's agency grew in relation to the other students despite her lack of mathematical competence. The findings provide us with a new perspective to understand the role of the situational individual agency in collaborative learning that underlines the tolerance of noncomplementarity of agency in student collaboration.Peer reviewe

Editorial : Special Issue: The International Conference of Mathematical Views 2018 – Selected Papers

This LUMAT special issue is a collection of selected papers from the 24th international conference of mathematical views that was held on August 20–22, 2018 in Helsinki, Finland. The conference was a wonderful opportunity to elaborate issues related to mathematics-related affect among colleagues interested in this area of research. The keynote at the conference was given by Reinhard Pekrun with a title: “Achievement emotions in mathematics”. Out of the 25 conference presentations, 12 were submitted as a manuscript for peer review. We had one reviewer selected among MAVI 24 participants, and another reviewer was invited among mathematics affect researchers who were not at the conference. After the review and revisions, we ended up with eight articles that you can read in this special issue.Non peer reviewe

Phases of collaborative mathematical problem solving and joint attention : a case study utilizing mobile gaze tracking

Given the recent development of mobile gaze-tracking devices it has become possible to view and interpret what the student sees and unravel the associated problem-solving processes further. It has also become possible to pinpoint joint attention occurrences that are fundamental for learning. In this study, we examined joint attention in collaborative mathematical problem solving. We studied the thought processes of four 15-16-year-old students in their regular classroom, using mobile gaze tracking, video and audio recordings, and smartpens. The four students worked as a group to find the shortest path to connect the vertices of a square. Combining information on the student gaze targets with a qualitative interpretation of the context, we identified the occurrences of joint attention, out of which 49 were joint visual attention occurrences and 28 were attention to different representations of the same mathematical idea. We call this joint representational attention. We discovered that 'verifying' (43%) and 'watching and listening' (35%) were the most common phases during joint attention. The most frequently occurring problem solving phases right after joint attention were also 'verifying' (47%) and 'watching and listening' (34%). We detected phase cycles commonly found in individual problem-solving processes ('planning and exploring', 'implementing', and 'verifying') outside of joint attention. We also detected phase shifts between 'verifying', 'watching and listening', and 'understanding' a problem, often occurring during joint attention. Therefore, these phases can be seen as a signal of successful interaction and the promotion of collaboration.Peer reviewe

Advancing video research methodology to capture the processes of social interaction and multimodality

In this reflective methodological paper we focus on affordances and challenges of video data. We compare and analyze two research settings that use the latest video technology to capture classroom interactions in mathematics education, namely, The Social Unit of Learning (SUL) project of the University of Melbourne and the MathTrack project of the University of Helsinki. While using these two settings as examples, we have structured our reflections around themes pertinent to video research in general, namely, research methods, data management, and research ethics. SUL and MathTrack share an understanding of mathematics learning as social multimodal practice, and provide possibilities for zooming into the situational micro interactions that construct collaborative problem-solving learning. Both settings provide rich data for in-depth analyses of peer interactions and learning processes. The settings share special needs for technical support and data management, as well as attention to ethical aspects from the perspective of the participants' security and discretion. SUL data are especially suitable for investigating interactions on a broad scope, addressing how multiple interactional processes intertwine. MathTrack, on the other hand, enables exploration of participants' visual attention in detail and its role in learning. Both settings could provide tools for teachers' professional development by showing them aspects of classroom interactions that would otherwise remain hidden.Peer reviewe

Exploring collaboration during mathematics problem solving in the classroom with multiple mobile eye tracking

Conference on Embodied Design in Interaction, October 30-31, 2017, Utrecht University, UtrechtNon peer reviewe

Diffusion tensor imaging is associated with motor outcomes of very preterm born children at 11 years of age

Aim Very preterm children born Methods A cohort of 37 very preterm infants (mean gestational age 29 4/7, SD 2 0/7) born in 2004-2006 in Turku University Hospital underwent diffusion tensor imaging at term. A region of interest analysis of fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity was performed. Motor outcomes at 11 years of age were measured with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children - Second Edition. Results The diffusion metrics of the corpus callosum (genu P = .005, splenium P = .049), the left corona radiata (P = .035) and the right optic radiation (P = .017) were related to later motor performance. Mean diffusivity decreased and fractional anisotropy increased in proportion to the improving performance. Conclusion The diffusion metrics of the genu and splenium of the corpus callosum, the left corona radiata and the right optic radiation at term were associated with motor skills at 11 years of age. Diffusion tensor imaging should be further studied as a potential tool in recognising children at risk for motor impairment.</div

Displaying N-depth Parent Hierarchy in sObject Field

The goal of the project was to find a solution to display identification numbers of parent record hierarchy in Salesforce Custom Object text field. The requirement was that the depth of record hierarchy is not fixed and the number of characters used in field is the maximum character number of the longest available text field. Project development environment was Salesforce, which is the leading CRM-software. Development was managed in Developer Edition sandbox and data model followed Salesforce model. Configuring object to track n-depth hierarchy is not common, therefore, the aim of this study was to do a research on issues related to n-depth Object hierarchy. Firstly, each possible event for record was designed to a chain of events. After the first phase, restriction in Salesforce environment was discovered based on what problems the project might face. The discovery phase excluded approaches, but also brought up restrictions that cannot be avoided and thus, need to be noted when developing. The third phase was to build a Process for each chain of event. Development for Autolaunched Flow followed, since Process needs to launch a Flow to complete record update. A clear and reliable solution was sought when developing a Flow. The last part of the solution development was Apex Trigger for event when the record should be deleted. The purpose of the Trigger was to delete the connection between record and its child records and then update the child records. A previously built Process was utilized when updating child records. As a result of this study, a solution which meets the core criteria of the project was found. However, some risks were detected, which denotes that the solution might not apply to a larger scale. The solution discovered can be optimized and improved, though. The project was made for a software start-up company, which is focused on developing Salesforce applications.Insinöörityön tavoitteena oli löytää ratkaisu esittää itseensä viittaavan Salesforce-objektin tekstikentällä datahierarkiassa ylempien tallenteiden identiteettinumerot tekstimuodossa. Vaatimuksena oli, että hierarkian tulee olla rajaamaton ja rivin merkkien määrän suurin sallittu. Toteutusympäristönä oli Salesforce, joka on johtava asiakkuudenhallintajärjestelmä (customer relationship management, CRM). Kehitysympäristönä toimi Salesforcen Developer Edition, ja datamallinnus on Salesforcen mallin mukainen. Salesforcen ympäristön objektin konfigurointi rajaamattoman syvyiseen hierarkiaan ei ole tavanomaista, joten tämän insinöörityön tarkoituksena oli selvittää, kuinka ratkaista siihen liittyvät käyttöongelmat. Ensin projektissa suunniteltiin jokaiselle objektiin liittyvälle tapahtumalle, kuten luomiselle, poistamiselle ja päivittämiselle, vaatimusketju. Seuraavana vaiheena kartoitettiin ympäristön rajoittavat ominaisuudet, jotka voivat haitata ratkaisun löytymistä. Kartoituksen tavoitteena oli sulkea pois lähestymistapoja, mutta se toi myös esille huomioon otettavia rajoituksia, joita ei voitu välttää. Muun muassa tietokannan hakuihin ja toimintoihin liittyi paljon Salesforcen asettamia rajoituksia. Kartoituksen jälkeen kehitettiin Salesforcen Process Builder -työkalulla tapahtumaketju jokaiselle objektin tapahtumalle paitsi tallenteen poistamiselle. Seuraavana oli vuorossa automaattisesti käynnistyvän kulun kehitys sille, kuinka tallenne päivitetään ajantasalle. Kulkukehityksessä pyrittiin selkeään ja luotettavaan tulokseen. Viimeisenä vaiheena oli luoda Apex-käynnistin tallenteen poiston tapahtumaketjulle. Apex-käynnistimen tehtävänä oli poistaa yhteys alemman kerroksen tallenteiden ja poistettavan tallenteen väliltä ennen tallenteen poistamista. Insinöörityö tuloksena syntyi toimiva ratkaisu, joka vastasi projektin päätavoitetta, eli objektin tekstikentälle pystyi luomaan tallenteen ylempien tallenteiden identiteettinumerot. Ratkaisussa huomattiin kuitenkin riskejä, kun tallenteiden määrä oli suuri tai hierakia oli rakennettu syväksi. Löydettyä ratkaisua on mahdollista vielä kehittää paremmaksi riskien vähentämiseksi sekä tapahtumaketjun kulun nopeuttamiseksi. Insinöörityön oli tilannut ohjelmistoalan start-up-yritys, joka on painottunut Salesforce-sovelluksen kehitykseen