A teacher’s distribution of attention and interaction opportunities in early childhood education: a mixed-methods single case study

Given the importance of one-on-one interactions between teachers and children for preschoolers’ language development, understanding teachers’ distribution of attention during interactions is essential. This mixed-methods single case study investigates how one teacher distributes her attention and interaction opportunities among four children. A data triangulation approach combining quantitative mobile eye-tracking data and qualitative data was used to examine the interplay between the teacher’s distribution of attention and of teacher-child interactions. To ensure ecological validity of the eye-tracking experiment, the four focal children were also followed through two half days in their regular classroom. Eye-tracking results revealed that the teacher’s attention was unevenly distributed, influenced by a complex interplay between teacher expectations, child language proficiency and a combination of intentional and unintentional attention processes. The child who was the most talkative received the most teacher attention, leading to more opportunities for language-stimulating interactions. This attention bias potentially creates an opportunity for inequality where children are held responsible for seizing language development opportunities themselves. In classroom observations, the same indications of inequality were observed. This study contributes to establishing the relevance and ecological validity of teacher attention measured with mobile eye tracking in the context of early childhood education.