Novice teachers’ visual behaviour to students’ performance in physical education classes: a mobile eye-tracking approach

Abstract

Introduction: The development of professional vision in Physical Education depends on the ability to selectively process pedagogically relevant visual information within dynamic and cognitively demanding environments. Despite the increasing use of mobile eye-tracking in sport and education, limited evidence exists on how novice Physical Education teachers allocate visual attention to students’ motor performance and behavioural engagement in ecologically valid contexts. Objective: This study employed mobile eye-tracking to examine novice teachers’ gaze behaviour in relation to students’ motor competence and behavioural engagement. Methodology: Thirty novice Physical Education teachers undertaking a pedagogical internship observed an authentic video-recorded 9th-grade lesson while wearing Tobii Pro Glasses 3. Students’ motor competence was determined via teacher ratings and off-task behaviour through a post-observation questionnaire. Fixation duration and fixation count were analysed as objective indicators of visual attention across closed (structured) and open (dynamic) motor tasks. Results: Significant negative correlations between gaze metrics and motor competence were observed in the closed task, but these relationships were not evident in the open task. Although participants demonstrated longer and more frequent fixations on on-task students, this attentional bias did not translate into accurate identification of off-task behaviour. Discussion: Findings indicate greater visual attention towards lower-performing students and suggest that increased task complexity and environmental dynamism constrain attentional allocation. Additionally, the low levels of accurate identification reveal a dissociation between visual attention and behavioural interpretation. Conclusions: These findings identify task complexity as a key moderating factor in visual attention and highlight limitations in novice teachers’ perceptual-cognitive processing, supporting the use of mobile eye-tracking to inform targeted interventions for enhancing professional vision in Physical Education classes.