23.09.2025
The Role of Eye Tracking in Learning and Educational Research
How gaze data is transforming classrooms, digital learning, and professional training
by Mirta Ivanek, Product Manager
Understanding how students learn has always been one of education’s greatest challenge. While traditional methods like standardized tests and verbal feedback only provide a partial picture of the learning process, they often miss what’s happening in the moment – the subtle, real-time processes that shape how students solve problems, and engage with material. What if we could see how students interact with information as they’re learning it?
This is where eye tracking comes in. Eye tracking technology allows researchers and educators to follow the movement of the eyes across a screen or page, revealing patterns of attention, comprehension, and even cognitive overload. From diagnosing reading difficulties to designing more effective learning environments, this powerful tool is offering new ways to explore the “how” behind learning.
In this blog, we explore how eye tracking is being used in educational research and practice, highlighting real-world applications and scientific studies that show how this technology is transforming learning environments – from classrooms to online platforms.
Why Visual Attention and Eye Tracking Matter in Education
Learning is not just about receiving information – it involves filtering, processing, and integrating that information. Much of this happens through visual attention, particularly in classrooms where the learning material is dominated by text, slides, diagrams, and multimedia. Eye movements reflect the underlying cognitive processes involved in reading, problem-solving, and decision-making. As Rayner1 noted, eye tracking provides a “window to the mind”, showing how students make sense of complex material. By measuring fixations (pauses), saccades (rapid shifts), and regressions (backward looks), eye tracking provides insights into attention, comprehension, and problem-solving strategies – allowing educators to observe the learning process in real time.
Applications of Eye Tracking in Education
Diagnosing and Supporting Reading Difficulties
Eye tracking has become a powerful tool in the study of developmental dyslexia and other reading disorders. Research shows that children with dyslexia tend to exhibit longer fixations, increased regressions (backward eye movements), and atypical saccadic (rapid eye movements) patterns compared to typical readers2. By identifying these eye movement patterns early, educators can provide targeted interventions, such as vocabulary scaffolding, guided rereading, or tailored visual aids, to support reading fluency and comprehension.
Enhancing Instructional and Multimedia Design
In digital and traditional learning environments, eye tracking helps assess whether students attend to critical information – such as labels on diagrams or instructions in videos – or get distracted by decorative irrelevant features. Data on gaze patterns can guide instructional design in line with Cognitive Load Theory3 and Multimedia Learning Principles4. For example, if eye tracking data shows that students overlook key explanations while watching a video, the content layout can be adjusted to better direct attention, enhancing learning efficiency.
Monitoring Engagement and Attention
With the rise of remote education, understanding and maintaining student engagement is more important than ever. Prolonged off-screen gazes, reduced fixation variability, or frequent mind-wandering correlate with lapses in attention5. Real-time monitoring allows educators to adapt instruction, incorporate interactive elements, or prompt re-engagement strategies. Eye tracking also reveals how attention shifts during lectures, discussions, or collaborative tasks, informing teaching techniques and group facilitation.
Understanding Problem-Solving and Cognitive Strategies
Eye movements reveal how students approach problem-solving and learning tasks. Experts often display more efficient gaze patterns, focusing on relevant areas longer and skipping over extraneous details6. Novices, by contrast, tend to scan broadly and inefficiently. Tracking these differences allows educators to scaffold instruction and promote development of expert-like strategies.
Supporting Neurodiverse and Special Education Needs
Eye tracking is also instrumental in supporting learners with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or other neurodiverse profiles. Children with ASD often show reduced fixations on social cues such as faces, affecting communication and peer interactions7. Identifying such patterns early enables educators to tailor interventions that address both academic and social learning needs Additionally, eye-controlled interfaces are increasingly used in assistive technologies, allowing students with motor impairments or non-verbal conditions to interact with digital content using only their eyes – a profound shift toward inclusive education.
Personalizing Learning Experiences
Eye tracking doesn’t just help diagnose problems – it supports personalized education. By analyzing how individual students engage with texts, diagrams, and videos, teachers can adapt materials to match learners’ cognitive styles. A student who lingers on visual explanations might benefit from more diagrams; one who frequently rereads complex sentences may need vocabulary scaffolding or simplified language.
Informing Social and Collaborative Learning
In group learning contexts, eye tracking reveals how students interact with peers and content. Data on gaze allocation during collaborative tasks highlight leadership, communication breakdowns, and engagement patterns, enabling teachers to optimize group dynamics and ensure active participation for all learners.
Training Professionals and High-Stakes Learning
The impact of eye tracking extends to professional training. In fields like medicine and aviation, where visual attention and decision-making are critical, eye tracking is used to compare expert and novice performance. For example, surgical trainees can learn to adopt the focused visual strategies of experienced surgeons8, while pilots can refine their cockpit scanning behavior9. These insights inform training programs and enhance performance and safety.
Conclusion
Eye tracking is revolutionizing how we understand and improve education. By providing a real-time view of learners’ visual and cognitive behavior, it allows educators and researchers to pinpoint learning difficulties, design better educational materials, monitor engagement and attention, personalize learning paths, and train future professionals more efficiently.
As technology becomes more accessible, its potential for widespread impact continues to grow – offering powerful ways to create inclusive, engaging, and evidence-based learning experiences.
1
Rayner, K. (1998). Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research. Psychological Bulletin, 124(3), 372–422.
2
Dürrwächter, U., Sokolov, A.N., Reinhard, J., Klosinski, G., & Trauzettel-Klosinski, S. (2010). Word length and word frequency affect eye movements in dyslexic children reading in a regular (German) orthography. Ann. of Dyslexia 60, 86–101.
3
Sweller, J. (1994). Cognitive load theory, learning difficulty, and instructional design. Learning and Instruction, 4(4), 295–312.
4
Mayer, R. E. (2009). Multimedia Learning. Cambridge University Press.
5
Zhang, H., Miller, K.F., Sun, X., & Cortina, K.S. (2020). Wandering eyes: Eye movements during mind wandering in video lectures. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 34(2), 449-464.
6
Van Gog, T., & Scheiter, K. (2010). Eye tracking as a tool to study and enhance multimedia learning. Learning and Instruction, 20(2), 95–99.
7
Falck-Ytter, T., Bölte, S., & Gredebäck, G. (2013). Eye tracking in early autism research. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 5(1), 28.
8
Vine, S.J., Masters, R.S.W., McGrath, J.S., Bright, E., Wilson, M.R. (2012). Cheating experience: Guiding novices to adopt the gaze strategies of experts expedites the learning of technical laparoscopic skills. Surgery, 152(1), 32-40.
9
Kasarskis, P., Stehwien, J., Hickox, J., Aretz, A., & Wickens, C. (2001). Comparison of expert and novice scan behaviors during VFR flight. Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Aviation Psychology.