Eye-tracking the Effects of Representation on Students' Problem Solving Approaches

Abstract

This study used an eye-tracking method to explore students’ approaches to solving the same task in different representations and the differences between students who answered correctly and those who answered incorrectly when solving the problems. Thirty-one upper secondary students took part in the study. According to the results of this study, the representation has a slight effect on students’ problem solving processes. Students with the incorrect answers paid more attention to the parts of the tasks with information irrelevant to determining the solution to the task.