Modeling and Developing Situation Awareness in Teachers

In both popular conception and theoretical models, a hallmark of skilled teachers is their ability to monitor the complex, chaotic environment of a classroom and hone in on key features relevant to monitoring student understanding and maintaining student attention. This ability, termed "situation awareness" (Endsley, 1995) is central to the performance of many complex activities. We know very little about how teachers manage their attention while teaching, and even less about how this ability develops. The proposed project will develop basic models of situation awareness in teaching and how this ability changes with expertise.