Allocation of attention and automaticity in expert music teaching

To assess the degree to which teachers’ attention allocation operates below conscious awareness, I analyzed expert teachers’ gaze during brief teaching episodes and compared their gaze behavior to their post hoc descriptions of their thinking. In the first study, I devised a unique case-study approach in which I served as both research participant and experimenter. I compared my gaze behavior while teaching and while observing a video recording of my teaching. Gaze analyses revealed well-timed attentional shifts while teaching that were related to the accomplishment of momentary goals and were controlled primarily without conscious attention. My gaze differed markedly when I observed the video of the lesson absent the need to make momentary decisions and deliver instruction. In the second study, two artist-level chamber music coaches wore eye-tracking glasses while teaching a chamber rehearsal, then participated in two interviews to discuss their teaching. The first interview took place immediately after the rehearsal; the second occurred approximately two weeks later, during which the teachers recalled what they remembered about their attention as they watched their lesson videos and eye-tracking recordings. Teachers’ gaze behavior revealed rich networks of rapid information tracking and goal-directed attention, but both teachers struggled to articulate the details of their thinking or their attention allocation, suggesting that they conceive of their teaching behaviors in broad construals and the complex attentional behaviors detected in their gaze behavior occurred unconsciously. These results reveal important features of “teacher thinking” that are not overtly observable or typically construed as conscious (intentional) behavior. Each teacher’s allocation of attention was nevertheless strategic, albeit governed by processes to which they devoted no conscious attention while teaching. That this component of teaching practice does not involve volitional control suggests that teachers’ descriptions of their thinking may not reveal to novices important elements of pedagogical expertise.Musi