Breaking the silence: understanding teachers’ use of silence in classrooms

Silence in classrooms is an undervalued and understudied phenomenon. There is limited research on how teachers behave and think during teachers' silence in lessons. There are also methodological constraints due to the lack of teacher's talk during silence. This study used eye-tracking technology to visualize the noticing patterns of two science teachers during silence lasting more than three seconds. Using video data recorded from cameras and eye trackers, we examined each silent event and interpreted teachers' perceptions and interpretations with consideration of eye fixations, actions of students and teachers during the silence, and teachers' actions immediately after they broke the silence. We further examined expert-novice differences in teachers' use of silence. Four categories of teachers' silence were identified: silence for (1) preparing the classroom for learning; (2) teaching, questioning, and facilitating learning; (3) reflecting and thinking, and (4) behavioural management. Expert-novice differences were identified, especially in the teachers' use of silence for approaches to teaching, reflection, and behavioural management. The novel contribution of this paper lies in the characterization of silences as observed in actual classroom settings as well as the methodological innovation in using eye trackers and video to overcome the constraints of lack of talk data during silence.