Eye-tracking study reveals greater visual attention toward text and informational diagrams than guiding illustrations in elementary students, highlighting key needs for textbook design optimization.
Graphical representations play a crucial role in elementary school mathematics textbooks by conveying information visually and fulfilling specific educational functions. This study examined how seven students aged 9–11 years from Shanghai engaged with graphical elements in an elementary school mathematics textbook. Illustrations were classified into three types: decorative diagrams, guiding diagrams, and informational diagrams. By employing a combination of eye-tracking technology and retrospective interviews, the study analyzed and compared the attention allocation differences among these illustration types. The findings indicated that participants relied more on reading textual content than on illustrations. Moreover, they tended to pay less attention to guiding illustrations and more frequently referred to informational illustrations when reading text. This study identified several limitations in the design of mathematics textbooks and offered practical recommendations for improvement.
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Ni et al. (2025) studied this question.
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