In this discussion paper, teaching and learning are characterized as being situated, complex, and reciprocally interactive activities. Accordingly, a teacher's pedagogical actions are always action and reaction at the same time. Irrespective of the reciprocally interactive nature of teaching and learning, educational research has sought to…

This article introduces this special issue of "Frontline Learning Research." The first paper offers a methodological guide using Ericsson & Smith's (1991) "expert performance approach." This is followed by three papers that analyze the use of eye tracking in visual expertise models, and a paper reviewing the use of methods…

With eye-tracking technology the eye is thought to give researchers a window into the mind. Importantly, eye-tracking has significant advantages over traditional online processing measures: chiefly that it allows for more "natural" processing as it does not require a secondary task, and that it provides a very rich moment-to-moment data…

Data from a cough challenge study are displayed with dot charts to demonstrate the importance of graphs in understanding data, principles of graph construction and visual perception. The data are available for use in the classroom.

Eye tracking offers a powerful research tool for developmental scientists. In this brief article, the author introduces the methodology and issues associated with its applications in developmental research, beginning with an overview of eye movements and eye-tracking technologies, followed by examples of how it is used to study the developing mind…

This article presents the argument that combining visual methods with other qualitative research methods enhances the inherent strengths of each methodology and allows new understandings to emerge. These would otherwise remain hidden if only one method were used in isolation. In a qualitative inquiry of an elementary teacher's constructivist…

CHROMACODE is a conceptual tool that uses systematic, logical, and visual processes for organizing and analyzing qualitative research findings for the researcher with relatively low technical knowledge of data analysis. It can best be described as a visual conceptual scheme with coding based on a color-dependent procedure. Color provides a sense…

People presume that the light source in pictures comes from above, and there is some evidence that this phenomenon also demonstrates lateral biases. When investigators present multiple ambiguous stimuli or visually complex objects, people assume that the source of light is from above, and to the left. However, when single relatively simple stimuli…

An experiment on children's perception of urban distance is described, focusing on the study's methodology and analyses. Suggests that the methodology/analyses could be used by sixth-formers providing a means by which sixth-formers can develop their own examinations of urban distance perception. (JN)

This article presents one portrayal of the role of photography as a language of teacher inquiry. To inform teachers' use of photography, the first part of the article presents a brief historical perspective of photography's role in the study of human behavior in the fields of visual anthropology, visual sociology, photojournalism, and media…

The purpose of this project was to investigate, in an informal and exploratory manner, the reactions of middle school students to unfamiliar symbols used as computer screen icons. The project focused on discovering a means to address the following issues: (1) the appearance of buttons containing text compared to those with graphics; (2) the…