Abstract

Normally teachers can consciously control to a great extent the behaviors of their students in the classroom. But additionally, there are unconscious teacher behaviors that also impact the collective behavior of their students. To study this phenomenon, we gather data obtained from mini video cameras mounted on eyeglasses worn by fourth graders. We found that the proportion of scenes where the teacher is pointing his body toward the student is higher than the proportion of scenes when there is mutual gaze, and that this effect is slight pronounced in STEM classes. We also found that this effect is greater among boys than girls, and that is particularly evident at certain distances. More precisely, we found that in STEM classes when a male student is observing the teacher, the teacher is generally pointing their body toward the student (67% of cases). However, with female students, this number is just 46%. However, there is no such difference in non-STEM classes. Moreover, the distance between the student and the teacher also has a significant effect. This is a powerful tool for teachers as it can help them reflect on their strategies, as well as the impact of their unconscious nonverbal behavior in classroom behavior.