Eye tracking technology has largely advanced the possibilities for chemistry education research. As dealing with multiple external representations can be a complex endeavor for students in chemistry, measuring underlying cognitive processes based on students’ eye movements allows researchers to derive more in-depth implications about student learning. This symposium aims at bringing research in chemistry education together that makes use of eye tracking as a tool to elicit students’ perception and underlying cognitive processes. Contributions that make use of eye tracking to evaluate the effectiveness of differently designed instructional materials, characterize the correlation between students’ performance and their eye movements, and couple eye tracking with innovative approaches, such as machine learning, through exploratory studies to predict performance or derive adaptive learning scenarios are welcome. As eye tracking can be used to provide a qualitative and a quantitative perspective, both approaches are considered in the symposium. Currently, eye tracking is mostly used in research projects and less applied in teaching settings; research groups, graduate students involved with eye tracking projects, and interested faculty are encouraged to participate in this symposium.

Eye tracking is a powerful tool in chemistry education research, but it has its pitfalls – choosing the right metrics as well as deriving sound inferences based on eye-movement measures can be tricky. The symposium thus aims to discuss with the contributors and attendees the future avenues of eye tracking, possibly reflecting on establishing a standard when using eye tracking in chemistry education research.