Education Week - October 2, 2024 - 6

Kids Are Getting Worse at Making Eye Contact.
Here's Why That's Happening
Educators express serious concerns about the decline of this social skill
By Arianna Prothero
Eye contact is a critical part of communication-in
showing respect, engagement, trustworthiness,
and confidence-and building
relationships.
Yet kids are getting worse at it, according
to a nationally representative survey of K-12
educators.
Sixty-two percent of teachers, principals,
and district leaders said in a recent survey
by the EdWeek Research Center that the
average student's ability to make and maintain
eye contact has gotten worse compared
with 10 years ago. A quarter of educators described
the issue as " much worse. "
That decline is likely rooted in the isolation
of the pandemic and the proliferation of
cellphones and social media use, educators
say, and it's a symptom of the overall atrophying
of kids' social skills.
If eye contact is half as important as the
job-interview advice columns claim, then
today's generation may struggle as they
enter the workforce. And this isn't just a
future problem: Poor eye contact is already
undermining students' relationships
with their teachers and their peers, say
educators.
" I held the lunchroom door open one day
and spoke to every student [and] counted
how many kids acknowledged me and also
how many made eye contact, " said a superintendent
in Oklahoma in response to an
open-ended question on the survey. " Eighty
percent spoke back. Forty percent made eye
contact. "
A high school teacher from Idaho said in
the survey: " I teach communication, and
the change of eye contact from when I
started to now, it worries me, along with
the ability to critically think and problem solve. "
" Students are less socially advanced
than in years past. They do not look you in
the eye when speaking to you, " said an elementary
school teacher in North Carolina.
" Students do not know how to respond to
classmates in social situations either. It is
concerning to see the lack of social skills in
our school. "
Among their current students, 1 in 5 educators
rated their ability to make eye contact as
" poor. "
The EdWeek Research Center conducted
the survey in May and June. The findings
draw on responses from 868 teachers, principals,
and district leaders.
Why are kids getting worse
at making eye contact?
As researchers tell us-and many people
instinctively know-eye contact is a powerful
form of nonverbal communication. Where
we direct our eyes signals where we're directing
our attention, and if it's not at the person
you're speaking with, that signals disinterest
or even disrespect.
In Western cultures, strong eye contact
portrays confidence and even dominance,
while breaking eye contact can be
seen as conciliatory, conceding a point, or
even a sign of submission. This is why this
nearly imperceptible dance of eyeballs has
spawned countless guides-including a disproportionate
amount of job interview advice-on
how people can improve their eye
contact.
" I think that's a very, very important
skill, being able to have eye contact with
adults, with staff, with teachers, with fellow
students, " said 18-year-old Palash Kapoor
from Cincinnati, Ohio. He is a recent
graduate of Sycamore High School there
and a freshman at Stanford University.
" Because you're showing that you appreciate
what they're saying, that you're listening
to what they're saying, and that you see
value in what they are trying to convey
to you. "
"
I held the lunchroom
door open one day and
spoke to every student
[and] counted how many
kids acknowledged me
and also how many
made eye contact. Eighty
percent spoke back.
Forty percent made eye
contact.
SUPERINTENDENT IN OKLAHOMA,
IN RESPONSE TO A SURVEY
and scrolling on social media, Kapoor said.
The more kids avoid eye contact, he believes,
the more likely they are to undervalue its
importance.
Because messaging apps have come to
dominate youth communication, many students
simply haven't learned how to have
face-to-face conversations, said Candace
Peyton Wofford, an instructional coach and,
up until recently, a social-emotional learning
teacher in a middle school in Corpus Christi,
Texas.
Students' inability to make and maintain
eye contact is also probably a lingering effect
of the pandemic, said Wofford. Many of today's
middle schoolers were in 2nd and 3rd
grade during the pandemic.
" That's when you learn a lot of social cues, "
she said. " And they weren't in the classroom
to do it. They were at home on a screen. I
think that as we're back to normal, hopefully
the kids who are in 2nd and 3rd grade
now, when we see them in a couple years,
it will be better. But I think that's only if the
parents and schools crack down on the
phones and getting them out of the kids' hands. "
Wofford said educators can help their stuWhat's
causing the deterioration in kids'
ability to look adults and peers in the eyes?
One culprit, according to Kapoor, a youth advocate
raising awareness about tech addiction,
is social media overuse.
Kids often avoid what they perceive as awkward
social situations-or any interaction
with strangers-by pulling out their phone
dents by giving them phone-free time in
school and making a concerted effort to make
eye contact with every student when greeting
kids at the door to the classroom or school
so that students are fully engaging with their
teacher or principal for at least one brief
interaction.
Without that eye contact, the muchextolled
benefits of welcoming students at
the door lose their potency, said Wofford.
" It's on the teacher to set that expectation
of their classroom, " Wofford said. " Like,
you're coming in my room, you're looking me
in the eye, your phone's not around, and let's
have a great class. "
NOTE: Respondents are teachers, principals, and district leaders.
DATA SOURCE: EdWeek Research Center survey, June 2024
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