Abstract
This research explores text difficulty in chemistry textbooks for lower-secondary schools. The study employed eye-tracking technology to observe students as they read, capturing precise reading patterns and linking them with their text understanding.
The research sample was chosen based on a pretest utilizing a PISA reading literacy pilot task. Eight students participated in the subsequent measurements, which involved assessing text difficulty using excerpts from two chemistry textbooks with the most readable text published by Fraus and the hardest to read text by the Nová Škola publishers.
The students read one text from each textbook. The eye-tracking results were complemented with cued interviews after students finished answering the comprehension questions.
The study revealed that proficient readers effectively extracted key information from the text to solve tasks accurately. In contrast, struggling readers encountered challenges with reading comprehension, often resorting to limiting strategies like guessing.
Also, new ways of textbook development were confirmed.