Interaction Geography: Classrooms

The video animations and figures on this page use interaction geography to visually explore the movement of 6 teachers in different classroom settings from the TIMSS 1999 Video Study. All data from each lesson shown in the figures/animations is set the same spatial and temporal scales.

  • Shapiro, B.R., Horn, I.S., Gilliam, S., & Garner, B. (2024). Situating Teacher Movement, Space, and Relationships to Pedagogy: A Visual Method and Framework. Educational Researcher. 0(0) DOI: https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X241238698 PDF

  • This work is generously supported by the National Science Foundation. Data is from the 1999 TIMSS Video Study.

Animating Teacher Movement. The video animates the movement of six different teachers in different classroom settings. Each lesson is labeled by country, content area, and number of students present. The floor plans show the arrangement of tables, desks, and whiteboards (oriented to the left of all floor plans) as well as students’ positions at the beginning of each lesson. Each teacher’s movement is shown as a purple path over the floor plan and upwards in a space-time view. In the space-time view, the z-axis is time, and the x/y axes correspond to the floor plan. Stops longer than 10 seconds are depicted as purple circles on the floor plan, the area of which encodes the duration of the stop. In the space-time view, stops are shown as thick, straight lines.

Comparative IGS Analysis of Teacher Stops. The figure shows IGS screenshots that compare places and times when teachers stop for over ten seconds. Stops are depicted as purple circles on the floor plan (area encodes the duration of stops) and as thic

Filtering Teacher Stops. The figure shows IGS screenshots that compare places and times when teachers stop for over ten seconds. Stops are depicted as purple circles on the floor plan (area encodes the duration of stops) and as thicker lines in the space-time view (length indicates stop duration). Annotations mark different landmarks and how stops evolve across lessons.

Selecting Interactions at the Whiteboard. The figure shows IGS screenshots that compare teacher movement and classroom conversation at the whiteboard. Each conversation turn is shown as a rectangle, the length of which encodes the number of words in the turn. Purple rectangles indicate teacher talk, while other colors indicate student talk, as encoded by the TIMSS 1999 video study. Conversation rectangles are drawn along the bottom of the floor plan and along the time axis in the space-time view. Cases 2 and 5 illustrate the ability to read conversation turns and watch video through the IGS. Annotations mark different S-routines, a material routine teachers use when presenting information that encompasses different qualities including a voicing, spatial distribution, and duration.

Highlighting Teacher Movement while Presenting and during Groupwork. The figure shows IGS screenshots that color-code teacher movement by pedagogy. Purple paths distinguish movement while teachers are presenting (i.e., addressing or demonstrating to the entire class) while orange paths distinguish movement when the class is engaged in groupwork (i.e., students work independently or in small groups). Annotations mark different kinds of circulation patterns.