Classroom interaction geography: visualizing space & time in classroom interaction

Abstract

Methods to transcribe and represent classroom video data are central to studying teaching and learning in classrooms. However, current methods focus on encoding and representing data over time, not space. In this paper, we demonstrate the value of a new methodological approach called interaction geography to transcribe and interactively visualize classroom video data over space and time. We use interaction geography to illustrate classroom participation patterns in two case studies from teacher education research that, until now, have been challenging to see. Findings characterize strengths, limitations, and next steps to expand interaction geography in classroom research and suggest new questions to consider when encoding and representing classroom research data over space and time.

Keywords:

• Teacher education
• qualitative methods
• video applications
• information visualization

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Deborah Loewenberg Ball, Kara Suzuka, and Mathematics Teaching and Learning to Teach, University of Michigan for special permission to revisit the case of Sean Numbers as described in this paper. The authors also wish to thank members of the Project SIGMa team, including Ilana Seidel Horn, Patricia Buenrostro, Grace A. Chen, Nadav Ehrenfeld, Lara Jasien, Samantha A. Marshall, Elizabeth Metts, Katherine Schneeberger McGugan, Jessica Moses, Maria Aguilera, and Kathleen Janik, as well as Amy Vo and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of this paper An early version of ideas extended in this paper was published in the Proceedings of the 14th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (see: Shapiro, Garner, Chae & Natriello, 2020).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ben Rydal Shapiro

Ben Rydal Shapiro, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Learning Technologies in the Department of Learning Sciences at Georgia State University. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology and completed his Ph.D. in Learning Sciences at Vanderbilt University. His research and design integrates approaches from the learning sciences, information visualization, and computer science to study how people learn in relation to the physical environment and to develop new types of learning environments and experiences that support data science education.

Brette Garner

Brette Garner, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education in the Department of Teaching and Learning Sciences at the University of Denver’s Morgridge College of Education. Previously, she completed her Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University. Her research and scholarship focus on secondary mathematics teachers’ learning through design-based research interventions.