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Where is the teacher? Digital analytics for classroom proxemics

Abstract:

The term Classroom Proxemics refers to how teachers and students use classroom space, and the impact of this and the spatial design on learning and teaching. This study addresses the divide between, on the one hand, substantial work on proxemics based on classroom observations and, on the other hand, emerging work to design automated feedback that helps teachers identify salient patterns in their use of the classroom space. This study documents how digital analytics were designed in service of a senior teacher's practice-based inquiry into classroom proxemics. Indoor positioning data from four teachers were analysed, visualized and used as evidence to compare three distinct learning designs enacted in a physics classroom. This study demonstrates how teachers can make effective use of such visualizations, to gain insight into their classroom practice. This is evidenced by (a) documenting teachers' reflections on visualizations of positioning data, both their own and that of peers and (b) identifying the types of indicator (operationalized as analytical metrics) that foreground the most useful information for teachers to gain insight into their practice.