Examining the Built Pedagogies of Classrooms

This research explores the built pedagogies of College of Education classrooms at a large U.S. university. More specifically, this research investigates and categorizes the design of classroom spaces using photographic images and publicly available data. Leveraging the data, we theorize how the default designs of the classrooms impact teaching and learning practices, especially as they relate to teacher movement and interactions with students. In our analysis, we find the majority of classrooms available to education faculty and students can be categorized as “traditional” spaces and lack designs which immediately enable learner-centered experiences (e.g., collaborative activities, small group discussions, etc.). Even more, we discuss how visual methods, such as interaction geography (Shapiro et al., 2024) are providing opportunities to better visualize and understand how classroom design impacts pedagogy.