Mapping and presenting a day in a group's life: Visualizing collaborative practice in Problem-Based Learning

Between the pedagogical visions of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and the detailed studies of interaction in problem-solving activities lies a fertile ground for mapping and presenting how groups of students work together over longer periods of time. This paper investigates students' collaborative practice through spatio-temporal diagramming in a PBL setting within engineering education. Drawing on a longitudinal video ethnographic study of architecture and design students at Anonymous University, we examine how activities in group work unfold across an entire working day. By adopting interaction analysis, we develop spatio-temporal visual diagrams to capture how students fluidly shift between individual work, dyadic engagements, and full-group collaboration across different spatial configurations. Our findings reveal that the students' work processes in PBL are not static, nor following predefined pedagogical scripts, but that the processes and practices are temporally evolving, contextual and deeply embodied, challenging conventional dichotomies between collaboration and cooperation. We argue for middle-ground analytical approaches that link micro-analytic snapshots of interaction and pedagogical visions of PBL to represent the nuanced and emergent nature of collaborative practice over time.