The document discusses Flanders Interaction Analysis Categories System (FIACS), a technique developed by Ned Flanders to analyze classroom interactions. It involves observing and coding teacher and student verbal behaviors into 10 mutually exclusive categories. The coding is then tabulated into a 10x10 interaction matrix to calculate various ratios that provide insights into classroom dynamics such as the proportion of teacher vs student talk, levels of acceptance and questioning, and degrees of direct vs indirect instruction. While objective, it only analyzes verbal behaviors and requires trained observers. Overall, FIACS provides a framework for systematically studying classroom interactions both for research and improving teaching practices.

1. Suresh Babu G
FLANDERS’ INTERACTION
ANALYSIS CATEGORY
SYSTEM (FIACS) –
CATEGORIES, PROCEDURES
AND INTERPRETATION
Suresh Babu G
Assistant Professor

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MEANING OF INTERACTION
Interaction is the sharing of ideas and thoughts between two or
more than two people.
Type of interaction
(i) verbal interaction
(ii) Non-verbal interaction

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CLASSROOM INTERACTION
The classroom interaction mainly
describes the content of behaviour
or social interaction in the classroom

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CHARACTERISTICS OF CLASSROOM INTERACTION
• It is a practice that allows enhancing the students’ skills.
• It improves the relationship between teacher and students.
• It describe the interaction in the classroom and it helps students to develop thinking
critically and sharing their views.
• The classroom verbal interaction can be made more effective.
• The teacher can increase student participation in his teaching.
• The direct behavior of teacher may be shifted to indirect behavior, which is more
suitable in democratic way of life.

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OBJECTIVES OF CLASSROOM INTERACTION
• The teaching-learning situations in the class-room involve interaction between the
teacher and the students.
• It aims at meaningful communication among the students target language.
• It also aims at probing into the learner’s prior learning ability and his way of
conceptualising facts and ideas.
• The practice will help the teacher to have a detailed study of the nature and the
frequency of student interaction inside the classroom.
• It provides a reliable assessment of what goes on inside the class-room in terms of
teaching and learning.

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INTERACTION ANALYSIS
• Interaction analysis is a process of encoding and decoding a pattern of interaction between
the communicator and the receiver.
• Encoding helps in recording the events in a meaningful way and decoding is used to arrange
the data in a useful way and then analyzing the behaviours and interactions in the classroom
interaction.
• Theoretical Assumptions of Interaction Analysis
(i) Predominance of verbal communication
(ii) Higher reliability of verbal behavior
(iii) Consistency of verbal statements
(iv) Teacher’s influence
(v) Relation between students and teacher
(vi) Relation between social climate and productivity
(vii) Relation between class-room climate and learning
(viii) Use of observational technique
(ix) Role of feedback
(x) Expression through verbal statement

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CLASS-ROOM INTERACTION
ANALYSIS
• Class-room interaction analysis refers to a technique consisting of objective and
systematic observation of the class-room events for the study of the teacher’s class-
room behavior and the process of interaction going inside the class-room.
• According to Dr. S.K. Thakur, class-room interaction analysis “may be defined as an
instrument which is designed to record categories of verbal interaction during, or
from, recorded teaching learning sessions. It is a technique for capturing qualitative
and quantitative dimensions of teacher’s verbal behavior in the class-room.”

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TECHNIQUES FOR
INTERACTION ANALYSIS
• There are four important techniques to observe the
interaction systematically.
These are:
1. Flanders Interaction Analysis Categories System (FIACS)
2. Reciprocal Category System (RCS)
3. Equivalent Talk Categories (ETC)
4. Verbal Interaction Category System (VICS) Flanders
Interaction
Analysis Technique is most suitable and widely used technique
in the field of research all over the world.

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FLANDERS INTERACTION ANALYSIS
CATEGORIES SYSTEM (FIACS)
Flanders’ system is an observational tool used to classify
the verbal behavior of teachers, and pupils as they interact in the
classroom
Flanders described interaction analysis as the
process of observing, recording & counting events that occur in a
situation involving interaction

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Category
Number
Activity
Teacher Talk
Response
1 Accept Feelings
2 Praises or Encourages
3 Accepts or Uses Ideas of Pupils
4 Ask Questions
Initiation
5 Lecturing
6 Giving Direction
7 Criticizing or Justifying Authority
Pupil Talk
Response 8 Pupil Talk in Response to Teacher
Initiation 9 Pupil Talk Initiated by the Pupil
Silence 10 Silence or Confusion
Flanders Interaction Analysis Categories System (FIACS)

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Flander’s
Interaction
Analysis
Categories

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OBSERVATIONPROCEDURE
Observer sits in the classroom in the position best suited for
hear and see the participants.
20-25 observations per minute (min 3 per Second).
Observer writes down the category numbers as they occur

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Procedure of Flander’s Interaction Analysis
There are two process
Encoding process
Decoding process
Encoding Process
Memorize the code number
Place of sitting
Recording the category number

14. Ground Rules to be Observed in
Encoding Process
 Rule 1: When it is not certain in which of two or more categories a statement belongs, choose the
category that is numerically farthest from the category 5. For e.g., if an observer is not sure
whether it is 2 or 3 then choose 2. If in doubt between 5 and 7, he chooses 5.
 Rule 2: If the primary tone of the teacher’s behavior has been consistently direct or consistently
indirect, do not shift into an opposite classification unless a clear indication of shift is given by the
teacher. This rule is often called the rule of the biased, unbiased observer.
 Rule 3: An observer must not concern with his own biases or with the teacher’s intent. If a
teacher attempts to be clever, pupils see his statements as criticism of pupils; the observer sues
category 7, rather than category 2. This rule has particular value when applied to the problem of
helping teachers to gain insight by their own behavior, e.g., ‘I was trying to praise them’ I wanted
them to answer that question’.
 Rule 4: If more than one category occurs during the three seconds interval, then all category used
in that interval are recorded. If no change occurs within three seconds, then repeat category
number.

15. DECODING PROCESS
After encoding the classroom events into ten-
category system 10x10 matrix table is prepared
for decoding the classroom verbal behavior. The
generalized sequence of the pupil-teacher
interaction can be estimated in this matrix table.
It indicates, what form a pair of categories. The
first number in the pair indicates the row and the
second number shows the column for example
(10-6) pair would be shown by a tally in the cell
formed by row 10 and column 6. For example the
observer has written down the code numbers
beginning with 6 as follows:
6,10,5,1,4,8,8,2,3,6,4,8,9,7
Example

16. TABULATING A MATRIX
Tabulate these observations in a 10 into 10 matrix, the first step is to make sure that the
entire series begins and ends with the same number. The convention is to add 10 to the
beginning and end of the series, unless 10 is already present. So our earlier series now
become 10,6,10,5,1,4,8,8,2,3,6,4,8,9,7,10.
The observations are now entered in a 10x10 matrix so that the sum of column one equals
the sum of row one, the sum of column 2 equals the sum of row 2, etc. The numbers are
tallied in the matrix one pair at a time. The first pair in this case is 10-6; the tally is placed
in row 10, column 6 cell. The second pair is 6-10, tally this in row 6, column 10 and so on.
‘N’ always will be tabulated by N-1 tallies in the matrix. In this case, we started a series of
sixteen numbers and the series produce 15 tallies in the matrix

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Interpreting the Matrix
No classroom interaction can be ever recreated. It is part of a moment in history.
The purpose of interaction analysis is to preserve selected aspects of interaction
through observation, encoding, tabulating and then decoding.
The Proportion of Teacher Talk, Pupil Talk, and Silence or Confusion:
The proportion of tallies in columns 1,2,3,4,5,6and 7, columns 8,9 and column 10 to
the total tallies indicates how much the teacher talks, the student talks and the
time spent in silence or confusion.

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Percentage of Teacher Talk
Percentage of Teacher Talk =
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛 𝑜𝑓 1,2,3,4,5,6,7
𝑁
x100
Where N = Total Number of tallies indicates
Percentage of Pupil Talk
Percentage of Pupil Talk =
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛 𝑜𝑓 8,9
𝑁
x100
Percentage of Silence
Percentage of Pupil Talk =
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛 𝑜𝑓 10
𝑁
x100

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Teacher Acceptancy Ratio - if it is 1 it shows full acceptance of feeling
by teachers
Teacher Acceptancy Ratio
Teacher Acceptancy Ratio =
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛 𝑜𝑓 1,2,3
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛 𝑜𝑓 1,2,3,6,7
Pupil Response Ratio - if it is 1 it shows full from students
Pupil Response Ratio
Pupil Response Ratio =
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛 𝑜𝑓 8
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛 𝑜𝑓 8,9

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The ratio between indirect influence and
direct influence
• The sum of column 1,2,3,4, divided by
the sum of columns 5, 6, 7 gives this
ratio. If the ratio is 1 or more than 1, the
teacher is said to be indirect in his
behavior.This ratio, therefore, shows
whether a teacher is more direct or
indirect in his teaching.
 Indirect to Direct Influence Ratio =
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛 𝑜𝑓 1,2,3,4
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛 𝑜𝑓 5,6,7

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The ratio between positive reinforcement and
negative reinforcement
The sum of column 1, 2, 3 is to be divided by
the sum of the columns 6, 7. If the ratio is
more than 1 then the teacher is said to be
good
 Positive to Negative Reinforcement
Ratio =
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛 𝑜𝑓 1,2,3
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛 𝑜𝑓 6,7

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Student’s Participation Ratio
The sum of columns 8 and 9 is to be
divided by total sum.The answer will
reveal how much the students have
participated in the teaching-learning
process.
Pupil Response Ratio =
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛 𝑜𝑓 8,9
𝑁

24. TEACHER QUESTIONING
Teacher Questioning =
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛 𝑜𝑓 4
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛 𝑜𝑓4,5
x100

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Study State Ratio =
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑜𝑓 1,1 , 2,2 , 3,3 , 4,4 , 5,5 , 6,6 , 7,7
𝑁
Pupil Study State Ratio =
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑜𝑓 8,8 , 9,9
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛 𝑜𝑓 8,9
Teacher Study State Ratio =
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑜𝑓 1,1 , 2,2 , 3,3 , 4,4 , 5,5 , 6,6 , 7,7
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛 𝑜𝑓 1,2,3,4,5,6,7

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Steady State Cells
Content Cross Cell
The cell corresponding to the numbers 4 and 5 in the column and the
row are known as ‘content cross’ cells. If these cells are overloaded
they reflect the teacher’s emphasis on the subject matter
Content Cross Ratio =
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑜𝑓 4,4 & (5,5)
𝑁

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Constructive integration cells and vicious cells
Two areas that are most sensitive to the positive and
of social skill is the teacher-student relationship. Area A
called “Constructive Integrative Cells” while area B is called
“Vicious Cells”. The cells corresponding to number 1,2 and
as constructive integration cells. Cells of numbers 6 and 7
vicious cells. These cells reveal the teacher’s attention to
classroom management and control as distinct from
subject-matter

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ADVANTAGES
1. It is an objective and reliable technique of observing and analysing the verbal
behaviour of a teacher and classroom interaction.
2. It may help in understanding analytically what actually goes on in the classroom.
3. It may help in determining the flow and the pattern of teaching behaviour. By
providing feedback, it helps in acquiring the desirable patterns of teaching and
modifying ones teaching behaviour.
4. Through the use of this system, student teachers may practice and learn new desirable
teaching behaviours quite unknown to the traditional teaching.
5. It suppliments the training technique like micro teaching and team teaching.
6. It can be used for undertaking research in several areas of teaching , teaching
behaviour, pre-service and in-service education of teachers.

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LIMITATIONS AND DEMERITS
1. The system concentrates on verbal behaviour and does
not describe the classroom interaction or teacher
bahaviour in its totality.
2. Out of ten categories, seven categories to teachers talk
and just three to students talk.
3. The use of this system envisages highly trained
observers and interpreters.
4. Equaling silence with confusion is not appropriate.

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