The problem space described above is one that the GRIP research group has been involved in in the context of a larger project where we investigate how to study empirically the norms of mathematics instruction using multimedia and the internet. What does the proposition that the diagrammatic register is normative mean and how can it be studied empirically? What is the likelihood that practitioners would appraise positively a departure from the norm and how might they justify it? In the talk I describe efforts to develop measures of teachers' recognition of this instructional norm both using traditional survey like instruments and multimedia questionnaires. I show how this instrument development process helped improved our conceptualization of the notion of a "diagrammatic register." The presentation illustrates how representations of instructional practice can be involved in the design of research instruments that preserve attention to the mathematics of classroom interaction and the complexities of teaching practice.