My Grade 8 Classroom: Do Seating Arrangements Improve Student Performance?

Orientation to the profession | Learning Outcome #5 | Reflect on how the school structure and the physical environment impacts student learning

Physical environment affects learning and lesson delivery

Though many desks and chairs are still bolted to the floor in many lecture halls at York University, those days are gone in many elementary and high school classrooms in Ontario. The regimented row by row seating style, many of whom I'm certain, were not fans of, are no longer used, and for good reason. It limits group activity amongst students, obstruct sight lines between pupil and teacher, and educators could be hard to hear for the students at the back of the class.

In addition, students can be strategic to where they sit – usually most beneficial to their needs. For example, chatty students or those who want to go unnoticed may prefer to sit in the back while the studious ones at the front. Some students may prefer sitting near a window to peer outside occasionally, or near the door for a quick escape. Whatever the case may be, it may affect a student’s performance, so arranging students to situate themselves in a certain fashion may determine how they will perform in class (Paxton, 2021).

Last week, my grade eight students rearranged their desks, a monthly task led by my teacher mentor. The goal to rearranging the seating plan is to have students sit with someone new and change the dynamics in the room. Old friendships or collaborations can be revisited, or new ones can develop. The new arrangement was a collaborative effort between the students and their teacher. The students wanted to arrange their desk “auditorium” style, but in a shape of a heart (because they are thoughtful that way). This first arrangement would allow the teacher to situate herself in the middle of the “auditorium” so that she could see all her students. Dramatic performances and presentations can also take place in the centre. Unfortunately, there were too many desks to form this style, so they came up with another plan.

Today I saw their desks arranged in small groups of semi-circles. The students seem to like the cozy quality for they can interact with more people this way. And curved lines reflect an organic-like quality that brings a sense of calm into the classroom. The drawback to this new arrangement given the number of desks is that it’s not conducive to easy movement around the classroom. If the classroom was bigger, if could accommodate this arrangement more easily and educators can float around more easily to see what students are doing. In addition, sight-lines are slightly obstructed. Some students’ heads block the view of others when they need to see the white board. Another drawback. Prior to this arrangement, desks were arranged in blocks of four people per group. Though an effective arrangement, it did feel less inviting.

Overall, the new seating arrangement given the space to accommodate it could prove to be effective. I’ll see how it this works out in our small classroom for the rest of the month before we change it again. I’m now curious to explore alternative seating arrangements such as and perhaps suggest other plans for next month.

References:

Paxton, E. (2021, June). Do Seating Arrangement Have and Impact on Student

Learning? Professional Learning Board. https://professionallearningboard.com/do-seating-arrangements-have-an-impact-on-student-learning/#:~:text=Studies%20have%20reported%20that%20seating,answer%20questions%20asked%20in%20class

Classroom Layouts: Seating Arrangements for Effective Learning. (2014, March 4).

AmpliVox Sound Systems. https://blog.ampli.com/2014/03/classroom-layouts-seating-arrangements-for-effective-learning.html