This type of seating arrangement is ideal for gatherings and events of over people. The neat rows of chairs optimizes the available space to fit in a large crowd, in case you get more attendees than expected. How seating arrangements affect learning? Asked by: Mrs. Madonna Moen. Computer Combination.
Large Groups. Split your classroom into two large groups. Use this classroom desk arrangement to encourage discussion in smaller groups. Use this classroom seating layout for two things:.
How do I assign a seating classroom? Here's how it works:. Tape the cards onto the desks. Are seating plans good? What is difference between sitting and seating? How can seating arrangements affect communication? What are the disadvantages of the classroom style seating arrangement? Why students should not have assigned seats? Does where a student sits really matter the impact of seating locations on student classroom learning?
Why do students sit in rows? How will the arrangement of the classroom affect the students Behaviour? What is the meaning of seating arrangement? This distinction refers to different views by teachers of teaching and learning methods.
Student-oriented beliefs reflect constructivist theories of knowledge and learning by taking into account differences among students and emphasizing collaboration and individual development of skills and competencies De Vries et al.
For example, teachers may consider it important to take differences between students in aptitudes and interests into consideration. Subject-matter-oriented beliefs focus on the transmission of knowledge and the role of the teacher as knowledge expert. For instance, a teacher may believe that it is important that only the teacher passes the subject matter on to the students. Student-oriented and subject-matter-oriented beliefs are not necessarily opposing orientations, as teachers may have characteristics from both views De Vries et al.
Nevertheless, as it has not been investigated before, it is imaginable that these teacher beliefs are uniquely related to the different kinds of seating arrangements. Based on the definitions of both beliefs, subject-matter-oriented teachers are focused on the transmission of knowledge. As this is one of the main goals of teachers with subject-matter-oriented beliefs, they might as well indicate as one of their major goals to improve academic learning.
Also, these teachers might be more inclined to choose a seating arrangement in rows, as this type of arrangement is especially suitable for knowledge dissemination McCorskey and McVetta In contrary, teachers who are more student-oriented focus more on cooperation between students. These teachers may be more motivated to improve social contact between students. They might indicate more social reasons for their seating arrangement than subject-matter-oriented teachers.
Moreover, they may more often choose a seating arrangement in groups, in which student interaction is stimulated McCorskey and McVetta Next, years of experience may also be a teacher characteristic that is associated with their considerations. In addition, he concluded that a vast majority of beginning teachers had difficulties with control and classroom discipline, and allowed much disorder to go unnoticed. This is in line with findings in other studies, in which it was found that teachers who are more experienced become more controlling than beginning teachers, who focus more on social interaction Martin et al.
Therefore, it might be the case that less experienced teachers focus in their teaching mostly on considerations of classroom management and considerations concerning social processes in the classroom. Due to the ability to manage the classroom setting, experienced teachers have the ability to prioritize tasks.
Therefore, they might have more time to focus on the academic part and have more academically and traditionally based reasons for their seating arrangements. In a study by Martin et al. As women are found to be more emotional and socially oriented than men Goldenberg and Roberts , it seems plausible that women have more social considerations for their classroom practices than men. Teachers have to make decisions regarding seating arrangements several times during the school year, with potential consequences for the social and academic development of their students Farmer et al.
This can be supported with more structured questionnaires. The method of assessing information, interviews or questionnaires, can influence outcomes Hook and Rosenshine Often, these methods are used to obtain both quantitative data on predefined items as well as qualitative data by asking open-ended questions.
Harris and Brown compared questionnaires and interviews in educational settings and concluded that it is very challenging to compare them as both have different and complementary strengths and weaknesses. Often, complementary but distinct results arise from semi-structured interviews and questionnaires.
For instance, questionnaires may be seen as an objective research tool that can produce generalizable results, whereas interviews provide contexts in which participants can elaborate on their ideas and explain perspectives in their own words. Both methods also have their own disadvantages: questionnaires can have a faulty or biased design and interviews can be interpreted too subjectively Harris and Brown Additive, specific questions were asked in the questionnaires to complement information from the interviews.
Which types of seating arrangements do teachers use in their classrooms and what are their reasons for these specific types? To what extent are individual differences between teachers related to their reported considerations regarding the seating arrangement?
It was hypothesized that teachers mainly use seating arrangements in rows or in small groups, with the goal of rows to improve information transmission from teacher to students and the goal of small groups to improve student—student interaction and cooperation McCorskey and McVetta While arranging the classroom, it was expected that teachers have considerations based on physical problems, academic and school functioning, classroom management, social relationships in the classroom, and information from previous teachers Gest and Rodkin Regarding the third research question, it was expected that teachers with mainly academic considerations used a seating arrangement in rows, while teachers with mainly social considerations used a seating arrangement in small groups Denton ; De Vries et al.
With respect to the final research question, concerning individual differences between teachers, there were three specific hypotheses. First, it was hypothesized that more experienced teachers and male teachers have more academically based considerations. Second, it was expected that less experienced teachers and female teachers rely more on social decisions Martin et al.
Third, we hypothesized that more subject-matter-oriented teachers are primarily motivated by improving academic learning and that more student-oriented teachers prefer to improve social contact among students. This study was part of a larger study on seating arrangements and peer affiliations. Participants were 50 teachers 21 male, 29 female from 4th, 5th, and 6th grade classrooms some of these were mixed-grade classrooms, such as 4—5 or 5—6 in regular elementary schools in The Netherlands.
They were all Caucasian-White and followed higher vocational education. On average, they worked 3. The schools were located in middle-class communities in the south-eastern Netherlands. Schools were recruited with a letter explaining the project and follow-up phone calls. During one session approximately 30 min , teachers were interviewed and afterwards they completed a questionnaire concerning the reasons and goals for their seating arrangements, their general educational goals, and their educational beliefs.
All teachers received a small gift in return for their participation. First, teachers indicated what type of seating arrangement they currently used rows, groups, or another arrangement. They also indicated the considerations behind their choice and what type of arrangement they prefer in general. Following these initial questions, more specific information was asked about their decisions for the placement of specific groups of students in the current classroom.
The interviews were video recorded and later transcribed and coded by three independent coders. A coding scheme with six categories of reasons was used: physical, academic, social, classroom management, personal characteristics, and other.
These categories were based on relevant considerations in previous papers e. Three coders first independently scored 3 of the 50 teacher interviews at the subcategory level and discussed their answers and the coding scheme to resolve unclarities. Following this initial training, the coders independently scored the remaining 47 interviews.
An inter-rater reliability analysis using the Kappa statistic was performed to determine consistency between each pair of raters at the category level. One final set of scores was determined for use in the analyses. Dissimilar answers between coders were inspected and when two of the three observers gave the same code, that code was chosen.
Only 2 of the reasons in the 47 interviews were scored differently by all three coders. These codes were discussed and the most fitting one was chosen for the analyses. Statements were based on a combination of teacher decisions identified by Gest and Rodkin and Gest et al.
Two statements concerning academic considerations, two concerning social relationships, and one statement regarding classroom management were used from Gest and Rodkin The other five statements were derived from Gest et al. To assure the validity of the statements, we used a back translation procedure. The statements measured the following categories: social relationships, academic performance, classroom management, and physical characteristics or impairments.
Afterwards, the ranks were recoded, with higher numbers indicating higher importance. As there was no existing questionnaire available that measured the consequences of seating arrangements, we have developed our own questionnaire by discussing it with several researchers. We have made statements that refer to the same categories such as classroom management, academic performance, and social relationships as used by Gest and Rodkin and Gest et al.
The statements were items concerning cooperation, friendship, liking, behavior, interaction, and motivation. The ranks were recoded afterwards, with higher numbers indicating higher importance. The first research question regarded the types of seating arrangements teachers make in classrooms and their reasons for designing them as such.
The most frequently mentioned reason for small groups was cooperation between students, whereas teachers who chose rows did so to create a quiet atmosphere in which students can work well academically.
According to the teachers, this was mainly due to students who were too active or too easily distracted in small groups. Teachers mentioned they start with rows in the beginning of the school year to get students to concentrate and try to work with groups later in the year.
In total, the teachers mentioned reasons during the interviews, ranging from 2 to 19 reasons per teacher. Of all reasons, 68 were physical The other category mostly consisted of reasons concerning a seating arrangement that was preferred by someone else than the teacher e. No category was mentioned by all teachers. Table 1 shows the distribution of considerations by type of current seating arrangement.
There was no significant difference in mentioned reasons between teachers with different types of seating arrangements. Significant differences between item means were examined with pairwise comparisons using t tests. After these, teachers rated the other classroom management items the highest, followed by one physical and both academic and social reasons. When examining the rank ordering instead of the mean rating, the same sequence of importance of the items was found.
Significant differences between item means were examined. The same sequence of importance of the items was found when examining the rank ordering. The fourth research question was whether there are individual differences between teachers that are related to their reported considerations regarding the seating arrangement. On average, teachers had There were no other significant associations between teacher gender and seating arrangement considerations.
Thus, teachers who indicated high student-oriented beliefs, also gave more academic reasons, reasons concerning classroom management and other reasons. This means that teachers who indicated high subject-matter-oriented beliefs gave more reasons regarding classroom management. T tests indicated no significant differences between the answers of male and female teachers. Thus, younger teachers believed more than older teachers that a seating arrangement contributes to a positive environment for children.
Years of experience was not significantly related to the answers regarding the contributions of a seating arrangement or the importance of several reasons. There was also no difference in considerations between more or less student-oriented teachers and subject-matter-oriented teachers. Classroom management is a major concern for teachers and teacher educators especially due to cultural and behavioral differences in classrooms McKeown et al. It was hypothesized that teachers mainly use seating arrangements in rows or small groups McCorskey and McVetta ; Wannarka and Ruhl This was indeed the case.
Teachers often start with a seating arrangement in rows at the beginning of the school year to create order and discipline and change it later in the school year into small groups if possible. There was a preference for a seating arrangement in small groups, with the goal of cooperation between students, whereas the main goal of a seating arrangement in rows was to create order and discipline.
A quiet atmosphere can be realized more easily with a seating arrangement in rows. It was expected that teachers have considerations based on physical problems, academic and school functioning, classroom management, social relationships in the classroom, and information from previous teachers Gest and Rodkin Academic considerations were mentioned the most in interviews. When only examining the first given consideration, academic reasons were also mentioned the most.
However, in questionnaires physical considerations and considerations concerning classroom management were rated the highest. Classroom management also has been found in previous questionnaire studies as being one of the main considerations for teachers Gest and Rodkin ; Gest et al.
Thus, teachers provided different answers during interviews and on questionnaires. While provided with open-ended questions, teachers were inclined to mostly mention academic reasons for their seating arrangements, whereas in the questionnaires in which all categories were provided, teachers were more inclined to rate different categories as more important.
The explanation for this might be that teachers find it difficult to think about all their decisions during interviews Harris and Brown ; Hook and Rosenshine and there is a large difference in the number of mentioned considerations between teachers. Some teachers talked more easily and as a result mentioned more reasons. On top of that, schools are traditionally meant for academic learning, which may press teachers to give many academic considerations social desirability.
We hypothesized that teachers with mainly academic considerations preferred a seating arrangement in rows, whereas teachers with mainly social considerations preferred small groups Denton ; De Vries et al. This might be due to the large number of academic considerations for all teachers and the fact that all teachers had very similar proportions of academic and social considerations. It was therefore not possible to clearly distinguish more socially and more academically oriented teachers.
Results showed that female teachers mentioned significantly more social considerations than male teachers, which is in line with the hypothesis. It might thus be the case that students in classrooms with female teachers sit closer to friends or further away from friends than students with male teachers.
Based on findings by Martin et al. We found no differences in considerations between teachers with different years of experience, but it was measured as a continuous variable and no categories were made with this construct. Teachers varied in years of experience, but the results may be influenced by the fact that the sample size was relatively small 50 teachers. It was further hypothesized that more subject-matter oriented teachers have more academic considerations and that more student-oriented teachers have more social considerations, based on the distinction between these two beliefs De Vries et al.
Go to the Resource Center. PowerSchool solutions will drive student growth, power school operations, and empower teachers around the world. Complete this form to speak with a sales rep or to get a personalized one-on-one demo. Thanks for your interest.
Please explore! Close Search. June 2, Share on facebook. Share on twitter. Share on linkedin. Share on email. Flexible Seating Promotes Community The biggest benefit of flexible seating is that it builds a community within the classroom.
Flexible Seating Promotes Collaboration Because it organically increases classroom communication, flexible seating also provides ample opportunity for collaboration. Flexible Seating Reflects Student Choice Choice is something most students desire, and flexible seating gives students more choice, which is a big factor in the popularity of this approach. Get Resource Kit. You might also like Sign up for our blog.
The heart of what we do. Support Our Educators. Close Thank you, parents and students! Close Thank you for submitting! A member of the PowerSchool team will be in touch shortly. Close Talk to Sales or Get a Demo Complete this form to speak with a sales rep or to get a personalized one-on-one demo. This is the most common arrangement in a class. The room is divided into three columns, the extreme ends have two seats each and the center portion has four seats joined together. The number of rows is decided by the strength of the class.
This arrangement gives teachers ample space to walk among the students. This lets educators utilize the entire space of the classroom while teaching, helps students with their work or enables them to make any corrections with ease. Walking between students helps teachers serve as a reminder to students that they are expected to continue working. Supervision and teaching can be made easier with the row method. When a teacher is conducting discussions, a circular arrangement can be apt to facilitate the flow of ideas, thoughts and expressions.
Students have a clear view of the person expressing their opinions; educators find it easy to control the discussion and can also motivate passive students to pitch in. Teachers can arrange the seating of students in such a manner that the active members are seated next to them and more passive students opposite to them.
This can enable the teacher to signal to more active participants while providing opportunities to the others, and permits establishment of eye contact with students who may need encourage to participate.
A semi-circular arrangement can be effective when audio-visual aids, interactive boards, etc. This ensures clear visibility for every student. Teachers can maintain eye contact with all students and also check to see that they are being attentive.
0コメント