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Students will likely need to rearrange the desks, or at least move their chair, in order to form groups. It works well if you prefer lecture-style lessons and individual work, and certainly easy to separate out into individual desks when needed, but it doesn’t work as well for group work. Rows means it’s relatively easy to separate individual students, and strategically place those that need to be up front to be close to the board or to you. This also makes it easier for students to move through the desks.
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If you are going to do this arrangement, make sure that the rows are broken so you can walk through the middle of the room and aren’t restricted to the outsides. It mimics the university-style rooms you were probably taught in, and makes sure everyone is facing the board. RowsĪ stock-standard arrangement for secondary schools is simply to put all of the desks in rows. Research on seating arrangement appears to be a bit narrow, with a lot seeming to only compare rows to groups, and to measure success according to ‘on-task behaviour’ appropriate for that activity. Overall though, it is entirely dependent on the type of activity you are doing with your class, and what you perceive as ‘on-task behaviour’. What I did find seemed to focus on the fact that flexible seating gives students a chance for physical movement breaks, or provide a sensory experience, and then go into detail about the benefits of the movement/experience rather than the seating arrangement. I also couldn’t find any research papers that discuss it – sure there are plenty of blogs and such from teachers who use it, but I couldn’t find any actual research papers (if you know of any, please share them with me!). The reason I’ve left this out is mainly because I have no personal experience with it, so I don’t feel qualified to discuss it. Note that I don’t discuss at any point the current trend of ‘alternate’ or ‘flexible’ seating – classrooms that have couches, beanbags, and other forms of seating that aren’t desks. At the end I give a brief overview of what the literature says – you might be surprised by the outcomes! Below I outline the most popular versions of each – they all have benefits and complications. Student arrangement is where you place each student within the desk arrangement. Desk arrangement is exactly that – where and how the desks physically sit. There are two key aspects to consider when planning the layout of your classroom – desk arrangement, and student arrangement. Students will grumble no matter what you do with the seating plan, so try out your favourite first but be open to changing it if and when needed. The key is to be flexible and consistent, and stick to your guns. You’ve probably noticed yourself what works best for one class in one situation doesn’t work as well for other classes or in other situations. Like all aspects of teaching, seating arrangement doesn’t have a ‘one size fits all’. Sometimes I changed the arrangement of the desks and the students a couple of times a term, sometimes they were in the same arrangement for the entire year. I’ve taught so many different classes in my four years of teaching, and each one worked best with something slightly different.
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Short Read: What is the ‘best’ seating arrangement? Research says rows usually out-perform groups or semi-circles in terms of ‘on-task behaviour’, but that you should be flexible and arrange the desks according to activity type. I did some exploration into the research about seating, and this is what I discovered… It can seem like no matter what you do, there are still disruptions and issues caused by where the students are sitting. Seating plans – the bane of many teachers’ existence.