Student Seating and Classroom Management

Another seemingly obvious epiphany that I had recently is how important something as simple as how the seating in a room can affect student participation and lesson comprehension. Most science classrooms are designed around desks, and they invariably force students to sit at odd angles in relation to where most of the instruction takes place. I understand the need to have student-centered learning, however, having students facing away from the focus of instruction does very little for a 14 year-old’s comprehension. The standard single seats from the 70’s and 80’s seem to be traded out at an increasing rate for more social desk groupings. This is even taking place in non-science classrooms. I have recently discussed this issue with one of my cooperating teachers, and he stated that he can understand my point of view, especially considering the few number of labs we do that require desk usage. With the fundamental purpose of teaching being the transfer of understandings to our students, I feel that anything that promotes this idea should be embraced. The classes I am teaching this semester are all taking place in portable rooms that have no distinct designation between Social Science, English, or Earth Science. However, the classrooms where science isn’t being taught all have conventional single seating, and those teaching science all have table group seating.

            I see the benefit of having tables available for students while conducting lab work, but during the other 80% of their time in the classroom, the table group seating works against their ability to remain focused. Having experimented with multiple table arrangements over the past school year, I have seen how quickly students drift away from the central focus of the lesson when they are staring directly at another student. Some of my best students have been distracted by students around them when seating assignments and arrangements change. Unfortunately, I don’t see any one correct answer to this problem. Limited space and larger numbers of students in every class will likely just exacerbate the problem. Facing a student in any direction away from the focus of learning is simply telling them that what is going on isn’t really important. Students know that the direction they are facing is where the information is, whether that information is content or socially based.