Seating Arrangements for Classrooms: Choosing the right classroom seating layout is as important as the syllabus, teaching methods and differential instructions. Classroom seating arrangement can have an impact on students learning. Rearranging a classroom is a key component to achieving desired learning results for your students.
Various teaching techniques demand different types of classroom layouts. When the seating layout is in harmony, with your teaching style, the number of students, and the classroom size the outcomes are super beneficial. Get the effective seating arrangements for classrooms in the following sections of this page.
How Does Classroom Seating Arrangements Affect Learning?
Seating arrangements in the classroom are about a lot more than picking a style that looks aesthetically pleasing or even picking one that works with the size of your class list and the size of your classroom.
Studies have shown that where a child sits in class can affect everything from their motivation to their class participation, as well as their relationship with you as a teacher, relationships with classmates, and of course learning.
Classroom Seating Arrangement Ideas
Before you plan out any seating arrangements for classroom, it’s important to first take a look at your students. Does anyone in your class have stipulations about where they should be seated for the best learning environment?
How to Arrange Classroom Seats?
Here we are giving a few advantages and disadvantages of different seating arrangements for classrooms that have been tried and tested by professionals. Some factors will influence the seating arrangement that will work in your classroom. The main problem is considering the size of the classroom, the number of students and the furniture you have.
Flexible Seating
Flexing seating arrangement suggests say that this form of classroom ‘un-seating’ better reflects the hyper-connected and ever changing world we live in. That needs students to master their skills such as flexibility, creativity, problem-solving and collaboration.
This kind of seating arrangement is an absolute classroom change. If you are thinking of changing to flexible seating it may be an idea to have a bit of a trial period to see if this sort of layout is going to work for your class. Have one ‘different’ flexible seating option available and see if it’s something your students will be able to cope with and will improve their learning environment.
Grouping
Grouping of student desks in a variety of numbered groups is often called as seating students in pods.
This setup, of course, lends itself really well to a classroom that does a lot of group work and collaboration. Also, if you are a teacher who finds the competition of ‘group points’ works well to keep your students on task, this desk layout is a winner!
Simple Rows
This traditional seating arrangement is many people’s choice. This layout doesn’t cater very well to small group or collaborative learning. However, if you have space in your classroom, you may be able to set up a variety of other group work areas in the classroom and save the desks for individual work. All students in this desk layout will face the board, and it lends itself to easily moving the desks to cater to test conditions if required.
When the desks are in rows, it is often easier for the teacher to see who is on task as well. However, if you do have a lot of students in your class, this layout could put some students a fair way away from the whiteboard and the front of the class.
Mini U’s
This layout had the benefits of easily managing small group work without students being squashed together and meant they had a bit more personal space.
This layout was beneficial for teachers as they could easily go around and check work and check in on individual students.
Double U Shapes
This seating arrangement can be the best for the classrooms. This classroom seating layout caters well to whole-class discussions and enables students the ability to easily see their classmates and interact with them during discussions.
It is similar to the small U-shapes in that each desk is easily accessible by the classroom teacher. Again, this layout doesn’t work well for small group work, but students can still work in pairs with the person beside them if required.
Stadium Seating
A slight deviation to the desks in rows, stadium-like seating is another option that may work, particularly for older kids. This classroom seating layout again makes it easier for the teacher to see if all students are on task as the desks are angled to one point in the classroom.
Mixing It Up
Let’s face it, in a classroom of 30 or so students, there are going to be a variety of learning styles and learning requirements. One way to combat this is to mix up the desk arrangement and try to cater to a variety of learning styles and needs.
A bit like flexible seating, students can move around to the desk configuration that is going to work for them for different subject areas. This may be more teacher-directed than student-directed. If you have a small group of students that need a lot of teacher assistance for one subject area you can get them to sit in a desk arrangement such as the small U shape and position yourself in the middle of the U.
Conclusion
We expect that the details enclosed here about seating arrangements for classrooms are useful for you. Stay in touch with our site to know more related posts such as classroom set up ideas and many more.