Comparative Study seating arrangement

8/18/2019 Comparative Study seating arrangement

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FINAL RESEARCH PROJECT - INTERNATIONAL HOUSE – LITTI 2

Comparative study: Orderly rows and semi-circleseating arrangement.

Is there a difference on how it influences on students’participation in class?

Candidate: 2015LITTIN244


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CONTENT

OUTLINE OF THE RESEARCH 2

REVIEW OF PREVIOUS WORK 3

General considerations 3

Orderly rows 4

Horseshoe or semi-circle 5

PRECISE STATEMENT OF THE SCOPE AND AIMS OF THE RESEARCH 6

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCEDURE, SAMPLE AND TESTS OF MEASUREMENT 7

STATEMENT OF RESULTS 10

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 14

Orderly Rows: 14

Horseshoe or semi-circle 15

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 16

REFERENCES 18

APPENDIX A 19

C.O.I 19

APPENDIX B 20

Questionnaire 20


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OUTLINE OF THE RESEARCH

Much of what happens inside a classroom has to do with the variety of skills and

techniques that teachers use to keep students organized, focused, attentive, on task, and

academically productive during a class. In other words, the techniques teachers use tomaintain control in the classroom. In this project, I am going to focus about one of these

strategies: the seating arrangement.

Experienced educators and classroom management experts say that the decisions

teachers make about whether students will be allowed to select their own seats and about

the physical arrangement of the classroom can have an impact on classroom discipline and

the effectiveness of instruction. The right seating arrangement will not only help a teacher to

control student behaviour but it will also help to monitor the students’ work by allowing the

teacher to move freely about the room. Seating arrangement can also be associated with

other aspects of classroom management such as instruction, classroom interaction, forming

groups, and maintaining discipline. If the seating arrangement of a classroom is not set up

properly, it becomes difficult to grab learner’s attention, which leads to disruptive behaviour

and a decrease in the students’ motivation.

Therefore, there are many ways of organising the desks in a class, the aim of this project is

to compare two of the most common seating arrangements in ESL classrooms; rows and

horseshoe, and try to see if there is a real impact on the students’ participation in class.


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REVIEW OF PREVIOUS WORK

General considerations

According to Savage and Savage (2009:6) management refers to “how order is

established and maintained in a classroom. Bringing order to complex classrooms includes

arranging the physical environment, (…)”. As for Locke and Ciechalski (1995:101) “The

physical environment of the classroom has much to do with the general atmosphere for

learning.” There are various aspects that must be taken into consideration when referring to

the classroom physical environment, “one of the most important is the spatial dimension –

the size, shape, and organization of objects within the space (...) This dimension creates

the setting where activities will take place, and the setting influences the types of activities

that are possible” (Savage and Savage, 2009:67). In addition to this, Locke and Ciechalski

(1995:101) state “The physical environment of the classroom serves to convey a message

to the children about goals of learning and about how they should work.”

The physical environment of a classroom includes different items; one of the most

important is the seating arrangement. Locke and Ciechalski (1995:101) believe that “The

seating pattern used in a classroom will have major influences on the degree of

acquaintance, friendliness, talkativeness and productivity.” As Savage and Savage

(2009:68) explain quoting Rosenfield, Lambert and Blake (1985), “The arrangement of thedesks provides the major setting, or “frame”, that shapes teacher -student interaction and

the behaviour of students.” They also state that “Because different arrangements influence

behaviour in different ways, there is no best way to arrange desks.” On the other hand, it

could be said that “ A good seating arrangement is one which facilitates specific learning

tasks and activities and communicates a teacher’s beliefs about learning and teaching ”

Ming-Tak and Wai-Shing, (2008:48 & 49).

Bellow I shall describe two of the most common seating arrangrments; orderly rows and

horseshoes, and the differences between them.


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Orderly rows

(https://gjismyp.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/classroom-desk-arrangements-rows-clusters-or-u-shape/)

In this type of arrangement “the desks are arranged in rows all facing one direction”

(Savage and Savage, (2009:69), and “the teacher is the identified leader (authority)” (Locke

and Ciechalski, (1995:101). Also “this arrangement communicates that the major task of the

students will be that of listening and working independently ” (Savage and Savage,

(2009:69)

When organising a class in rows, Harmer (2001:41) states as an advantage that “The

teacher has a clear view of all the students and the students can all see the teacher (...) It

makes lecturing easier, enabling the teacher to maintain eye contact with the people he or

she is talking to”, besides he explains that “Orderly rows imply teachers working with the

whole class”. All in all, “It requires less work and skills than the circle or horseshoe. It works

well for teaching that is manly delivering factual information and note-taking ”(Seeman,

1999:209).

The major drawbacks against this arrangement method are “that it is harder to involve the

whole class” (West, (2010:15) as “students in this arrangement are unable to have eye

contact with each other ” (Locke and Ciechalski, (1995:101), “the class will not be prone to

participate much in your lesson. (…) Also, students will seldom share ideas or feelings with

each other about the lesson and won’t listen to each other so much .” (Seeman, (1999:209).

To overcome this, West (2010:15) suggest that “(teachers) make sure that everyone is


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involved in what they are doing; when asking questions, remember to engage students at

the back of the class.”

Horseshoe or semi-circle

(https://gjismyp.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/classroom-desk-arrangements-rows-clusters-or-u-shape/)

“The horseshoe arrangement means that the classroom becomes a more intimate place.”

(West, (2010:15), “ (...) the teacher is often located in a commanding position but , (...), the

rigidity that comes with orderly rows, for example, is lessened .” (Harmer, (2007:42).

The main advantage this system presents is that “ the classroom becomes a more intimate

place. This gives the students more potential for sharing ideas, information and feelings –all

so essential for speaking activities” (West, (2010:15). As Harmer (2007:42) explains, “If,therefore, teachers believe in lowering the barriers between themselves and their students,

this kind of seating arrangement will help”.

Seeman (1999:207&208) indicates some of the disadvantages this arrangement present,

“it generates energy that, unless channeled by the teacher’s very organized lesson,

assertiveness, and follow-through rules, can merely become noisy and cause disruptive

behavior. It requires that the teacher control the interaction of the group with facilitative

skills.”


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DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCEDURE, SAMPLE AND TESTS OF MEASUREMENT

In order to start this project, I had to choose a topic of profound interest to me as a future

teacher, something that would encourage me and engage me in a way so as to investigate,

read different authors, collect data from several sources, and get involved in the researchprocess. Choosing the topic was the hardest part of the assignment. A few months ago, the

teacher I am working with, suggested me to change the seating arrangement in our classroom

as a way to deal with the misbehaviour some of our students were presenting and to help

some other kids that were shyer and did not participate much in class.

The reason for making the decision about writing an entire research dedicated to

investigating if there is an impact on the kids participation in class depending on the seating

arrangement was not only because of my personal experience, but also to try to help other

teachers and raise an awareness on the matter. Classroom management in general should

not be taken lightly and I think that the classroom´s seating arrangement is an important

aspect that must be thought about.

Nevertheless, I had to be more specific about what was it that I wanted to achieve with this

project. Just talking and investigating about a proper seating arrangement was not going to

be enough. Therefore, I decided that it would be a good idea to compare classes where two

different types of seating arrangements are used and to try to measure the different level of

students’ participation in each of them. That was how I decided to make my project as a

comparative study.

When doing this kind of a research it is paramount to carry out several methods to gather

reliable information. To begin with, I did a research on the different authors who wrote about

this matter. What is more, even though I found an important amount of information I had to

select what was crucial and what could be left aside. In this sense, I had to read once and

again what the aim of my research was and then decide what bibliography to choose. Due to

the fact that there were many authors involved in this issue, I had to rewrite many times the

authors’ view on the topic. In addition, I had to manage to include most reports, to give a

context of previous work, to select and to relate the selected information to the study.

In order to carry out my research in a reliable way and to ensure the consistency of

measurement over different samples, I observed six different classes at a bilingual school; in

three of them, the seating arrangement was set in rows, and in the other three in horseshoes.Once I got to classrooms and observe, I realized that there was a great number of points that


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would be relevant to my research, so I have decided to make a Classroom Observation

Instrument (C.O.I., see Appendix A). These means will enable my research to show data

reliably collected.

As validity is such an important element for effective research, in order to achieve it as well

as to avoid worthless research, I used more than one method of data gathering. Apart from

class observation, observed teachers were interviewed and questionnaires (Appendix C)

were delivered among them. This enabled me to obtain broader information on which to base

my work. While questionnaires are a means to gather specific information from a great

number of teachers (as it can be easily delivered), interviews let me obtain more specific

information that could be compared to what I had previously observed in the lessons.

At the moment of creating the questionnaire, I thought of specific questions which would

enable me to have concrete data to compare and contrast to my observations as well as

facilitating their analysis. It is formed by close questions, including multiple choice questions,

rating scale and dichotomous scale together with an open-ended question. I began the

questionnaire with a concrete question to have information about the teachers´ experience.

Then I moved on to close questions enquiring habits or opinions of the teachers. (see

Appendix B).

When creating the interviews, my questions covered similar topics to those in the

questionnaires. However, the main difference between them is that from the first questions,

participants realised that I was interested in researching about young learners’ participation

in class and its relation with the seating arrangement. Besides, the interviewees were the

ones I had previously observed so this allowed me to compare it against the data I had

gathered during the lessons. I wrote six questions out of which teachers had to answer five,

depending on the seating arrangement they preferred. These questions were on opinion and

experience. The interviews were carried out after the last time I observed each teacher’s

class (see Appendix C).

Even though the results will be precise, there are certain disadvantages in the instruments

I used. I believe that in order to be a valid instrument, it takes lots of time and preparation, as

questions must be carefully prepared so that accurate results can be reached. It is also

inflexible, as I don’t have the chance to ask students or the teachers for clarification or doubts

I might have. Also, the information obtained tends to be descriptive and my objective is to

turn that information into an explanatory description of the results.


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I also take into account that the questionnaires I presented do not involve feelings; they go

directly to analyze the key and theoretical concepts. Through emotions, researchers can see

how students feel in the class and with the teachers, which also influence the learning

process. In this particular study, that intends to investigate the level of participation in a

classroom, the emotional factor has a great influence. This is why so many data gathering

techniques are necessary, in order to achieve a valid and reliable result.

These pros and cons, plus practical observations and an analysis of what some of the most

well-known authors consider about this topic, will help me to triangulate results and get to the

conclusion on whether classroom seating arrangement has an influence on the learners’

participation in class.


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STATEMENT OF RESULTS

1. Questionnaire (Appendix B):

Questions 1 and 2: As it is shown in the following graphic, most of the teachers who

answered this questionnaire were less than 30 years old.

And all of them have been teaching for 3 or more years.

Age

less than 30 30/35 plus 30

Time teaching

less than 3 btw 3 and 5 plus 5


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Question 3: Only 25% of the teachers who answered this questionnaire said that they use

other seating arrangement different from rows and semi-circle.

From this moment onwards, the results shown will be from those teachers who use rows

and semi-circle seating arrangements in their classrooms, as they are the ones that are

relevant for this comparative study.

Question 4: The percentage of teachers who plan their seating arrangement is the same

for rows and semicircles, and most of them (almost 70%) do not plan it.

row semi-circle other

Seating Arrangement

Plan - Rows

yes no

Plan - Semi-circle

yes no


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Question 5: All the teachers who use rows in their classrooms have never thought about the

impact the seating arrangement may have, whereas among the teachers who order their

classes in semi-circles, approximately 33% think it does have an impact.

Question 6: When asked to think of a reason for their preference on an specific seating

arrangement, there were many different opinions, as it can be seen in the graph bellow:

2. Classroom Observation Instrument (C.O.I.) (Appendix A):

I observed six different classes, bellow there is a table with the details of each class:

ROWS

Students in the

classLength of the class

class 1 13 45'

class 2 20 45'class 3 23 45'

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

yes no never thought

Impact in class - Rows

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

yes no never thought

Impact in class - Semi-cirlce

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

concentration participation easier other

Rows Semi-circle


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SEMI-

CIRCLE

class 1 22 45'

class 2 15 45'

class 3 23 45'

With all the results from the C.O.I.s, I did an average result, bellow there is a table and graph

to illustrate it:

TOTALStudents in the

class

Students that

interact w/ TeacherStudents chatting

Disruptive

situations (class had

to stop)

ROWS 56 41 8 5

SEMI-CIRCLE

60 57 22 20

TOTAL Length of the classTime T centred

(aprox)

Time S centred

(aprox)

ROWS 135 70 65

SEMI-

CIRCLE

135 40 95

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Sts that interact w/ T Sts chating Disruptive situations

(class had to stop)

Time T centered

(aprox)

Time S centered

(aprox)

ROWS SEMI-CIRCLE


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ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS

The main aim of this research project is to compare two of the most common seating

arrangements in ESL classrooms; rows and horseshoe, and try to see if there is a real

impact on the students’ participation in class.

Observation and questionnaires were assistants in this research that allowed me to see

whether teachers are aware of the importance seating arrangement has in a classroom.

Seventy-five percent of the teachers organize their classrooms using either rows or semi-

circles. Nevertheless, only about a thirty percent of them plan it. This could lead to two ideas:

whether teachers believe seating arrangement makes no impact in their classes or they have

never thought about it. As many authors have mentioned, the physical environment of the

classroom has much to do with the general atmosphere for learning, and among the aspects

that must be taken into account one of the most important is the organization of objects within

the classroom space.

When teachers were asked to think of a reason explaining why they use that specific seating

pattern in their classrooms, the most chosen one was because it helps students participate

in class. This agrees with what many authors have said; the seating arrangement used in a

classroom will have major influences on the degree of friendliness, talkativeness andproductivity of the students.

Bellow I will analyse each seating pattern separately according to the C.O.I. and interviews’

results.

Orderly Rows:

According to the answers teachers provided, almost forty percent of them (37,5%) use

orderly rows as a seating arrangement patron in their classes. Nevertheless, none of the

teachers has ever thought about the impact this seating arrangement may have in their

classroom; what is more, most of them (seventy percent) do not even plan how they are going

to organise it. In fact, many of these teachers claimed that the reason for using orderly rows

instead of some other seating pattern is that they find it is easier to manage a class when the

students are sitting in rows. This allegation is also made by Seeman, who wrote that this type

of arrangement requires less work and skills from the teacher comparing it to the semi-circle.


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Another important aspect to bear in mind is the role the teacher has when using this seating

arrangement; as it was already said, the teacher is going to be the identified leader authority

inside the classroom. Besides, it implies that the teacher will have a clear view of all the

students, enabling the teacher to maintain eye contact with the people he or she is talking to

and it will allow him or her to work with the whole class. This can be clearly seen when

analysing the COI results, as approximately fifty-two percent of the time the lessons were

teacher centred, and there was a considerable amount of teacher-student interaction.

Horseshoe or semi-circle

As it occurs with organizing the seats in rows, almost forty percent of the interviewed

teachers decides to use a semi-circle pattern for their seating arrangements. Moreover,

seventy percent of these teachers do not even plan how they are going to organise it ; but, a

small proportion (thirty-three percent) do think the seating arrangement will have an impact

in their classes. Regarding the reasons for using the horseshoe organization, teachers had

many different opinions. Some of them (thirty-five percent) think that it helps with the students’

level of concentration in class; however, there is no bibliographical data to support this

statement. In fact, according to Seeman, this type of arrangement generates an energy that

can merely become noisy and cause disruptive behaviour. This last statement was alsoproved by the results of the COI, which show that for every two hours of class there were an

average of 20 disruptive situations.

Another reason teachers gave to support why they use a semi-circle seating arrangement

is that it encourages classroom participation; this affirmation is also made by several authors,

who say that using this type of organization gives the students more potential for sharing

ideas, information and feelings.

Regarding the role of the teacher in the classroom, the COI results show that most of the

time the students were interacting with each other instead of the class being teacher centred

(approximately seventy percent of the time during the class). The previously mentioned

authors also support this; they explain that the horseshoe seating arrangement lowers the

barriers between the teacher and their students, and consequently, the classroom becomes

a more intimate place.


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SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The main aim of this research was to accomplish a comparative study between classes that

use an orderly row seating arrangement and classes that use a semi-circle (or horseshoe)

seating pattern; and to try to state if there is a relation with the impact it has on students´

participation in the class.

This research project was carried out by an extensive reading of literature and previous

research papers regarding classroom management in EFL classes, and deepening into the

seating arrangement aspect of it. After investigating previous authors’ data, observations

were implemented as a data – gathering process. Six classes were observed at a bilingual

school and teachers were interviewed and answered a questionnaire in order to link the

theoretical and practical information obtained.

Authors agree on the fact that the physical environment of the classroom has much to do

with the general atmosphere for learning; so, it helps to convey a message to the children

about goals of learning and about how they should work. Among the aspects that should be

taken into consideration one of the most important is the spatial dimension, because this

dimension creates the setting where activities will take place; and the setting influences the

types of activities that will be carried out in class.

My first thought after carrying out this research and analyzing the results, is that even though

some of the interviewed teachers think of a reason for using a specific arrangement; most of

them do not consider seating arrangement to be of great importance, and consequently they

do not plan how they are going to organize their classrooms. In addition, based on

observation and on information provided by the teachers, I am able to say that many of them

prefer a specific type of arrangement just because they think it will be easier for them to

control the class -which might be true, according to some author-.

Regarding the issue of participation in class, it is possible to say, as a first approach on the

topic, that students who sit on semi-circle have more interaction with each other and are more

actively involved in the lesson. Because of this, the lesson becomes more student centred

than teacher centred, and the children have more room for sharing their ideas and feelings.

However, it is necessary to remember that if this energy is not well controlled, it could

generate many disruptive situations.


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To conclude, I would like to state that, as the seating arrangement provides a setting that

shapes the interaction between the teacher and the student, and the behaviour of the

students; teacher should not take it lightly, they should plan it and think carefully about it.


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REFERENCES

• Locke, Don C.; Ciechalski , Joseph C. (1995), Psychological Techniques for Teachers.

• Savage, Tom V.; Savage, Marsha K. (2009), Successful Classroom Management and

Discipline: Teaching Self-Control and Responsibility.

• Harmer, Jeremy (2007), How to teach English, Pearson Longman.

• Ming-Tak, Hue; Wai-Shing, Li (2008), Classroom Management: Creating a Positive

Learning Environment, Hong Kong University Press.

• Seeman, Howard (1999), Preventing Classroom Discipline Problems: A Classroom

Management Handbook, R&L Education.

• West, Keith (2010), Inspired English Teaching: A Practical Guide for Teachers, A&C

Black.

• Pak, Liam (2011), Classroom desk arrangements; Rows, Clusters or U Shape?

https://gjismyp.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/classroom-desk-arrangements-rows-clusters-or-

u-shape/

https://gjismyp.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/classroom-desk-arrangements-rows-clusters-or-u-shape/https://gjismyp.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/classroom-desk-arrangements-rows-clusters-or-u-shape/https://gjismyp.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/classroom-desk-arrangements-rows-clusters-or-u-shape/https://gjismyp.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/classroom-desk-arrangements-rows-clusters-or-u-shape/https://gjismyp.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/classroom-desk-arrangements-rows-clusters-or-u-shape/


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APPENDIX A

C.O.I

ROWS

Sts in the

class

Sts that

interact w/ TSts chatting

Disruptive

situations

(class had to

stop)

Length of the

class

Time Tcentred

(aprox)

Time Scentred

(aprox)

class 1 13 10 3 1 45' 20' 25'

class 2 20 15 3 1 45' 20' 25'

class 3 23 16 2 3 45' 30' 15'

SEMI-

CIRCLE

class 1 22 20 8 9 45' 15' 30'

class 2 15 15 5 5 45' 15' 30'

class 3 23 22 9 6 45' 10' 35'

TOTALSts in the

class

Sts that

interact w/ TSts chating

Disruptive

situations

(class had to

stop)

Duration of

the class

Time T

centered

(aprox)

Time S

centered

(aprox)

ROWS 56 41 8 5 135 70 65

SEMI-

CIRCLE

60 57 22 20 135 40 95


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APPENDIX B

Questionnaire

1. How old are you?

o Less than 30

o Between 30 and 35

o More than 35

2. How long have you been teaching?

o Less than 3

o Between 3 and 5

o More than 5

3. How is the seating arrangement in your classroom?

o Row

o Semi-circle

o Other:_______________________

4. Do you plan the seating arrangement in your classroom?

o Yes

o No

5. Do you think the seating arrangement has an impact in your class?

o Yes

o No

o I’ve never thought about it

6. If you had to think of a reason, why do you prefer your chosen seating arrangement?

o Sts are more concentrated

o Sts participate more in class

o It is easier to give a class and maintain the order

o Other: _____________________________________________

Documents

Comparative Study seating arrangement