Classroom Seating and Student Achievement

I’m sure I’m not the only one, but as a teacher I am borderline obsessed with creating the best learning environment for my students. Whether it is the physical appearance of the room or the method of instruction, I want to make it as efficient and effective as possible for my students to both get the information in and then provide opportunities for them to get the information out for use.

There are many areas a teacher can choose to focus on to ensure they’re getting the most out of their students and providing the best environment for learning. And while my writing usually focuses more on the nature of instruction and practice, considering the physical environment of the classroom can also yield improvements or serve to distract and negatively impact learning.

One aspect of the physical classroom that can often be overlooked or not considered through the lens of ‘how will this impact learning’ is the arrangement of desks or tables. How teachers set up the student seating can, before they even walk through the door, impact instruction in either a negative or positive manner. As every teacher knows, seating certain students beside one another can create a social vortex of talking and disruption that can take hold of an entire class (This is sometimes called attention contagion. For more on this, click here). But, how should teachers know whether to go with rows/columns or group the desks together in some way or perhaps for a more flexible seating arrangement? I say we turn to evidence of what seems to work better for learning.

A 2008 research article (1) looked at eight studies examining just this and attempted to answer the question following question: which seating arrangement showed the most promise for increasing on task behaviors while decreasing disruptive behaviors?

These eight studies looked at students aged 7-15 in the classroom setting. Some of the studies paid special attention to students who were ‘academically behind’ or demonstrated ’emotional, behavioral, and/or learning difficulties’, or were seen by the teacher to be particularly ‘boisterous’. And all eight studies looked at the impact of at least two of three common seating arrangements: rows, groups, or semi-circles.

And, while behaviors were not operationally defined identically across all eight studies, examples of on-task behaviors were ‘hand-raising and complying with requests’ and examples of off-task behaviors were ‘talking out of turn or being out of seat without permission’.

So, what do these eight studies seem to indicate about seating arrangements and student behavior? (This is the important bit that teachers really care about.)

“Results of this synthesis suggest that the nature of the academic task and type of behavior desired should dictate the seating arrangement. Generally, teachers who want to maximize the on-task behavior of their students during independent work should consider utilizing rows rather than groups as their primary seating arrangement and moving desks into other positions to facilitate interaction when it is desired.”

I do want to point out some findings from these research studies that stood out to me and that, I believe, will be beneficial to teachers considering the seating in their classroom:

-Studies where students were participating in individual tasks were ‘unequivocal’ in their support for a rows seating arrangement to increase on-task behavior and/or decrease off-task behavior.

-One study saw inner-city second graders who were below grade level drastically improve their study behavior when seated in rows than in four person groups.

-Another study observed an increase in on-task behaviors in a mixed-ability classroom when their seating was arranged into rows. This study was replicated in a special school for children with behavioral difficulties and researchers found a substantial improvement in on-task behavior when students were moved from groups to rows.

-Yet another study again saw the rows arrangement improve on-task behaviors for an entire class, with the greatest improvement observed in students who were at first rated as the most disruptive.

-Only one study out of the eight reported a decrease in on-task behaviors when students were seated in rows when compared to groups. But, in this study, the class task involved working with other students (a brainstorming activity). This actually supports the researcher’s initial findings that the type of task to be completed should dictate the seating arrangement of the classroom.

-A final interesting (to me) finding is that one study looked at the quantity and quality of work produced by students seated in either rows or groups. They observed that the students’ quality in both conditions was equal, but the quantity of work created was higher in the students sat in rows.

So, think about the work the students will be doing and arrange seating accordingly. The nature of my classroom (teaching AP Psychology) dictates that I need my students in rows a lot more because I need their attention on new material daily. And, if I need them to more easily attend to content while minimizing distractions, rows appear to be the way to go. As I’ve seen many times in the past, seating students in groups or in an arrangement where some students may not be facing where the instruction is coming from, they tend to more easily distract themselves and then pass on that distraction in some form to the peers around them (see attention contagion above). And, if I want students to interact with one another to discuss topics or work together to complete a task, they can easily turn their chairs to create pairs or groups. Then, when we’re back to whole class learning, they simply rearrange themselves back into rows.

Is a lot of this information somewhat common knowledge to teacher? Yeah, probably so. But, it is sometimes important to see research backing up what we believe is happening in the classroom. We teachers are prone to bias just like everyone else. Anecdotal evidence can certainly be of value…but it can also be flawed. And, this helps me to consider, before my students come in, how I can create an environment that will better support student learning.

And that’s what all this is really about, right?

I’ve written a book that looks closely at providing the most efficient and effective environment and instruction for learning. If you like stuff like this, I would highly recommend a preorder. : )

In the US, preorder here. In the UK and elsewhere, preorder here.

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1. Wannarka, R., & Ruhl, K. (2008). Seating arrangements that promote positive academic and behavioural outcomes: A review of empirical research. Support for learning, 23(2), 89-93.

Feature image by Erik Mclean: https://www.pexels.com/photo/vintage-classroom-with-rows-of-wooden-desks-and-chairs-9258380/