Classroom arrangement: Exploring student and staff perspectives

Many students and teachers have an opinion on how a room is arranged; just from the way a room is arranged, it can put a major effect on the way that person teaches or learns. The lights and the way the chairs and desks are arranged can affect students and teachers in a big way. In this piece, I report on interviews conducted with teachers and survey responses from students.

Lighting

The lighting of a room can change a room’s feel. This is a common experience for people. This happens in all rooms but only in the classroom does it affect the learning of students. The opinion of this changes from person to person, but most students think that it does affect their learning. Out of the 419 students that filed out the classroom arrangement form, 193 people say that the overhead lights does not affect their learning, and only 88 people said “yes” it does matter, leaving 138 people that don’t really know and just said maybe. This number shows that most of the Webber students think that “no,” it does not matter to their learning. But the staff have something else to say; most teachers think that it does affect the students, like an anonymous teacher said, “I have been asked to turn the lights off but never on.” This shows that most teachers think that the students do care, but in truth, the students believe that it does not affect them. 

Seats

Seating is mainly viewed as something that only teachers think about, but when students were asked if the set up of a classroom  affects their learning, 193 students said it does. This shows that when asked to think about it, a large bunch of students thought it did. Students are affected by seating in the point that if they are sat with their friend, there is the likely possibility that they will talk. If they are sat with someone who they don’t know that much, it might make them uncomfortable. Students are affected by the set up of a classroom, because they are put in the position their teacher assigns them. This also shows how teachers are affected by seating. Teachers have to make seating charts. Also, then they are affected by when you get to your seat; if you start talking to the others around you, then that is something affecting your learning and the learning of the others around you.                               

Students vs. Teachers 

Clearly students and teachers have different opinions on all these topics, but the way the classroom is arranged is truly up to the teacher; a teacher chooses where you sit and where the desk and/or chairs are in the room. In almost no cases are the students getting to choose where they sit, unless they don’t have assigned seating in that class. But where the desk and chairs are in a room is a major part of learning, students and teachers are affected by it. Teachers have to choose where kids and desks are in a room, and the students need to follow the seating chart and learn in that spot.