Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Artifacts 6:
Yiran Liao
Introduction
Context
I’m a Chinese language and culture teacher in Rochester Community School district. This
is a public school district with thirteen elementary schools, four middle schools and four high
schools. Our district has been started Chinese program for about six years. From first graders to
high school students, they are all learning Chinese language and culture lesson every week. This
is my third year here in the district, and every year I teach in different schools according to
district schedule. Thus I have taught Chinese in six elementary schools, which gave me a good
opportunity to experience different school culture and classroom style. This year I teach in two
elementary schools with all grade levels from first to fifth grade.
Besides first grade, which has two thirty-minute Chinese classes every week, other grades
only have one forty-minute class a week. I don’t have my own classroom like other special
teachers, so I have to take my teaching materials with me and travel into different classrooms. In
this way, I have the chance to experience different classroom settings and work with classroom
teachers who have different teaching styles and classroom management strategies.
As I teach in different classrooms, I notice that every teacher has their own belief about
classroom seating. Some of them like students in assigned seats with desks and chairs while
some teachers prefer a flexible classroom seating arrangement in which students could sit on
yoga balls, bean-bags or sofas. In my previous schools over the last two years, I had about 30%
classrooms with flexible seating arrangements. But in the two schools I teach in this year, I only
have one classroom with flexible seating arrangement out of all my twenty-three classes. This is
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 2
a fifth grade class in a flexible seating classroom. There are 28 students in this class. The
majority of them are White, four of them are Latinx and one African American student. Their
Chinese language proficiency are all novice low. I always find students in that classroom are
easily distracted by things that are not related to learning Chinese. Their concentration and focus
is shorter than other classes which have assigned seats. For example, I found the students who sit
in the flexible seating classroom always bouncing on the yoga ball, talking to their neighbors or
playing with some toys around them. Even though I reminded them and asked to look at me
while I was talking, they put their attention back to other things just in a few minutes. My major
concern is how to manage the students’ attention spans in a flexible seating classroom.
This situation drives my attention because I’m from China. In all the classrooms in my
elementary schools in China, the seating arrangements are the same. Students have to sit on their
chair behind the desk. Such traditional seating styles give the teacher a clear view to see and
support every student. Although I understand the flexible seating style has benefits that
traditional seating styles do not have, I still want to inquire about how flexible seating
arrangements influence students’ learning. Is it really good for students? How do I manage the
class in an effective way with flexible seats? I think this inquiry project will also help other
teachers to see the differences of classroom seating styles and find an appropriate and effective
Research Question
The main question I chose to do my research on is: How do flexible seating arrangements
Sub-questions
3. What strategies can teachers apply to better manage a classroom with flexible seats?
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 4
Literature Review
How to arrange the classroom seats to better improve students’ engagement in learning
would be one of the most important questions that every teacher needs to think about before the
school year starts. The classroom seating styles change in history and have been compared and
researched extensively by the educators in different times. The major types of classroom
arrangements included rows of tablet-arm chairs, U-shaped, clusters, and rows of tables with
individual chairs. Most of the researchers investigated the beneficial of changing traditional
row-and-column arrangement into small group or semicircle arrangement, which can improve
students peer interaction and social communication. Some studies focus mainly on sensory or
physical features of the classroom environment, and others on social, cognitive and emotional
aspects, including the way power and autonomy are represented in the classroom rules, routines
and social processes. However, the flexible seating arrangement is quite a novel proposal in the
twenty-first century. There are relatively less research related to the influences of students
learning in the flexible seating arrangement classroom. Those research can be divided into three
major types:
Synthesis of Research
According to Steele (1973), all physical settings serve six basic functions: security and
shelter, social contact, symbolic identification, task instrumentality, pleasure, and growth. These
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 5
functions provide a useful framework for thinking about the classroom environment in
elementary schools. This paper will mainly focus on the social contact function in traditional
row-and-column seating classroom and flexible seating classroom. Since students spend most of
their time in the classroom during the school day, the classroom environment plays an essential
role in creating educational experience for students. All the teachers have to think about how to
design classroom environment to students to not only maintain the basic functions but also
encourage students to learn better. As teachers’ teaching styles are different, they may prefer
different seating arrangements. Then different seating arrangements provide students with
different educational experiences that have an impact on students’ participation and academic
A seating arrangement in rows compared to groups can instigate such positive academic
behaviors. Rows can especially support students’ on-task behavior during independent work. In
contrary, it has been shown that seating arrangements in small groups can facilitate interaction
between students due to proximity and close positions between peers, which is useful during
brainstorming and group assignments. Wannarka and Ruhl (2008) have thus shown that seating
arrangements can have consequences for students’ academic engagement and development.
However, the nature of the task and consequently the type of desired behavior dictates the most
Other researchers also provided empirical support for the idea that seating arrangements
influence students’ relationships and development (e.g., Blatchford et al. 2005), and that peers
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 6
influence individual students at the classroom level and in small groups, when students are
changes to teaching practices and the incorporation of technology are increasingly accompanied
by modifications to the built classroom environment. Typically rows of desk and chairs are
replaced with a range of furniture that can be configured in various ways to facilitate teaching
and learning (Kariippanon 2017). Especially in the elementary classroom, teachers start to add
more furniture such as carpet, sofa, round table and stools to create a more comfy environment
for students. Different seating arrangements also appeared as U-shaped, circle or half circle and
According to Brown & Lippincott (2003), the definition of flexible seating arrangements
are easily configurable seating arrangements within classrooms and the ability to shift from
lecture mode to group mode during a session. They believe the flexible seating arrangements are
More specifically, flexible seating can range from just allowing students to choose their
seats or move around the classroom more frequently to elaborately planned rooms with a wide
range of seating options that allow students to choose to work at different heights and in different
positions. Furniture options include couches, floor pillows, mats, bean bag chairs, yoga ball
seats, stools, low tables, standing work surfaces, and traditional chair and desk combinations.
Often a meeting place with room for everyone is needed. Generally, a flexible classroom allows
students to move furniture and gives them opportunities to work separately or in groups, though
As Salmen (2011, p. 13) stated, “...one size does not necessarily fit all...” and, as students
and instructors become more diverse physically and relationally, providing options and
alternatives within the classroom becomes essential (Scott, McGuire, & Shaw, 2003; Cornell,
2002). The flexible seating arrangement seems to give students more space and choice to gain
pleasure and growth because of the diversity functional furniture, and the freedom of making
choices.
students learning. First of all, flexible seating arrangement is physically beneficial for students.
Sitting in the traditional fixed-type tables and chairs could affect the development of
musculoskeletal disorders, poor posture, back pain, neck pain, and other health-related concerns
active-dynamic sitting. He says frequent load shift supports the demand for a muscle controlled
sitting because - in contrast to passive sitting in a comfortable chair - the muscular endurance
improves. As the posture changes, there is always one group of muscle fibers at work to
maintain the posture while others can relax. It can be accomplished through the use of a chair
with a swivel feature and constructed to be flexible or open on all sides. Other physical
beneficial of flexible seating include burning more calories, using up excess energy, improving
metabolism, increased motivation and engagement, creating a better oxygen flow to the brain,
and improving core strength and overall posture (Thariq, Munasinghe, & Abeysekara, 2010;).
self-regulation, collaboration, and student autonomy and engagement. Modified spaces are
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 8
enjoyable, comfortable and inclusive and allowed greater interaction. Which means the
classroom with flexible seating arrangement is an interactive learning-centered place rather than
a lecturing-centered place.
There is a teacher named Brooke Markle, who writes about her reflections on shifting to a
flexible classroom mentioned one benefit of flexible seating that she didn’t anticipate was that
when she incorporated station work and students moved to new seats to work with a new group,
the students seemed more open to collaborating with an assortment of peers in a variety of
locations than had been the case with traditional seating (Brooke, M. Reflections on Shifting to a
Flexible Classroom). This shows flexible seating is not just simply having a variety of different,
fun seats in the classroom, but it is more about utilizing student voice, creating buy-in,
heightening collaborative learning, and prioritizing students’ needs concerning the environment
Kayla Delzer (2016) has the same thoughts about the beneficial of flexible seating
arrangement. She indicates that the classroom environments should be conducive to open
collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. This simply cannot be done when
kids are sitting in rows of desks all day. The classroom environment should mirror what students
will encounter in their future careers, and collaboration, problem solving, and meaning making
are at the forefront of most job descriptions. Standard desks situated in rows do not foster open
Above research mentioned the flexible seating arrangements have positive influences on
students learning. The flexible seating arrangements can not only benefit students’ physically,
However, there are debates that if flexible seating truly has such dramatic positive
influences. Some researchers argue that movable furniture may create learning disruptions to
students who prefer seats in the back or front of the classroom (Harvey & Kenyon, 2013).
According to Budge (2000), classroom spatial arrangements with well-defined areas can have a
positive influence on students’ social interaction and on-task behaviors. On the contrary,
classrooms with the “traditional” seating arrangements, comprising desks in a number of rows
facing the instructor, can increase students’ ability to focus on the lesson and concentrate on their
Elementary School in Bowling Green, KY, feels overwhelmed after she tried flexible seating
arrangement because she felt like she was constantly blowing up exercise ball chairs, and
replacing beans in the bean bag chairs. Due to the lack of the procedural practice, she felt she
needs to allow herself to change back to the classroom seating before flexible seating
Bright’s experience indicates that this approach does more than change the classroom,
and teachers need to prepare for it and be sure it fits their teaching style. It really requires
students’ self-control ability and teachers’ effective classroom management. The classroom
management is an important task for teachers and part of this task is their responsibility for the
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 10
physical design of the classroom. In order to assess whether teachers make effective seating
arrangements for students’ social and academic development more information is needed on their
practices and reasons behind specific choices (van den Berg et al.2012). It is not yet clear which
types of seating arrangements they prefer, what their considerations and goals are when
arranging the classroom, and to what extent the arrangements are in agreement with their needs
and beliefs.
unique and constantly subject to variation, largely because people learn from their own
experiences. Many factors connected with individual development and learning, including
perceptual sensitivity, personality and temperament, combine together to ensure that however
uniform an environment might appear to be, people's actual experiences differ very considerably.
The classroom with flexible seating arrangements may have beneficial that other
classroom arrangements don’t have, research are more likely showing teachers an “ideal”
flexible seating classroom, while not many researchers investigated the results of conducting the
flexible seating arrangement or record the influences that truly happened in a real classroom.
How do flexible seating arrangements influence students learning, and what kind of subjects,
teaching or learning styles suit flexible seating arrangements will be the main idea to investigate
Participants
In order to find out how flexible seating arrangement influence students’ learning, I want
to first compare the flexible seating arrangement with traditional seating arrangement
(row-and-column arrangement) in the four aspects: classroom function, teachers’ design ideas,
I chose three classes to investigate: two of them are with flexible seating arrangement,
one is typical row-and-column traditional style classroom. The two flexible seating classrooms
are both in fifth grade, and the row-and-column classroom is in third grade. Below is the table
Arrangement
Students 28 31 32
Number
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 12
Language
Proficiency
Setting
The data collection will occur in the four classes. I will conduct the investigation by
observing the classes, interviewing with teachers and taking survey with students in the four
classrooms. The biggest challenge for me is the time. Since I only meet each class forty minutes
every week, I have really limited time to collect data from students and also collaborate with
classroom teachers, seek their support, ask questions or share ideas. I think I need to be more
flexible to schedule interview time with teachers after school or in the morning before school
started. I will also try to design time-saving interview and survey questions to solve the time
issue.
I will first observe the classroom, draw the classroom map (see Figure 1 as an example)
to better compare the environment details, I am also thinking about taking photos of the
classroom environment, but I will ask for the teachers’ permission first.
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 13
Then I will collect data of the classroom function by creating a checklist. As all physical
settings serve six basic functions: security and shelter, social contact, symbolic identification,
task instrumentality, pleasure, and growth (Steele, 1973), I think the six functions provide a
useful framework for thinking about the physical environment of the classroom. When I observe
the four classes, I will use the checklist (see Figure 2) to check the classroom functions.
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 14
❏ Path to exit
❏ Group / Partnership
❏ Personalization
students?
distraction.
❏ Reflection place
❏ Literacy environment
After collecting the data of classroom environment, I will interview the four classroom
teachers with their thoughts of classroom seating design and their classroom management
The fourth tool I will use to collect data is the survey about students’ preferences of
flexible seating arrangement. The questions I will ask students in the survey can be seen in
Figure 4.
Timeline
There are three major parts to conduct my investigation. The first part is to observe each
classroom, write my reflection journal after every lesson and draw the classroom map, check
their setting function. This part will be finished in two weeks (October 29th –November 9th).
Then I will conduct an interview with teachers, record the interview results in the next
In order to balance my role of being a teacher and a researcher, I will set clear procedures
to follow through during the research time. I won’t use my teaching time to write research
journal or conducting student survey. If I have to conduct survey during my teaching time due to
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 18
specific reason, I will first finish my teaching and then use just five minutes to let students do the
survey.
As for the ethical issues, I will let the students know in advance that I’m doing a research
about flexible seating arrangement and I won’t use any information regard to their real name to
protect their privacy. I don’t need to record students’ voice or video in my research but I want to
take pictures of the four classrooms, thus I will ask teachers permission and take those pictures
Data Analysis
Procedures
In order to find how flexible seating classroom influences students’ learning, I collected
data from three areas: classroom function, teacher’s design ideas, and students’ preference. There
are five types of data I collected. The first one is my observation journal, then classrooms maps
and function checklists, interview with classroom teachers and the last one is students’ survey
Initially, I intended to use a priori themes to look for the advantages and disadvantages of
choosing flexible seating in the classroom, to find how the flexible seating classroom style
beneficial or distracted students’ learning. However, when I started to look through the data I
collected, I found the two themes were too wide to be reflected and analyzed, as many different
aspects are influenced by flexible seating style, many data sources produced additional themes
during my data analyzing process. I believe it could be more specific to analysis the data by
I planned to do member check with the classroom teachers but we could not find time
eventually. I also did not have chance to do the member check with my students due to we only
have Chinese class once a week and the time is very limited, which is a pity for this inquiry
research. I would like to find time to share what I learned with them in the future, even the
course is ending.
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 20
Findings
During the three weeks of data collection and analysis, I observed students’ learning
behaviors in two classrooms with flexible seating style and one classroom with desk-chair
assigned seats in row-column style. I wrote observation journals to record the experience. I drew
classroom maps and did classroom function checklist to compare the differences. Then I
interviewed the three classroom teachers about their classroom design ideas.I finally did the
students survey to find out their preferences of seating style. Originally I planned to find how the
flexible seating influence students’ learning in the three themes: students’ interaction with each
other, students’ interaction with teacher, students’ learning behaviors. During the data analysis, I
also found out how teacher manage the flexible seating classroom could also influence students’
learning, I decided to add it as emergent theme. Since there are many data sources I collected,
during the data analysis process, I tried to color code different themes and highlight the data
source with corresponding color. Overall, how the data resources correspond to themes could be
Classroom V V
map and
checklist
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 21
Observation V V V V
journal
Interview V V
with teachers
Students’ V V
survey
Result #1: Flexible seating facilitates students’ interaction with each other.
The three classroom maps are as below. It could be easily found that in the two flexible seating
classroom (Ms. S and Ms. T), students sit on different kinds of seats in different places, they are
While in Ms. P’s classroom with desk-chair assigned seats in a row-column style,
students always face forward to look at the teacher. In my journal on November 9th I wrote:
[ Today I did Conversation Jigsaw activity in Ms. T’s flexible seating classroom. The
goal of the activity was to review self-introduction in Chinese. Students had to read the
information about a person’s name, age, gender, nationality and color of the clothes to figure out
who is the person. As they already sat in groups, I just gave each group member different
information to read and then share with their group. For example, student A read about the
person’s name, age and gender, student B read about nationality and student C read about the
clothing information. Every different group had a different person’s information, the group
members needed to communicate, share the information, help each other to find the picture of
the person on the Smart Board. I noticed students were really engaged in the activity, they were
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 24
familiar with their group members, willing to communicate and help each other. All the eight
Then I did the same activity in Ms. P’s row-column classroom. Since students sit
separately from each other, I spent about seven minutes to assign them into different groups.
During the activity, I observed two groups had conflict with their group members because
“She/he didn’t want to talk about it.” I thought this problem came from the lack of interaction
and communication among the students. The students’ relationship looked not as close as in the
first flexible seating class. In the first flexible seating class, I observed when the activity started,
students quickly decided everyone’s role in the activity, and they took turns to share their
findings. While in the row-and-column classroom, students felt unfamiliar with being in a group,
Those students who said “I don’t want to share” told me that they preferred to work on their own
instead of sharing and cooperating with their group members. At the end of activity, six groups
In students’ survey, the results showed in the three classes of “I can communicate better
Table2: Students’ survey results (FS refers Flexible seating; R-C refers Row-column; numbers
Figure1: Ms. T’s Flexible Seating Class: I can communicate better with my classmates at my
seat.
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 26
Figure 2: Ms. S’s Flexible Seating Class: I can communicate better with my classmates at my
seat.
Figure 3: Ms. P’s Row and Column Class: I can communicate better with my classmates at my
seat.
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 27
According to the data results above, about 84% students (include strongly agree and agree) in
Ms. T’s flexible seating class believe their seating help them to communicate better with their
classmates, and 80% students agree with the statement in Ms. S’s flexible seating class. Very less
students chose disagree. However, only 14% students in Ms. P row-and-column classroom agree
they can communicate better with their classmates at their seat, while 43% students stood for
neutral and 32% students disagree they can better communicate with their classmates at their
seat. Overall, the data results showed students in flexible seating classroom believe they have
While flexible seating increases students’ interaction with each other, the interaction with
teacher seems to be reduced. When I stood next to the Smart Board and taught students to read
the words or sentences after me, or taught culture content, I noticed the students who sat in the
flexible seating classroom were talking or doing something else at that time. Here is another
[ Today I felt kind frustrated in Ms. T’s flexible seating classroom. Students sat
everywhere in the classroom. It was really hard for me to get their attention. They kept bouncing
on the yoga balls, couldn’t stop…During the conversation practice time, I even noticed the four
boys who sat in the back of the classroom were reading novels instead of learning Chinese.]
[ I felt much better in Ms. P’s row-column classroom. They always faced forward to look
at me, I can also see everyone clearly in the front of the classroom. Felt like they know better
about be a good listener, when I was talking, their eyes were all on me and listened very
carefully. They love to repeat the words and sentences. I did not need to speak very loud to
attract everyone’s attention. The whole class was quite and the students were concentrated]
Neutral 0 0 2 (7%)
Strongly disagree 0 0 0
Figure4: Ms. T’s Flexible Seating Class: I can hear teacher’s voice very well at my seat.
Figure 5: Ms. S’s Flexible Seating Class: I can hear teacher’s voice very well at my seat.
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 30
Figure 6: Ms. T’s Row and Column Class: I can hear teacher’s voice very well at my seat.
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 31
According to the data results above, about 76% students (include strongly agree and agree) in
Ms. T’s flexible seating class chose they can hear teacher’s voice very well at their seat, while
24% disagree with that. In Ms. S’s flexible seating classroom, 88% students believe they could
hear teacher’s voice at their spot while 11% students disagree. Compared with that, in Ms. P’s
row-and-column classroom, 88% students agree with they can hear teacher’s voice and only 7%
students chose disagree. The results show that more students agree they can hear teacher’s voice
very well in the row-and-column classroom than the students in the flexible seating classroom.
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 32
Result #3: Students learning behaviors vary in different flexible seating classrooms according
In the two flexible seating classrooms, I always observed better behavior in Ms. S class
than in Ms. T’s class. As I mentioned before in my journal on November 2nd in Ms. T’s class,
students’ behaviors like kept bouncing on the yoga balls or read novels didn’t happen in Ms. S’s
flexible seating classroom. Ms. S decorated her classroom as home, different places with
different themes as “living room”, “dining room”, “study room” and always played gentle
background music. They had clear classroom expectations in front of the class, they also signed a
flexible seating contract to make sure students understand and be responsible for choosing their
Besides the findings in my journal, the interview with teachers could also claim the
results. All the three teachers shared with me their classroom design ideas. The two teachers with
flexible seating classrooms both believe it is beneficial for student-centered learning, they want
to be a teacher as facilitator rather than a lecturer. When I asked how could they manage their
flexible seating classrooms, Ms. S said “I gave students clear expectations, we talked about how
they sat in different seats, we talked about the consequences and practiced many times in the first
several weeks of school. Once students know they have to be responsible for their own choice,
they are ready to control themselves on the flexible seats. We are trying to enhance the good
influences of flexible seating on learning and avoid the shortages together.” On the contrary,
Ms. T simply told me that “when students misbehave, I just told them to stop, they are supposed
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 33
and expectations to enhance the positive influence that flexible seating on students’ learning.
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 34
Summary
My main research question is to find out how do flexible seating arrangements influence
students’ learning. After I collected data from three areas: classroom function, teacher’s design
ideas and students’ preference, I found out that flexible seating arrangements can enhance
students’ interaction and communication with their peers, better facilitate student-centered
learning. Instead of being the main instructor of the class, teacher is more like a promoter to
encourage students’ interests and curiosity of learning in the flexible seating arrangements
classroom. Which means the classroom with flexible seating arrangement is an interactively
In the meantime, the teacher’s effective classroom management skill is another factor to
maintain the flexible seating arrangements’ positive influence on students’ learning. As one of
my sub-question asked to find how do teachers manage a flexible seating classroom effectively,
during my research processes, I also learned some strategies of managing the classroom with
flexible seating arrangements from the teachers I interviewed and my teaching experience as
Connections
According to Budge (2000), classroom spatial arrangements with well-defined areas can
have a positive influence on students’ social interaction and on-task behaviors. Flexible learning
and student autonomy and engagement. My research pretty much found the same answer as the
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 35
research. Students mostly prefer to choose the flexible spaces that are more enjoyable,
comfortable and inclusive and allowed greater interaction with their peers than assigned seats.
During my research I also found that it is essential to provide options and alternatives
during teaching. Just as students and instructors become more diverse physically and relationally,
providing options and alternatives within the classroom becomes essential (Scott, McGuire, &
Shaw, 2003; Cornell, 2002). The flexible seating classroom gives students more opportunity to
make their own choice, upgrade their learning thoughts, and improve.
Another connection I found is the same as the teacher Brooke mentioned in her
reflection, when she incorporated station work and students moved to new seats to work with a
new group, the students seemed more open to collaborating with an assortment of peers in a
variety of locations than had been the case with traditional seating (Brooke, M. Reflections on
Shifting to a Flexible Classroom) . I also noticed the students in flexible seating classrooms were
more like to communicate and work on group activities with their peers even in new groups.
Moreover, since I compared two flexible seating arrangement classrooms with one
traditional row-and-column assigned seating classroom, I also found the same situation as
Hofkins (1994) mentioned in his research that “classrooms with the ‘traditional’ seating
arrangements, comprising desks in a number of rows facing the instructor, can increase students’
ability to focus on the lesson, listen to the teacher and concentrate on their individual work.”
During my research processes in the three classrooms, I always observed students in the
traditional row-and-column assigned seats concentrated more on the lesson while students in the
Therefore, the classroom with flexible seating arrangements have positive influence on
student-centered learning and could increase students’ communication and relationship with each
other, while it might reduce teacher’s control of the classroom, in that case, teacher need to have
effective classroom management skills to better increase the positive influence of flexible seating
on students’ learning.
Implications
Based on what I found about flexible seating, I will adapt my teaching style to facilitate
and conduct more student-centered activities to increase their interaction with each other. I also
found that flexible seating is beneficial students to learn language, because the close and comfy
seating encourage them to talk and share more ideas with each other.
At the same time, I will improve my classroom management skills to keep students engaged
during my teaching. Since I’m not the classroom teacher, it could be hard for me to establish the
expectation and ground rules at the beginning of the school year and then consistently reinforce
the positive behaviors. But after I talked with the classroom teachers, I learned some strategies
like using Class Dojo as behavior system, moving students spot close to me if they chat too
much, use silent quiet down signal instead of loud call back. I also found some activities that are
suitable in the flexible seating classroom, like communication Jigsaw activity and learning center
Moreover, while I’m doing my research, I’m always thinking about the culture
differences behind the seating style, because the original idea of conducting the research is from
the big difference between the classroom environment in China and here in the United States.
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 37
I’m thinking about my findings could bring some fresh ideas to my country’s education area,
even though it could not have obvious influence right now, I think share the ideas with teachers
Further Study
As Kayla Delzer (2016) mentioned “the flexible seating classroom environment should
mirror what students will encounter in their future careers, and collaboration, problem solving,
and meaning making are at the forefront of most job descriptions.” My inquiry research found
that flexible seating arrangements has positive influence on students’ collaboration and
communication, but I could not find enough time and resources to inquire how classroom with
flexible seating arrangements influence students’ problem solving and critical thinking skills.
I’m also planning to share my final report with my school district because I think it might
help other teachers get some ideas on how and why of choosing certain classroom seating style. I
remembered at the beginning of the school year, our district had a professional development day
with different sections and themes. Every teacher is welcoming to sign in a section to share
something with other teachers. I’m thinking about I could use this opportunity to share my
Reflections
This inquiry research really gives me a good opportunity to understand what flexible
seating arrangement style is, how does it influence students’ learning and how can I teach my
FLEXIBLE SEATING ARRANGEMENTS 38
lesson in a classroom with flexible seating arrangements. Since I grow up in China, I was taught
in a traditional education environment where teacher is the domain of the classroom, students
have to sit on the assigned seats in a row-and-column style and listen to the teacher all the time.
Then when I became the teacher, I pretty much have the teacher-centered teaching style
naturally.
I still remembered I was shocked in the first time I taught in the classroom with flexible
seating arrangements, I didn’t know how to get students’ attention and felt really frustrated to
lose control of my lesson. I felt like my teacher role was challenged during the whole time. I
started to question why teachers choose this seating style which totally looks like a mess for me.
That becomes my initial eager to inquiry this unfamiliar seating style as my research.
After conducting the research, I understand more about the flexible seating arrangements,
more importantly, I understand the first mess I met in the classroom was not about the seating
arrangements, but about how I as a teacher to manage the class. If I still keep the traditional
“lecturing” style in the flexible seating arrangements classroom, it will not suit students’ learning
style as they are getting use to open collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical
thinking. Instead of just be the information receivers, they prefer to be the seekers of questions.
I will also be more open-minded and adjust my teaching style consistently to better help
students’ learning. I will not stop the same processes as this inquiry project to identify questions
teaching methods and continue doing reflections. I wish I could become a more professional
References
Weinstein & Romano (2015). Elementary Classroom Management, Lessons From Research and
Practice. 27-28
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