I visited a variety of classrooms during the past school week and found it interesting to see that every teacher sets up the room in a different way. In some cases the student desks are grouped and in other rooms, the student desks are removed from one another. Some classrooms have the teacher desk near the door and in others the teacher desk is in the back. The organization of the room provides clues as to what is happening in the classroom. One of the rooms I visited had no teacher desk, which I found very interesting. When I asked the teacher about it, he replied that there just wasn't room for a teacher desk. This particular teacher is a teacher that integrates technology into many classroom activities and has found that using the laptop with the LCD projector works fine using a student desk.
A diagram of a first grade classroom is seen here. The student desks are organized into four groupings and the teacher desk is in the back of the room. At times students face the front wall and other times they shift to face the left wall of the room to
see work done on the whiteboard (not interactive). Otherwise, when the students are working, they face each other. I enjoyed watching them work together, ask one another for help and engage in social interactions. The pattern of movement is clear and the students were able to move from learning center to learning center with little chance of bumping one another. The elementary classrooms in my district have 3 desktop computers and 1 laptop computer. In this room, the students used the 3 desktop computers during center time to work on a skill based reading program. The computers are also used to access educational websites by students. The laptop is also available for student use, however many teachers house the laptop at the teacher desk which reduces student use.Some second grade rooms I visited had a similar setup to the first grade room and the equipment and materials were used similar also. When I moved to a third grade classroom I saw a shift in student placement as can be seen in the diagram below.
The student desks, while grouped together, are all facing front. The teacher desk is out of the way in the back left corner. Students are able to move around, but with the rows all facing front, it makes movement between rows difficult , especially for the teacher. The teacher holds reading groups and students work independently when not in the teacher group. At these times, students are able to work together, but the room arrangement does not facilitate groupwork for the most part.
The fourth grade classroom in the the above diagram is far from the arrangement of the first and second grade rooms. It is closer in nature to the third grade room, but now the student desks are not touching one another. The students are in rows all facing front and in their own space. Due to the amount of students and the room size, this type of arrangement makes movement around the classroom more difficult. I plan to visit this room again to see if the teacher reorganizes the student desks from time to time. The placement as I observed it may seem very teacher centered, but can also be seen as very modular. The student can quickly turn and move desks to form and reform groups when needed.
From my observations, when student desks are arranged all facing front, the learning environment is more teacher centered and movement around the room is more difficult. I noticed more and more of a teacher centered setup as I moved up the grade levels. Primary grade rooms, first and second grade, were arranged in cooperative groups, had clear pathways and used learning centers during group work. Third through fifth grade moved further away from grouping students as the grade level increased. All elementary classrooms have 3 desktop computers and one teacher laptop. Teachers use the computer equipment differently from one classroom to the next. Although there is a K-6 technology curriculum in place, there is no expectation that it is implemented in a systematic way. This creates pockets of use and students are exposed to the amount of technology with which their teacher feels comfortable. It is my role to work with the teachers on effective use and often model and co-teach to increase the integration of technology.
Room arrangements reflect the purpose of the classroom. In my opinion, teachers need to be more purposeful in their arrangement to facilitate collaborative working groups and the increase chances for student interactions for learning. As a supervisor, observing various setup will help when it comes time to consider professional development opportunities. A supervisor might choose to have teachers observe a teacher that uses an opposite setup and discuss the pros and cons of each. Also, when planning for professional development on instructional practices, the supervisor may include workshops on collaborative and cooperative learning. A supervisor might arrange seating in faculty meetings in differing ways to demonstrate to staff how arrangement impacts the interactions.
I will continue to observe room arrangements on future visits to classroom and consider how the setup aides or hinders the learning environment.
