In this episode, we are going to be talking about seating plans. Do they work ? Is it worth your effort putting in a seating plan ? 

Prefer to watch the video, click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwIpgMm3Wno&t=251s

Different teachers have different opinions on this. There are a couple of different theories on seating plans, so I just want to talk about their merits and the difficulties and suggest some ways that you can approach your new year with your new class. Before we get into it, do not forget to hit subscribe or follow so that you don’t miss out on any of our content. We put these episodes out every week and we would love to hear from you in the comments section. 

Are seating plans beneficial? 

Research shows that if students choose their own seats they are three times more likely to be disruptive. So there is a lot of merit to seating plans and to the teacher assigning seats. With that being said, there is also research on student well-being or student’s sense of ownership in a classroom when they have a chance to choose their own seats. It reduces anxiety, boosts their academic performance and they tend to feel more relaxed and a part of the classroom community. So there are benefits to both but how do you approach this ? 

I want to just look at different ways that you can approach a seating plan depending on whether you want to give students a choice or whether you want to choose their seating places. I am going to tell you what I prefer but I am going to suggest what you need to do regardless of what you prefer. 

First, if you are a seating plan advocate or you are somebody that believes in seating plans or maybe you are considering seating plans, here is why I like seeing plans. I like seating plans because it helps me to manage clusters of misbehaviour. Very often if you let students choose their own seats, they will cluster together in groups that can become quite disruptive. There might be some kind of a power build up in one area of the room that becomes very hard to manage, so it helps you to keep those clusters apart. 

I always recommend putting academically low performing students down the front and academically high achievers down the back regardless of their behaviour so it helps you to support and manage the students that need extra help. It also gives opportunity to the higher students to actually get on with their work and be less bored and less disruptive in the process. That is why I like seating plans and why I recommend them. I think they work, but I understand not everybody likes them and some schools have actually moved right away from seating plans and have fully student determined rooms. 

So here is the challenge with fully student determined rooms. As I mentioned before, they are more likely to cluster together and be disruptive. However when it is done well they seem to improve their academic outcomes. Students feel less anxious, they feel more connected and productive in their environment.  So how could you let students have a choice without it turning into chaos?

Here is the key. If giving students the choice is important to you or something you have to do because of your school’s expectations, then you need to be completely upfront with the students, so that you as the teacher get to determine if their choice is a good one for the classroom environment. As long as you are upfront and let them know that their choice is not final, their choice is not unmovable, that you are still the person who is responsible for the class and the person that decides what is appropriate and what is not, then you will likely have less argument.

If you find yourself having to move students, this is what I suggest. What I often do with a new class is, I just say, “Sit wherever you like and I will give you one week to show me that you have picked a good seat. After that week, I will start making changes.” Because I have been upfront about it, most of the time I do not get a lot of complaints. Sometimes I might get a small complaint but I say, “I gave you a week and told you that I would change it if it was not a good seat, so I think you would be better sitting over here because you are being too disruptive in this seat.” As long as you are really upfront about your ability to change the seating if it is necessary, you will get less pushback.

On the flip side, if you let kids sit willy-nilly wherever they want and they do not know at the outset that you get the final say, then things will tend to escalate. There will be more arguments, more non-compliance, more disruption and more distraction. 

So these are the two opposite ends- create a seating plan or do not create a seating plan, it is up to you. Either way I think you need to be the arbiter in it. You need to be the person that makes the final decision, you need to be really clear at the outset about that with every class that you have. 

I hope that was really helpful for you, as we begin a new year, many new teachers do not know whether the seating plans are appropriate. I personally think they are great and I would encourage you to experiment with them if you never have. If you are going into a school that does not have them, well that is ok,  just make sure they know that you still have the final say.

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