The Effect of Seating Area on Teens Performance During Class

El Modena family resource center, which is a nonprofit organization helps out the community of people and their families who are in need of help. For instance, some of the things that they provide are: helping individuals with their taxation, food program/food bank, classes and foods for senior citizens, YMCA, and summer teen program. Notably, this is my field study placement site that I have relied to for conducting my observations and coming out with results regarding my current study’s topic. The current study is intended to determine whether or not student’s seating area has an overall effect on their performance in class. The observations made at El Modena Family Resource Center is on 12 to 14 students in their teen years from the ages of 13 to 18. The observations mainly focused on determining the behaviors of the students from my field study site. Such behaviors included the student’s choice of seating, choice of participation, and their use of electronic devices. However, the results were similar to that off my articles and the media that is provided in the next few paragraphs.

In the first article, Halfen et al. (2014) examined 186 students at the University of Kansas to evaluate the effect of student’s learning outcomes based on where they choose to sit. Notably, this study took place in an introductory physical geography class in which the professor’s teaching style was using interactive globe imagery and 3-D diagrams. Yet, the main issue that goes with the interactive learning experience has to do with where the students’ sit and whether they get the complete advantages of the experience. Thus, for students to receive the full advantages of the experience the THX company advised that they should be placed within 30 degrees, maximum of 45 degrees, right or left of the stereoscopic display. Those who sat within the advised proximity as stated by THX company scored higher than those who were not. Moreover, this study found that those students who sat within close proximity of the stereoscopic display had in fact higher scores in exams than those who sat outside of the stereoscopic display. Thus, where a student chooses to sit in a class will in fact heavily influence how they will do in those classes and the grades in which they will get. Those who sit closer to the display would get higher grades, mostly A’s than those who would sit further back.

In contrast to the study conducted by Halfen et al. (2014), Benedict and Hoag (2004) allowed students to choose where they would sit in the class and then they examined how their decisions would affect their overall class performance. This study took place in Bowling Green University (GBUS) in two large lecture classrooms, macro- and microeconomics, which both were utilized to gather input on the overall attributed of students and their choice of seating area (Benedict & Hoag, 2014). Nevertheless, for the purpose of the study, they divided the class into three different sections: front, middle, and back. The students would then select their own seating location and seating charts were made with regards to their seating decisions. Notably, those who entered the lecture hall early than others had a superior chance of choosing their preferred seat rather than those who came to class late. At the end of the semester they survey students about their seating preference. The questions they included was regarded to the students’ college entrance exam score, academic performance, and lastly their college affiliation that was verified by the registrar’s office. As a result, they found a strong relationship between seating preference and the students’ performance in the class. For instance, they found that those who preferred to sit in the front of the lecture hall had an 8.7% increase in receiving an A and those who choose to sit in the back had an 6.8% reduction in the probability of getting an A (Benedict & Hoag, 2004).

Furthermore, the third study was done in an extremely large introductory biology course at a large Southeastern University (Armstrong & Chang, 2007). Their aim was to inspect the relationship between their performance in classroom and seating location in multiple sections in this extremely large biology course. Interestingly enough, they found a very weak relationship between seating area and the students’ performance as well as that it only accounted “for less than 7% of the variation seen in” (Armstrong & Chang, 2007, p. 57) the students’ scores. In addition to that, they found that any relationship in which they observed with regards to students seating area and their test scores was mainly due to the students’ motivations and capabilities rather than the location of the seats. Yet, they noted that seating in the back of a large classroom necessarily does not negatively impact students’ grades. Also, they stated that stronger students are more likely than others to sit in the front of the class and thus participate more with the materials and the professor.

Additionally, what the researchers have shown in the media is consistent with the scientific journal articles that we have chosen. The media is consistent with the scientific journal articles in this manner that they all point out to the way the classroom is laid out, which could be either a normal classroom or a big lecture hall. Additionally, it states that certain seating arrangements might in fact encourage participation and that those who come early choose the seats in the front and those that come in late do not get the chance to choose where they would sit (Earp, 2017). Therefore, seating arrangements matter to students’ overall performance in the class and it usually consists of those students who come in early and sit in the front or in the middle of the classroom. Thus, if the student had no choice in choosing their own seating location then the teachers seating arrangement is going to point out to those who are going to participate based on where they get seated. Also, those who participated mostly were observed to be place in the “two ‘action zones’” (Earp, 2017) of the classroom rather than anywhere else.

Moreover, researchers have observed and found that those who come to class early not only have a better chance of choosing their desired seating (Benedict & Hoag, 2004). Nevertheless, they are also more likely to participate (Halfen et al., 2014) with the professor and the class materials. Interestingly enough, this is consistent with what I have seen and observed at my placement site. For instance, there are three of my teens in my program that always come 30 minutes prior to 1pm, which is when the teens program starts at and in fact they are the main three people out of a group of 14 who always participate and sit in the front. These three teenagers are more socially inclined and like to participate with us interns and the materials given to them by us during their class sessions. However, not only are they more likely to participate during class session, but they are also more likely to participate when taken to a fieldtrip and communicate more with me and the other intern.

In addition to that, it states in the scientific journal articles that those who sit in the front are more likely to get an A and understand the material better than those who sit in the back of the classroom (Benedict & Hoag, 2004). This is the same in either a classroom setting or in a lecture hall, which holds more body counts than an average classroom would. Equally so, this is accounted as true and accurate at my field placement site. For example, one day the teens had to watch the documentary on He Named Me Malala, which is about this Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai who spoke up against the Taliban and was shot in the head by them on in her school bus on the way back home from school. It then goes on to say how she became the global voice of children regarding their education rights. Thus, becoming the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. Once the documentary was done, the teens had to answer five questions which not only regarding what their stereotypes was, family values, and cultural values are, but also about what they learned overall from this documentary and how are they going to act on changing the world if they were to do so.

Also, what the media article have found is that seating arrangement in fact does really matter when accounting students’ participation, academic achievements, and their overall performance in school. In fact, the media article by Jo Earp (2017) has found that semicircle arrangement of the classroom in fact leads to more frequent asking questions instead of the row-and-columns arrangement (Earp, 2017). However, they have found that are “two ‘action zones’” (Earp, 2017), in which is shaped like a triangle or like a T (2017) in both of these arrangements, either semicircle or a row-and-columns arrangement. This is true to some matter at my placement site. For instance, whenever me and the other intern arranged the classroom tables and chairs in a semicircle or faced two tables to each other we ended up getting more responses and participation within the whole group. There would be more communication amongst the group members and once they were done discussing the subject matters of the day then they would decide who would talk for their group and each time it would be another person talking.

By all means, what I learned at my placement site is that just because some of the students sit in the front necessarily does not mean that they will be the ones participating. Interestingly enough, this study’s result was consistent with the data found in the scholarly journal article by Armstrong and Chang (2007). In fact, sometimes in my placement site has a lot to do with the teenager’s personalities than where they choose to sit in the class. For instance, it has a lot to do with if they are outgoing, like talking, and making friends or if they are an introvert and rather sit far back and not talk or only talk among their own clique. Yet, those who only talked among their own clique and would not participate when asked to do so were mostly consisted of boys rather than girls in my teenagers’ summer program. This is also consistent with most of the research that has been done on students’ choice of seating and their school performance.