Organisation of classroom effects the behavior of students. The magnitude of students’ focus and concentration on the lessons, whether they will be working individually or in teams, will also need to be taken into consideration while organising a class.
Teachers usually start the school year with a particular classroom layout; however, throughout the year, alterations are performed to satisfy different learning goals.
There are several classroom layouts to pick from, so the most frequent question is, “Which layout would be effective for my class?”
To assist you, we have discussed four major layouts below.
Row & Columns:
This is the classic classroom arrangement for conventional teaching styles. All students face the front and teachers can provide attention with reasonable comfort to the whole class at a time.
Tables are positioned in a manner that allows the teacher to manoeuver between all students to assure all can receive help and keep an eye on the troublemakers.
It is imperative for the teacher’s worktable to be positioned in an area where all students’ tables can be viewed. Despite the fact that this arrangement uses considerable less amount of space, team works will usually require students changing their seating positions, which may cause unwanted disturbance.
'U' Style / Horseshoe:
The horseshoe design provides substantial visibility of the central whiteboard/blackboard to students. Tables are positioned in a wide horseshoe shape, a layout to stimulate group discussion with a persistent line of sight to the teacher. This leads to a sense of togetherness that is essential to encourage students to learn.
However, the primary disadvantage of implementing this layout is space. It requires a big classroom unless two horseshoe styles are put together to construct a layout as shown below.
Modular:
This layout is generally used for classes where student interaction among each other is particularly essential. For sessions involving teamwork, it is useful to arrange tables at which four or five students can sit, to promote the easy formation of the small teams from the start of the class.
The layout is great for teamwork, and individuals of every team can be influenced to enhance communication between students who would not usually work together and allows the teacher to assist individuals and small teams. Since each block of tables is dispersed, there is also less disturbance between teams.
One complication of this layout is that students may converse on irrelevant topics with the others in their team that might lead them to become unproductive. Nevertheless, this is can be resolved by the teacher regularly visiting each table.
Outer:
The primary objective of the outer design is to motivate every student to participate in discussions. This is convenient for informal teaching between teacher
and students, for example, for a quiz or a learning game. The explicit benefit is that everyone can see each other and discuss, however it may hinder concentration and focus of some students.
The disadvantage of this design is that some pupils will unavoidably end up having their back facing the board that may be ineffective for certain lessons. Moreover, it is strenuous for the teacher to have eye contact with everyone without continuous patrolling around the room or constantly turning if he or she is standing within the square.
The setup of the classroom is a very significant part to determine how effectively and efficiently the students will learn and interact with their peers and their teacher. If a classroom is disorderly and clustered, it will be difficult for a student to learn and acquire new skills. In addition, the teacher needs to take time to ensure his/her room is set up for learning because no matter how well prepared lesson plans are if the students do not feel comfortable in the classroom, learning will not be entirely efficient and effective.
I hope that by now you have some insight of the classroom layout design for your classroom.