Proper Arrangement Of Classroom Space Is Important To Encouraging Interaction

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Proper arrangement of classroom space is important to encouraging interaction. Most of us have noticed how important physical setting is to efficiency and comfort in our work. Today's corporations hire human engineering specialists and spend a considerable amount of time and money to make sure that the physical environments of buildings are fit for the activities of their inhabitants.

Similarly, college classroom space should be designed to encourage the activity of critical thinking. We may be approaching the twenty- first century, but step into almost any college classroom and you step back in time at least a hundred years. Desks are normally in straight rows, so students can clearly see the teacher but not all their classmates. The assumption behind such an arrangement ...
... is obvious: Everything of importance comes from the teacher.

With a little imagination and effort, unless desks are fixed to the floor, the teacher can correct this situation and create space that encourages interchange among students. In small or standardsize classes, chairs, desks, and tables can be arranged in a variety of ways: circles, U-shapes, or semicircles. The primary goal should be for everyone to be able to see everyone else. Larger classes, particularly those held in lecture halls, unfortunately, allow much less flexibility.

Arrangement of the classroom should also make it easy to divide students into small groups for discussion or problem-solving exercises. Small classes with movable desks and tables present no problem. Even in large lecture halls, it is possible for students to turn around and form groups of four to six . Breaking a class into small groups provides more opportunities for students to interact with each other, think out loud, and see how other students' thinking processes operate — all essential elements in developing new modes of critical thinking.

In courses that regularly use a small group format, students might be asked to stay in the same small groups throughout the course. A colleague of mine allows students to move around during the first two weeks, until they find a group they are comfortable with. He then asks them to stay in the same seat, with the same group, from that time on. This not anly creates a comfortable setting for interaction but helps him learn students' names and faces.