Classroom Seating Arrangements

The traditional lecture setup consists of rows of fixed seating. Students face the instructor with their backs to one another. This classroom seating arrangement is historically common in colleges and universities, minimizing student-student communication and largely supporting lecture style classes. Students in the first row or along the middle of the classroom are most likely to communicate and interact with the professor. Students in back rows are less likely to be engaged.

Many seminar classes adopt the roundtable seating arrangement, in which the instructor and students sit around a single large table. This seating arrangement can also be formed using individual desks. Students and instructors all face one another in this setup, which can support whole-class as well as partner dialogue.

The horseshoe or semi-circle arrangement offers a modified roundtable setup, where all participants face each other while the instructor can move around the room. The horseshoe encourages discussion between students and with the instructor, although this setup tends to encourage more engagement between the instructor and students directly opposite, with slightly lesser amounts for students immediately adjacent to the instructor. A horseshoe setup can be particularly effective when the instructor wishes to project and discuss course-related material in the front of the class.

This seating arrangement involves an inner and outer horseshoe. Similar to the conventional horseshoe, the double horseshoe arrangement invites greater discussion than the traditional format. It is somewhat limited by the backs of students within the inner circle facing students in the outer circle. However, students may also more easily interact with those nearest to them or turn around and face students behind them for group work. This seating arrangement can typically also accommodate larger class sizes than the conventional horseshoe or roundtable.

The group or pair pod arrangement can be designed with rectangular, circular or trapezoidal tables, or individual desks. Instructors can place several tables together to form pairs or student groups of three or four. This arrangement can be especially advantageous when students work collaboratively for a large portion of class time. More generally, this arrangement communicates a learning community where students are expected to work with one another.

Instructors can consider booking spaces at Yale where the furniture setup closely aligns with course goals. Specific features and pictures of Yale classrooms can be found at classrooms.yale.edu.

Instructors are encouraged to align the classroom seating arrangement to the goals of instruction. For instance, classes involving group work might utilize group pods, while whole class discussion might benefit from a roundtable or horseshoe arrangement. Instructors can also strategically change arrangements during class to suit shifting learning goals.

When dynamic change to seating arrangements proves difficult, instructors can bolster the physical space through intentional engagement. For example, in a typical horseshoe arrangement where students along the sides may experience less attention, an instructor may be more deliberate in their interactions with those learners. In a traditional classroom setup where the instructor cannot change the seating arrangements, they can maximize student engagement by implementing Think-Pair-Share or other active learning activities conducive to students working with a neighbor. They can also encourage student groups to work in other spaces of the classroom as needed (e.g. on the steps, front of the room, etc.).

To the extent possible, an instructor can designate time for setting up the classroom and/or can ask students to help. If there is no class immediately before, this can be done prior to class, or alternatively during the first few minutes. Similar consideration should be given to resetting the room after class ends.

Fernandez, A.C., Huang, J., & Rinaldo, V. (2011). Does Where a Student Sits Really Matter? The Impact on Seating Locations on Student Classroom Learning. International Journal of Applied Educational Studies 10(1).

Gao, N., Rahaman, M. S., Shao, W., Ji, K., & Salim, F. D. (2022). Individual and group-wise classroom seating experience: Effects on student engagement in different courses. Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies 6(3), 1-23.

Marx, A., Fuhrer, U. & Hartig, T. Effects of Classroom Seating Arrangements on Children’s question-asking. Learning Environments Research 2, 249–263 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009901922191

Wannarka, R., & Ruhl, K. (2008). Seating arrangements that promote positive academic and behavioural outcomes: A review of empirical research. Support for Learning 23(2), 89-93.

Yang, X., Zhou, X., & Hu, J. (2022). Students’ preferences for seating arrangements and their engagement in cooperative learning activities in college English blended learning classrooms in higher education. Higher Education Research & Development 41(4), 1356-1371.

1. Columbia University’s Center for Teaching and Learning has a resource on Teaching in Flexible Learning Spaces.
2. Edutopia has a useful guide on flexible classroom seating arrangements.