I think I'm switching gears. Teacher student warmth is subjective and does not sit quite right with me. BUT for my group's presentation, we had an article on desk arrangement. I think this is so interesting. It is still related to the dynamics of the classroom. I think a good question could be, "Does a student's placement (desk location) in the classroom effect his or her achievement?"
I think it could be a good qualitative study by simply interviewing teachers. I am most interested in how students can be maximally engaged in the classroom. The interview questions could be geared towards this. What seating arrangements do you feel maximize the classroom experience for all students? With or without this ideal, are there areas of the classroom seem to produce more attentive students? Do you take this into account when/if you assign seats? Are the high performers in a class clustered in any particular area (front/middle/back/corner etc)?
I guess it would also be possible to do a narrative study on a few students. Ideally, they would have a variety of seating situations in their classrooms. I could ask them a number of questions about their experiences in those classes. This might be too detailed, but I remember science classes in high school having lab tables most of the time (rather than traditional desks). These were sometimes mixed in with sinks used for lab. Does this effect students' ability to remain engaged? How about high stools vs. lower tables when your feet can touch the floor.
I'm not sure if the student perspective or the teacher perspective would be more beneficial. Anyone? I feel like I'm not getting anywhere.
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Since science typically involves labs or inquiry activities, would you consider researching cooperative learning groups rather than seating arrangements? Many of my student teachers ask me how they should group students (i.e. ability, friends, random, etc.). I always suggest that it depends on their lesson, but I haven't read much research on the reasons or purposes behind how to group students.
Personally, I regrouped my students for every unit. I had one unit that I grouped based on ability because the project had different levels. The rest of the time I grouped randomly. Never purposefully by friends; however, this often happened. I shared control with students. I decided what four students would sit together, but they could decide where at that table they sat.
Johnson & Johnson (not the company, the brothers) are the "experts" on cooperative learning. Paul Vermette wrote a book titled "Making Cooperative Learning Work: Student Teams in k-12 Classrooms." This book gives a review of much of the literature on cooperative learning. If you can't find the book, you should be able to request a copy through inter library loan, or I can loan you my copy in August should you decide on this topic.
I think that desk arrangement is a really neat topic, I too liked your presentation on it. I know that students tend to lost in certain parts of the classroom. I also know that when I came to college all of my high school teachers told me to sit in the center towards the front because thats where the professors would center their attention the most. So I think that either interviewing teachers and students would be a great idea. On a different note I always found that letting students pick their own seats was problematic, yet sometimes beneficial. Maybe that could be some area of interest since it is related to the topic.
Kristy, I am not too excited about your seat arrangement idea. I am more interested in instruction than in furniture. I don't know if you like JP's cooperative learning idea. Why don't you look at the science education literature and see if you can come up with a topic based on instructional methods..... We can meet in the next couple of days if you wish....
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