Following the two weeks in which the Algebra I and Algebra II students were seated in self-selected pairs, another survey was distributed as a warm-up activity. The last survey was distributed after a week of sitting in the U-Shape arrangement, and I felt that this amount of time was slightly too short to achieve a deep understanding of how the students felt about their participation and collaboration in this setting. In order to give myself a full understanding of the impact of these seats, I asked the students an additional question in this survey to have a better sense of how this arrangement compared to both the U-Shape arrangement and the Groups of 4. The questions were presented to students through the class Canvas site as follows:
Answer the following questions and provide an explanation:
1. With 1 being “very difficult” and 5 being “very easy”, how easily does this arrangement allow you to
- collaborate with your classmates?
-participate in classwork and discussions?
2. How do you think sitting in pairs has affected your participation compared to
-sitting in groups of 4?
-sitting in the U-shape?
I found that most students, with the exception of a few, said that they believed this arrangement made it easy for them to both collaborate and participate with their classmates (rated 4 or 5). One student justified his rating of a 5 for both collaboration and participation by saying that “[the pairs] allows for everybody to have someone to work with, we can all see the board and therefore actively participate.” Something that this arrangement did that the other two did not was ensure that all students were facing directly forwards towards the board; therefore, I found that I very much agreed with this student’s reflection in terms of the participation I saw from each student.
During their time in this arrangement, I noted that I could very easily access each student in this arrangement due to the aisles that existed between each column of pairs. I could easily check in with a single pair, or even a few sets of pairs, by addressing them on either side. While the students were seated in Groups of 4, I would check in with the entire group more so than I would work with a student one-on-one. One downside of this small group check-in was that I could not fully pinpoint where each student stood in terms of their individual understanding. At times, one student served as the spokesperson of the group and answered many of the questions I asked. The responses showed a trend in increased student confidence in whole group participation; one student in particular compared the arrangements by how well they met her individual learning needs, “I think that the U-Shape and pairs helps me the most. I participate more, while sitting in a group of 4 distracts me from the class. I have noticed a difference on my comprehension during class.”
Answer the following questions and provide an explanation:
1. With 1 being “very difficult” and 5 being “very easy”, how easily does this arrangement allow you to
- collaborate with your classmates?
-participate in classwork and discussions?
2. How do you think sitting in pairs has affected your participation compared to
-sitting in groups of 4?
-sitting in the U-shape?
I found that most students, with the exception of a few, said that they believed this arrangement made it easy for them to both collaborate and participate with their classmates (rated 4 or 5). One student justified his rating of a 5 for both collaboration and participation by saying that “[the pairs] allows for everybody to have someone to work with, we can all see the board and therefore actively participate.” Something that this arrangement did that the other two did not was ensure that all students were facing directly forwards towards the board; therefore, I found that I very much agreed with this student’s reflection in terms of the participation I saw from each student.
During their time in this arrangement, I noted that I could very easily access each student in this arrangement due to the aisles that existed between each column of pairs. I could easily check in with a single pair, or even a few sets of pairs, by addressing them on either side. While the students were seated in Groups of 4, I would check in with the entire group more so than I would work with a student one-on-one. One downside of this small group check-in was that I could not fully pinpoint where each student stood in terms of their individual understanding. At times, one student served as the spokesperson of the group and answered many of the questions I asked. The responses showed a trend in increased student confidence in whole group participation; one student in particular compared the arrangements by how well they met her individual learning needs, “I think that the U-Shape and pairs helps me the most. I participate more, while sitting in a group of 4 distracts me from the class. I have noticed a difference on my comprehension during class.”