As my inquiry progressed, I wanted to ensure that my students had input into my exploration. I believed student voice was such a critical part of the learning process, so I wanted to receive individual insight into their opinions of each seating arrangement and how it either helped or hindered their learning in class. After a week of trying out the U-Shape seating arrangement with the Algebra I class, I wanted to check in with the students to see how they felt in their new seats. In order to get a sense of how my students were feeling, I asked the students two additional questions to submit with their warm-up. They were as follows:
1. How do you like the U-Shape arrangement?
2. With 1 being “very difficult” and 5 being “very easy,” how easy does this arrangement allow you to
a. collaborate with your classmates?
b. participate in classwork and discussions?
1. How do you like the U-Shape arrangement?
2. With 1 being “very difficult” and 5 being “very easy,” how easy does this arrangement allow you to
a. collaborate with your classmates?
b. participate in classwork and discussions?
Student submitted their responses electronically and a sample can be seen to the right. I also informed them that they should try to be as honest as possible, even if this included any negative feelings towards this arrangement. By including this reflection piece as a part of the daily warm-up, I aimed to create a low-stakes task that allowed for students to express their true thoughts without any feelings of being “wrong” since their response would not impact them in any way. The inclusion of this reflective piece was intended to not only help me gain a student perspective to accompany my observations, but it would also bring awareness to the students themselves. Lew and Schmidt assert that student reflection enables students to see their own behaviors in the classroom. By incorporating reflection, students will be able to analyze their individual participation and collaboration in the U-Shape arrangement and think more deeply about why that may have been the case.
I was pleasantly surprised to see just how many students felt that this seating change was very positive for them and their learning; only a few students said that they had neutral or negative feelings sitting in this arrangement. I thought some of the more detailed feedback from the students was very helpful to see. Several students commented that they found this arrangement gave them more space to work and allowed them to see more of their classmates; however, a downside was that this arrangement limited collaboration to those students on the same side of the classroom. I found these specific comments would be helpful in guiding my teaching strategies for the remaining time the students were seated this way. If I hoped to have students engage with me as the teacher but even more so with each other, I needed to provide them with avenues to do so.
Several activities the students were tasked with that particular week prompted them to brainstorm and work with their peers seated around them in either collaborative pairs or small groups. I noticed a trend of students working with those immediately next to them, with a few students occasionally turning to include those seated behind them. So far, I felt that the level of collaboration remained constant in this new arrangement, but the students who collaborated together altered slightly; students who did not normally collaborate together asked questions of each other and used each other as a sounding board for ideas.
Several activities the students were tasked with that particular week prompted them to brainstorm and work with their peers seated around them in either collaborative pairs or small groups. I noticed a trend of students working with those immediately next to them, with a few students occasionally turning to include those seated behind them. So far, I felt that the level of collaboration remained constant in this new arrangement, but the students who collaborated together altered slightly; students who did not normally collaborate together asked questions of each other and used each other as a sounding board for ideas.