Psychological & Quantitative Foundations

Researching Classroom Seating Arrangements

Remember your elementary school teacher who put Susie, "The Problem Child," in the front row so she wouldn't distract the other children? Or your high school history teacher who never called on anyone beyond row three, regardless of whom else had their hands up? There's no doubt seating arrangements in classrooms both reflect and influence a teacher's ability to organize, inform, inspire, and control the children in their classes. But as a team of Eastern Iowa education researchers has shown, good teachers understand that different seating arrangements can serve particular purposes at various moments in the teaching day.

Along with two school psychologists and an elementary school counselor, School Psychology Associate Professor Kit Gerken has studied the effects of seating arrangements in 294 regular Cedar Rapids elementary school classrooms. The study's principle investigator was James Patton, school psychologist with the Grant Wood Area Education Agency, site supervisor for many University of Iowa school psychology interns, and former lecturer at the University. The research, which replicated a study conducted by Patton, Gerken, and others 12 years earlier, involved actually mapping classroom seating arrangements as well as interviewing teachers about when and why they organized children in particular patterns.

"There's no one right, all-purpose way to arrange students," Gerken said, "and depending on what they are trying to accomplish, teachers often use different seating arrangements during any one day."

The new study, however, found a dramatic decline in the percentage of teacher preference for row seating during the last dozen years. According to the team's 1989 study, 44 percent of K-6 classrooms in Cedar Rapids used row seating. The most recent survey found that number had dropped to 13 percent.

"The teachers we surveyed," Patton said, "appear to believe that 'cluster' seating designs are preferable to 'row' and 'perimeter' designs because clusters foster cooperative learning."

In a more recent study, Patton found that elementary students are much less likely to agree with their teachers' assessment of the benefits of cluster seating arrangements. "Many of the surveyed students judged 'rows' and 'perimeters' as optimal for learning," Patton said, "because those arrangements were perceived to reduce distractions and provide a clearer view of teachers."

Teachers do understand the positive attributes of both row and cluster arrangements. Rows, of course, minimize distractions, encourage students to look at the teacher, and enhance the uniform learning of informational material such as the rules for fire drills. On the other hand, cluster seating enables more cooperative, self-directed learning and can encourage self-confidence, creativity, and acceptance of diversity.

"Neither approach is magic," Gerken said. "Regardless of how children are seated, teachers must monitor and manage the learning process." -by Jean Florman

Altmaier Recognized For Contributions To Counseling Health Psychology

Professor Elizabeth "Betsy" Altmaier received the prestigious Dorothy Booz Black Award for Outstanding Achievement in Counseling Health Psychology.

Given by Division 17 of the national American Psychological Association (APA), the award encourages and recognizes outstanding research and practice in counseling health psychology for those who have made a primary contribution in research and practice of counseling health psychology focused on health-related processes and outcomes.
Altmaier's research focuses on the psychosocial sequelae of bone marrow transplant treatment.

"I explore what psychological and social complications ensue from such treatment and look at how people work to solve those problems," said Altmaier, a licensed psychologist.

Altmaier was named an APA Fellow in 1986, and in 1994 the national APA recognized her for making a "distinguished contribution to education and training in psychology." She is currently serving as editor of the APA's Clinician's Research Digest.

She has published or been co-author or editor of numerous articles, chapters and books on a wide range of topics, among them helping students manage stress, intervention in occupational stress, setting standards in graduate education in psychology, children and life-threatening illnesses and counseling cancer patients, minority students and the hearing impaired. -by Stephen Pradarelli