Statistical Seating Chart

I just came across this in this weeks issue (May 2, 2005) of the TeAchnology.com newsletter.

Darren Kuropatwa

Our Latest Teaching Idea that Worked! "The Ultimate Seating Chart!" By: Gary Nelson, Science Teacher

As a rule of thumb, I always seat students in alphabetic order at the beginning of the year. This usually insures that there is a good mix of students. Friends who would distract each other during lessons are not placed near each other.

My advanced class has been asking all year if they could sit next to their friends. I never give in, but this year I came up with a plan. I agreed to allow students to sit in any seat they wanted as long as they agreed that we would compare the academic achievement of all students before and after the seating change. If their was a measurable improvement, we would continue with this new seating arraignment. Students also agreed that if there was a measurable decline in performance, the seating arraignment would be changed to a system that should statistically improve grades by separating talkers.

We did change the seats to allow students to sit where they wanted and there was a moderate decline in academic performance. In fact, we made this into a lab activity. I then asked students to discuss and decide on a plan of corrective action.

Over the course of 2 class periods, we came up with a great system. We created a scale to rate students based on distractibility with a 4 equal to the most distractible students and a 1 equal to the least distractible student. Students graded themselves and their individual classmates. We then averaged these numbers. We mathematically placed students in seating arraignments so that high numbers were surrounded by low numbers. I'm happy to report the grades are back up and my students pondered themselves objectively for the first time in many of their lives. They really enjoyed this.