An Assigned Seating Arrangement Based on Students’ Performance: A Critical Review

Abstract

Classroom learning is one of the best times for students to be engaged in learning. As face-to-face sessions allow students to ask questions directly to the facilitator, a conducive learning environment helps to promote students’ learning. This work in progress attempts to examine the seating arrangement of students in the classroom and its potential to improve students’ learning. It is argued that seating arrangements based on students’ academic record in the previous semester will help to enhance their participation and learning in the classrooms. As a work in progress, data presented in this paper derived from reviews of relevant documents and preliminary observations in classroom sessions. Informal semi structured interviews were also conducted with five students who were involved in the sessions. It can be concluded that students have positive views about the assigned seating arrangements. As the process of collecting data is still ongoing within the next two semesters, the researcher aims to present a solid pedagogical approach to teaching students of the defence university.

Keywords: seating arrangement, pedagogy, classroom learning, National Defence University of Malaysia