Media, Strategies, & Methods

Seating Arrangements

Related Resources

Learning Environment Design Framework
Instructional Design Toolkit

ISD Concept Map
ISD Concept Map

Classroom Seating Design

The U-shaped design is probably the most common seating arrangement even though it dos have a certain formality about it

 

Training Room Design — Seating Arrangements

Even if the activities of the learning session do not require changing the seating rearrangements, there are several reasons to do so:

The following seating designs list some of the pros and cons of different learning rooms (Laird, 1985).

Note: In the following seating arrangements, 0 = the learners, x = the trainer, and -- equals a table.

Traditional Seating


               x
          O O O O O O O
          O O O O O O O
          O O O O O O O
          O O O O O O O
          O O O O O O O

Modified Traditional 


                      X
              O O O O   O O O O
             O O O O     O O O O
            O O O O       O O O O
           O O O O         O O O O
          O O O O           O O O O

Horseshoe


              X
          O       O
          O       O
          O       O
          O O O O O

Modular



               O                     O
              ----      ----       ----
            O |  | O    |  |O    O |  | O
            O |  |    O |  |O      |  | O
              ----      ----       ---- 
                          0
                   X

              ----      ----
            O |  |O   O |  | O
            O |  |    O |  | O
              ----      ----
                O

Circle



              O  O
            O      X
           O        O
           O        O
            O      O
              O  O 
   

Square

 
                Solid         Hole in middle  
     
                O O O O            O X O O
              ----------          ----------
            O |        | O      O | ------ | O
            O |        | O      O | |    | | O
            O |        | O      O | |    | | O
            O |        | X      O | ------ | O
              ----------          ----------
                O O O O             O O O O
    

Rectangle



              O  O  O  O  O 
            ----------------
          O |               | O
          O |               | O
            ----------------
              O  O  x  O  O

Scatter-Shot


    
              O O    x      O
               O       O   O O
                  O   O O         O
                 O O       O     O O 
                          O O
   

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Reference

Laird, Dugan (1985). Approaches To Training And Development. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.