Students who sit at the front of the lecture hall often seem more motivated and achieve better results - this is a common belief of both teachers and students, and several studies confirm it. At the same time, however, this is not always the case and there are other factors that determine which seat students choose and their study results that correlate with it. Besides, you obviously can't put all your students at the front, so how do you take that into account?
Perkins and Wieman (2005) examined the effect on students' results when they were placed in the front half or the back half of the lecture hall (via random placement by the lecturer). They concluded that this placement had a - albeit small - positive effect on their grades for assignments involving problem-solving. And strikingly, the positive effect persisted when the group seated at the front was placed at the back in the second half of the lecture series. Kalinowski and Toper (2007) repeated this experiment, but this showed no effect of the position. In their discussion about why, they mentioned the number of students, the nature of the course (acquiring knowledge or learning conceptual knowledge and procedures), the different degree of interactivity in the course, the layout of the room and more.
Smith, Hoare and Lacey, (2018) used questionnaires and censuses to investigate the characteristics of students and their position in the lecture hall. Firstly, students were found to often sit with their friends in groups. The groups are often scattered around the lecture hall. Secondly, it was found that students who want to interact with the lecturer, or are visually impaired, or hard of hearing, often sit at the front. Students who do not want to interact, choose a seat in the back. Thirdly, students who want to be able to leave quickly, were found to sit at the outer edges. Do you recognise this observation from your own teaching practice?
But what the study also showed is that the groups of students become similar within themselves in terms of performance. There is a kind of convergence effect. Indeed, there were found to be differences in mean scores between the groups on several tasks and significant differences for the higher scorers compared to the lower scorers.
Now that you know this, how can you apply this knowledge in your teaching?
- Tip 1: Engage with students about their position at the start of your course. Share what you know from research about the relationship of position and performance, and that you hope students themselves choose to come more to the front and mix more with other students. And ask students at the back and edges about their reasons for attending the lecture? Engage in conversation about study motivation, but that you will also give them everything to be a good lecturer for them. If students feel seen, perhaps they will feel more motivated.
- Tip 2: Make sure, of course, that your lecture or study group includes interactive moments that require students to engage with each other. Go through the possibilities for this with this database of interactive teaching techniques from the VU CTL Edudatabase, parts five and six.
- Tip 3: If you have students discuss in pairs, make sure students do not discuss with the person next to them, but in front or behind them. Chances are they will then speak to a student from another group.
- Tip 4: Go a step further and indicate that you will place the students in the room yourself: randomly, that is. This will take students a bit out of their comfort zone, and that can generate fresh energy. Especially if you use Mixed Classroom techniques. If you like this approach, repeat it again halfway through the course.
- Tip 5: Regularly rotate the seating positions in the lecture hall. Not everyone can sit at the front, but you can actively intervene.
Whichever option you choose, make sure you explain your choices clearly, so that students become more motivated, because they actually understand why you are applying it. It works best if you convey your method with conviction and enthusiasm.
Would you like to try to explore these interventions yourself? Please let us know. You might even want to apply for a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL).
Want to know more?
- Tip 2: An active learning assignment requires a safe learning climate
- Tip 5: Do you truly interact with your students in the lecture hall?
- Tip 19: How do you promote real learning during the lecture?
- Tip 22: How to create optimal bonding among students? (tip 3)
- Tip 48: How to set up the classroom for active learning?