Tasks and tables: the effects of seating arrangements on task engagement in primary classrooms

Summary Large‐scale research programmes in primary schools have frequently identified a mismatch between classroom seating arrangements and the nature of pupils’ tasks. While children are typically seated in groups, their assigned tasks are generally individual. Intervention studies have consistently found that seating in rows for individual task work improves time spent on‐task. However, one weakness of these studies is that novelty could account for all or part of the improvement rather than the seating arrangements per se. In the first study reported here, an attempt was made to test the novelty hypothesis. Two primary classes, neither of which normally sat in groups or rows for individual task work, took part. In parallel ABA designs, one class moved from rows to groups to rows and the other from groups to rows to groups. In both classes, on‐task behaviour was higher in the rows arrangement, with the effect being most marked for children who were least on‐task when seated in groups. A second study, designed to increase the time on‐task of three individually disruptive pupils and employing seating in rows for individual task work, produced a similar pattern of outcomes: class mean time on‐task increased substantially, while the time on‐task of the three target pupils increased dramatically. The implications of these findings are discussed.