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Abstract
This study aims at quantifying the relationship between the marks of students and their seating position in the classroom. The study is cross-sectional, quantitative, observational, and correlational. It analyzed data collected throughout two academic years about the students' marks (in different terms, courses, and degrees) and about their daily seating position (so, every change was recorded) for both theory and practice lessons. The quantitative data collected in the study was statistically analyzed. The main result is that the seating position is significantly correlated with the marks in the studied context (engineering schools with classrooms with 5-66 students). Other side results show a positive influence on marks of working alone with respect to sharing the computer with a classmate; indicate where do students who give up the course usually sit, and when in the academic term do, they give up. This article provides empirical data with regards to the relation between classroom seating and academic performance in engineering schools. The results obtained quantify this relation, but they cannot determine whether it is causal, consequential, or both. This study complements other studies that correlated motivation with seating preferences.
Keywords
Classroom seating • learning • evaluation • classroom • marks
It is a common belief that the back rows (or also those seats near the exit door) of a classroom are often occupied by those students less interactive or less interested in the subject, while front rows are occupied by the best students (Kregenow, Roger, & Price 2011; Marshall & Losonczy-Marshall, 2010; Zomorodian et al., 2012). This study aims at quantifying the relation between seating position and marks in the context of engineering education. In particular, this work studies whether there exists a correlation between the seats chosen by students and their marks, and it quantifies this relation (e.g., the average difference between the marks of the back rows and front-rows students). Additionally, the collected data is used to perform other complementary analyses related to attendance habits.
State-of-the-Art
Traditionally, students choose where they sit, and this election has been often ignored even in active learning methodologies. This is surprising because there exist several studies that strongly correlate the seating position of a student with his final mark (Miura & Sugihara, 2011; Vander Schee, 2011). Most of...