Classroom and the Library
The college student comes in contact with examples of how a classroom layout can influence where people sit and how they interact. In a circle students tend to leave one or two seats vacant on either side of the instructor thus "isolating" him. In a classroom where the seats are arranged in a square or rectangle students generally sit in the back of the room if the instructor is near the front row. They tend to move toward the front when the instructor is farther away. When seats are arranged in a semicircle, the students sit to the side of one seat off center rather than in the center line in front of the instructor. In small seminar situations more people will interact verbally when seated around a diamond-shaped table than if the table is round or rectangular, provided the instructor does not sit in an end seat.
Studies with grade school children snow that first graders behave differently under changed seating arrangements. When the traditional rows of desks are used and the teacher is up front, there is relatively little communication among the students. This teachercentered spatial arrangement impedes natural communication between pupils in different parts of the room. It encourages shy children to be inarticulate and to rely on the teacher to be their interpreter. When desks are arranged in a hollow rectangle, there is more first· grader interaction. The situation is like that of a public lecture, in which adult discussion can be facilitated by the simple expedient of rearranging the seating pattern so that the usual rows of chairs faCing the speaker give way to some kind of semicircular or horseshoe arrangement. A controlled study showed that children, studying poetry
talk more about it when the lesson is held in the library, with books around, than they will in an ordinary classroom ..
In one college setting with graduate students it was found that when a 20 x 20 foot lounge was used as a seminar setting, there was more, and less formal, interaction with the instructor than when the same size room equipped with a rectangular table was used. These two settings were next door to each other. In a series of observations with twelve male adolescents (chosen because they were uncooperative. noisy, and outspoken) seated in a crowded room with desks fastened down in rows it was found that there was more class horseplay than when the same group sat around tables in such a way that the two most difficult members were separated. Adolescehts who were used to boisterous behavior in a given spatial setting calmed down when put into a new physical setting, but gradually came back to their original behavior after they became used to the new arrangements. It may be that change itself is a part of the picture and spatial arrangements alone are not enough. As many homemakers will attest: "I just feel better when I move the furniture around from time to time."
The college library offers a good physical setting for "people watching." And formal studies probably highlight some of the things most of us have observed about our own library situations. A few things are noteworthy since we observe them over and over again. Where do people sit when they go to the library? First, most library users want privacy, and they seek it more by avoidance procedures than by offensive display. And it may not come as a surprise that most students go to the library to study their own materials rather than to use library books. A few, of course, seek private spots to have dates (see page 34). Second, people who come to the library alone prefer to si't alone. In one well-used room containing thirty-three small rectangular tables, each with four chairs on either si.de, Jistinct patterns emerged. When room density reached one person per table, the next person chose to sit in a diagonally opposite seat. At zero density the first occupants tended to sit one per table at an end chair. When one person occupies an end chair, the next person sat at the far end or in the middle of the table.
One study showed that when two people entered a library together conversing, 82 percent of them sat down side by side; 12 percent seated ihemselves directly across from one another; and only 6 percent sought more privacy. Library users employ various means of staking out their territory by leaving clothing, books, or personal belongings in "their" space. Surveys show that library room capacity is lG'.vered by empty chairs staked out by students and faculty occupied elsewhere
