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Dating back to the mid-19th century, traditional classroom design encourages teacher-centered pedagogy. However, significant changes in pedagogy, technology, and children's daily activity levels require new models of classroom design for the 21st century. Flexible seating recently has emerged as a way to address the pedagogical, cognitive, and physical needs of children through reconceptualization of the learning space. Although most studies have examined classroom seating through the theoretical lens of environmental-behavioral design from a quantitative research approach the present study analyzed third-grade students' and teacher perceptions of flexible seating from a qualitative research approach. Convenience sampling was utilized and third-grade students (/7 = 21) in addition to their teacher were interviewed to gamer their perceptions of flexible seating. Additionally, field observations were conducted to explore further the phenomenon under study-flexible seating. Overall themes emerged from the data and were categorized as follows: (a) positive perceptions of the classroom enviromnent and teacher, (b) self-identified engagement, and (c) discovering flexibility with flexible seating. Findings suggest that addressing all students' needs with regard to the types of flexible seating offered within the classroom might be critical to its success. Ultimately, when flexible seating is implemented with a more student-centered approach and it is undertaken with the children as opposed to for them, then positive outcomes have the opportunity to prevail.
Keywords: flexible seating, learning space, classroom design, children's perceptions, physical enviromnent
The traditional classroom design is perceived by 21st century students as a passive and inflexible enviromnent (Kuuskorpi & Gonzalez, 2011). This notion is precipitated by a shift in pedagogical methods over the past two decades that have moved from teacher-centered to more student-centered (Smart. Witt. & Scott. 2012). Subsequently, a reevaluation of classroom design that parallels new methods to meet students' individual needs is essential. Although the physical enviromnent alone does not make a 21st century school, research indicates that the quality of where children learn affects the quality of how they learn (Barrett. Zhang, Moffat. & Kobbacy. 2013). Despite recent research on the effectiveness of newly designed learning spaces (Blackmore. Bateman, Loughlin. O'Mara. & Aranda. 2011; Granito & Santana. 2016), there is minimal qualitative research on elementary children's and teachers' perceptions of flexible seating as an alternative to the traditional classroom design within the context of...