The impact of classroom settings on students' seat-selection and academic performance

Abstract

Lack of proper architectural factors based on students' viewpoint has created various unpleasant situations within the academic environment. The purpose of this inquiry is to investigate how classroom physical setting impacts learners' seat-selection to enhance their performance according to gender; furthermore, path model was generated to verify the influence of achievement motivation and architectural features on learners' performance. A quantitative method was employed to achieve learners' requirements from 370 public high school students in Shiraz, Iran. Based on cluster sampling, 165 girls and 205 boys were selected from thirteen high schools. The first questionnaire comprised five-point Likert-type scales evaluating classroom architectural items in traditional row and column seating arrangement. A second student evaluation was carried out through achievement motivation survey. The results indicated that semi-flexible features such as a subscale of Direct-Architectural elements could influence student performance in boys group during their seat-selection. According to Indirect-Architectural elements, visual factor and aural factor were emphasized as effective features on learners' performance in terms of seating given by boy and girl students, respectively. Consequently, the effect of achievement motivation and Direct-Architectural elements on learner performance was approved by the fitness indices of path model and Indirect-Architectural elements acted as a mediator factor.