Abstract:

There is evidence that classroom design influences the performance of university students. The most studied variables are those related to the definition of space, such as color, lighting and ventilation. Additionally, there are variables related to the order of the space that possibly influence the teaching-learning process but little is known about, such as the seating arrangement. This is specifically the objective of the present article: to determine the effect that the seating arrangement has on the attention of the students. For this purpose, a field study was conducted with 24 students using Virtual Reality technology. The study consisted of the application of cognitive tasks to evaluate the level of attention, and preference questionnaires while students were visualizing four seating arrangements: line, stadium, cluster, and individual. The results suggest that students remain more attentive if they are seated in an individually seating arrangement; however, it was the least preferred order. The variable studied, seating arrangement, is very flexible, low cost and has an influence on the teaching-learning processes. Therefore, knowledge about the effect of different seating arrangements will contribute to a better organization of university classrooms and improve the performance of students.

Keywords:

Attention, university students, classroom, seating arrangement, architecture.