First blog about the sentence. Yep.

One of our readings from last week was about active listening. The reading covers several aspects of active listening, but the part that interested me was later on in the reading. It's addressing how atmospheres affect listening and speaking roles. The big example that we can all think of is lecture halls. These immediately set up the roles of speaker and listener because of how they're laid out in an architectural aspect, but also in a cultural aspect. In a way, it stems back to the original idea of an outdoor Greek theater - an amphitheater. Aside from that, it's an effective room in that it gives the roles subconsciously and enforces those roles naturally.

"Similarly, classrooms are organized to facilitate certain kinds of relationships and interactions. For example, large lecture halls with fixed seating position the teacher as an authority at the front of the room. The teacher is marked by height and location in the room as the only person who deserves to speak. Other classroom spaces might allow for reconfigured seating arrangements."

While I find the phrase, "the only person who deserves to speak." rather harsh, it does a swell job summing up what a lecture hall does. Fortunately, I find that most communication classes tend to realize the importance of student interaction. Because of this, seating arrangements in the ILC tend to be centered around people at tables. Tables are spread around the room. The teacher is at the front of the class still and is still at a more heightened elevation than the students. That makes sense though, they're directing the class. The tables are important though, it promotes discussion when appropriate. It gives a new focus. Whereas in lectures halls you only look forward, suddenly there is more access to people around you.

I can't speak for other majors, but most of my communication classes have had a bigger emphasis on communicating with peers. An example would be my Interviewing class. Our first class was in a lecture hall and our teacher said, "Well this isn't going to work." So we had our class moved. In that class (and several other comm classes I've had), we sit in pods. In the article I read, pods are best for groups that are intended to communicate and work together. Discussion is incredibly important in communication classes (obviously) and usually the seating arrangements help with that.




https://ctl.yale.edu/ClassroomSeatingArrangements