Why the Classroom Style of Training Room Arrangement is a Poor Option

There are many various room arrangements for training. A extremely nicely known and familiar arrangement is classroom style, in which there are parallel rows of tables and chairs facing a lectern or desk in the front of the room. There is typically a screen for audiovisual projection in the front of the room, either in the middle or angled to the side. Classroom style has only two factors that support its use and a multitude of reasons why it is a poor training arrangement option.

Pros:

- It is a familiar arrangement. - Each participant is facing forward.

Cons:

- It immediately creates negative transfer because it reminds participants of school circumstances in which they were expected to sit quietly, listen and take notes. - It relegates participants to the role of listeners, so they are less likely to speak up. - If school is an unhappy memory, the participants may "act out" in a negative way, more like teenagers than mature adults. - Participants can only see the backs of other participants, not their faces. - It might be tough for some participants to see the front of the room, the audiovisuals, or the instructor because of the individuals seated in front of them and their distance from the front of the room. - It is not conducive to large group discussion: simply because the participants are not facing each other, it is much more difficult for them to hear every other or choose up on non verbal cues. - It is not conducive to small group interaction: because the participants are seated next to each other, it is tough to see or hear those seated further away. - It is not conducive to learning activities that need movement because it is awkward and cumbersome to move out from behind the tables and chair. - It is not conducive for the instructor to move into the group to interact or to dipstick throughout person or small group activities simply because there is insufficient space for the instructor to stroll via or behind each row.

In summary, the classroom style room arrangement:

- creates an unpleasant and uncomfortable physical and emotional learning atmosphere - hampers the capability to use the interactive learning activities essential to meet the needs of different learning designs - adversely impacts participants' ability to hear, see, move and speak to every other - hinders effective group participation and - limits the instructor's capability to interact with person participants.

In brief, there is absolutely nothing to commend the classroom style arrangement on any level!

Deborah Spring Laurel has been a trainer and a consultant in the areas of workplace learning and performance improvement for over thirty years. She has twenty years of experience as the President of Laurel and Associates, Ltd,, an international human resource development training and consulting firm that specializes in enhancing interpersonal dynamics within organizations. She has designed and delivered hundreds of different skill-building participant-based and accelerated learning workshops on various subjects, all of which have been tailored to meet her clients' needs.

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