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Influence of Flexible Classroom Seating on the Wellbeing and Mental Health of Upper Elementary School Students: A Gender Analysis

While traditional seating (also known as fixed seating or fixed classroom) remains the preferred classroom seating arrangement for teachers, a new type of seating arrangement is becoming more common in schools: the flexible classroom (also known as flexible seating). The purpose of this type of arra...

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Autores principales: Bluteau, Jonathan, Aubenas, Solène, Dufour, France
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9186794/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35693533
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.821227
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author Bluteau, Jonathan
Aubenas, Solène
Dufour, France
author_facet Bluteau, Jonathan
Aubenas, Solène
Dufour, France
author_sort Bluteau, Jonathan
collection PubMed
description While traditional seating (also known as fixed seating or fixed classroom) remains the preferred classroom seating arrangement for teachers, a new type of seating arrangement is becoming more common in schools: the flexible classroom (also known as flexible seating). The purpose of this type of arrangement is to meet the needs of students by providing a wide variety of furniture and workspaces, to put students at the center of learning, and to allow them to make choices based on their preferences and the objectives of the task at hand. This study aimed to examine the influence of flexible seating on the wellbeing and mental health of elementary school students. This article presents the results of exploratory research conducted in Quebec among Grade 5 and 6 students comparing the wellbeing and mental health of students in fixed and flexible classrooms. The study was conducted with 107 students in three Grade 5 and 6 flexible classrooms (n = 51) and three Grade 5 and 6 fixed classrooms (n = 56). It is based on a quasi-experimental, quantitative design with post-test only and a control group. The groups were matched based on natural conditions (i.e., from a convenience sample). Furthermore, the study included a gender-differentiated analysis for each group. The results showed that flexible classroom seating had a positive influence on the girls’ wellbeing and mental health. In contrast, for the boys, fixed classroom seating was most conducive to their wellbeing and mental health. However, our study has some limitations that are discussed in the article.
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spelling pubmed-91867942022-06-11 Influence of Flexible Classroom Seating on the Wellbeing and Mental Health of Upper Elementary School Students: A Gender Analysis Bluteau, Jonathan Aubenas, Solène Dufour, France Front Psychol Psychology While traditional seating (also known as fixed seating or fixed classroom) remains the preferred classroom seating arrangement for teachers, a new type of seating arrangement is becoming more common in schools: the flexible classroom (also known as flexible seating). The purpose of this type of arrangement is to meet the needs of students by providing a wide variety of furniture and workspaces, to put students at the center of learning, and to allow them to make choices based on their preferences and the objectives of the task at hand. This study aimed to examine the influence of flexible seating on the wellbeing and mental health of elementary school students. This article presents the results of exploratory research conducted in Quebec among Grade 5 and 6 students comparing the wellbeing and mental health of students in fixed and flexible classrooms. The study was conducted with 107 students in three Grade 5 and 6 flexible classrooms (n = 51) and three Grade 5 and 6 fixed classrooms (n = 56). It is based on a quasi-experimental, quantitative design with post-test only and a control group. The groups were matched based on natural conditions (i.e., from a convenience sample). Furthermore, the study included a gender-differentiated analysis for each group. The results showed that flexible classroom seating had a positive influence on the girls’ wellbeing and mental health. In contrast, for the boys, fixed classroom seating was most conducive to their wellbeing and mental health. However, our study has some limitations that are discussed in the article. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-05-27 /pmc/articles/PMC9186794/ /pubmed/35693533 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.821227 Text en Copyright © 2022 Bluteau, Aubenas and Dufour. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Bluteau, Jonathan
Aubenas, Solène
Dufour, France
Influence of Flexible Classroom Seating on the Wellbeing and Mental Health of Upper Elementary School Students: A Gender Analysis
title Influence of Flexible Classroom Seating on the Wellbeing and Mental Health of Upper Elementary School Students: A Gender Analysis
title_full Influence of Flexible Classroom Seating on the Wellbeing and Mental Health of Upper Elementary School Students: A Gender Analysis
title_fullStr Influence of Flexible Classroom Seating on the Wellbeing and Mental Health of Upper Elementary School Students: A Gender Analysis
title_full_unstemmed Influence of Flexible Classroom Seating on the Wellbeing and Mental Health of Upper Elementary School Students: A Gender Analysis
title_short Influence of Flexible Classroom Seating on the Wellbeing and Mental Health of Upper Elementary School Students: A Gender Analysis
title_sort influence of flexible classroom seating on the wellbeing and mental health of upper elementary school students: a gender analysis
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9186794/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35693533
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.821227
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