Relevance

Relevance to School Success and Student Success

Ontario Ministry of Education

The Ontario Ministry of Education (2016) created a document titled, 21st Century Competencies. This document aims to educate Ontario teachers from K-12 to better understand how they must prepare their students for life after education. Students of the 21st century must be modern learners and it is a teacher's job, “to prepare students to solve messy, complex problems – including problems we don’t yet know about – associated with living in a competitive, globally connected, and technologically intensive world” (p. 3). This involves a shift from the teacher centered pedagogical approach, to a student centered approach. This shift will expose students to situations where they will be able to develop the necessary key competencies as defined by the Ontario Ministry of Education (2016) which include, critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity/innovation. Communication and collaboration are key skills that students can be exposed to on a daily basis when flexible seating is implemented. Throughout the 21st Century Competencies, many pictures display a minimum of 2 individuals who appear to be communicating and/or collaborating. It is also of interest to note that the majority of the pictures in the document showcase classrooms and spaces where flexible seating has been implemented (as shown in the pictures to the left of and underneath this section).

However, the Physical Space of the learning environment and the effects on learners is only addressed in the Implications for Practice section of the Ontario Ministry of Education’s (2016) 21st Century Competencies document. The Ministry is calling for a need in flexibility of design that allows to “facilitate constructive relationships” (p. 43). Without explicitly mentioning flexible seating, it can be concluded that the Ministry supports the notion that flexible seating has many benefits for student success that include decreases in bullying and the ability to work in groups or on an individual basis as needed by the learner (p. 43).

Current Research

There is currently an abundance of research that points to the benefits of flexible seating for primary and middle school students who have mental disabilities (Fedewa and Erwin, 2011; Pfeiffer et al. 2008). Specifically, students who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), have benefited from the opportunity to use different styles of seating as they are able to remain more engaged in the lessons. There are also multiple peer reviewed articles that address the use of space in post-secondary classrooms and the advantages of incorporating flexible seating for student engagement (Fedewa et al, 2016).

The gap in current research exists when one is interested in reading research about the mental, physical and academic affects flexible seating has in a regular stream classroom. Alicia Fedewa, an associate professor at the University of Kentucky, appears to be the leading researcher in this area and mainly investigates the impacts of stationary bikes in a regular stream k-12 classroom. Throughout Fedwa’s research it is suggested that students are expected to benefit from flexible seating with positive impacts on cognitive outcomes, academic achievement, levels of stress and enjoyment of the classroom experience (Fedewa 2011; 2016; 2018). The physical positive outcomes are best reached when students are able to move around the classroom, rather than remaining sedentary and have the option to choose where they need to sit to be most productive. The positive cognitive and academic outcomes may be explained using self-determination theory. Reeve (2006) posits that when students are able to make choices, they are more likely to be motivated by internal factors, be engaged in their learning and thus perform better academically.

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