ABSTRACT
When students face each other instead of facing you, it is easier for them to engage in discussion. The semicircle is a common device since even the students who are seated farthest away are directly in each other’s line of sight. Have the students display name cards so that they can address each other by name. If the chairs do not move, try to position yourself in such a way that students see each other at the same time when they direct their attention to you. If the room uses seminar seating, sit along the long side of the table, not at the head. Research has shown that people tend to talk to the person sitting opposite them, but less so to the people sitting next them. The most centrally located person in the room, the one that the greatest number of people have in their direct line of sight, leads. Left to their own devices, instructors leading discussion tend to sit in the less crowded parts of the room (Beard and Hartley 1984). Reversing these tendencies opens up more opportunities for people to be seen when they talk.
