Open Access 705 The Influence of Classroom Seating Position on Student Learning Gains in Primary Schools in Kenya

Copyright © 2013 Moses Waithanji Ngware et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This paper examines the contribution of classroom students ’ seating positions to learning gains. Data were gathered from a sample of 1907 grade six students who sat for the same seat twice over an interval of about 10 months. They were drawn from a random selection of 72 low and high performing primary schools. Results of a multi-level regression show that seating in the front row in a classroom led to higher learning gains of between 5 percent and 27 percent compared to seating in other rows that are farther away from the chalkboard. The policy implication to education is that student’s seating position can be manipulated in a way that it optimizes learning gains for slow learners