I can't read the article, because I am so incensed by the grouping of the desks.
There is a psychology behind this and I don't like it one bit.
The students with the folders angled so that others cannot see what they are writing down.
What the hell is up with that?
Taking a test, but not all of them have them up.
Years and years ago when I was going through my elementary-high school education, it was rare to have desks right next to each other. Usually the desks were in lined up in rows. However, in recent years this arrangement of desks in rows is rare. This is mainly due to the current focus on “cooperative learning”.
One of the big problems most teachers will complain about is that students are always talking to one another in class. But sitting right next to other students actually can make this problem worse, in addition to the fact that it makes it so much easier for students to have wandering eyes during test time.
There is a psychology behind this and I don't like it one bit.
A dreadful teacher that the public school foisted upon my daughter in 5th grade in 1970 told me that the clustering of the desks was to break down barriers between the students by getting them into each other's personal space. She was a Communist. I fought her tooth and nail for as long as my kids remained in that school (one more year).
The grouping of desks that way is to condition kids to thinking of themselves as part of a group and facilitate group projects, instead of individual merit and achievement, which the traditional desks lined up individually fostered.
The folders like that are so that kids sit like they are used to without having the ability to read each other’s papers.