The seating arrangement teaches a theory of authority before the teacher begins.

Rows facing one direction say that knowledge comes from the front. A circle says it comes from the group. A layout is an argument about where authority lives, made in furniture, and it is absorbed by everyone in the room before a word is spoken. Nobody experiences it as a claim, which is why it works so well.

Look at the arrangement of any room you spend time in and ask what it is asserting. If you have the option, move the furniture to match what you actually want to happen. It changes behaviour more reliably than asking people to behave differently.