Seating Arrangements

Many, if not most of the classrooms in my school have the students' desks organized in a cooperative learning type of arrangement. Because our district has implemented Reading Edge and Power Teaching, teachers are required to seat students in groups. In my building, I noted that most 6th and 7th grade classrooms are arranged in groups of 4-5 desks, whereas 8th grade teachers tend to favor pairing students.
All classrooms in my building have individual student desks except for the science labs, which have tables or lab benches. (My room included.) This can sometimes be a hinderance when it comes to grouping students. Some teachers just aren't comfortable at all or even believe in the concept of cooperative learning, especially among middle school students. At a time where students should be in groups, some teachers sit their students in a large circle to facilitate discussion. How do you help this teacher?
Computers are generally not present in our classrooms, except for a teacher computer. We have various laptop carts in storage for use when a teacher might want them, however, they aren't in good shape. The keys have been pulled off of the keyboards. We have computer lab in our school, but classes are assigned to it for specials, so it is not available for teacher/class use during core class time.
Taking a look at how teachers are arranging seats in the classroom lets administration know who is empasizing cooperative learning strategies in their classroom. If a teacher is not performing this task, that teacher needs to be worked with one-on-one to increase their comfort in making that happen. I don't believe it is useful for a whole school of teachers to sit through a professional development on seating arrangements if only 3 teachers in the building are stuck on this task. Teachers should be taken from where they are to where they need to be at a level which is comfortable for them. That's what we do for our students.