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Sound and the learning environment in the classroom
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Distance
Teachers’ voice levels drop away quickly over relatively short distances, and students at the back of the class can experience problems hearing the teacher's message and the other students. In a typical classroom, the student in the front row can hear approx. 83 % of the teacher's ”speech signal”. In the middle row, this figure falls to approx. 66 %, while those in the back row only hear approx. 55 % of the teacher's ”speech signal”. If the teacher turns away from the students to write on the board or consult notes, the problem becomes even greater wherever the students sit.
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Background noise
Traffic noise, chatting classmates, rattling furniture, corridor noise, other classes, etc. all contribute towards background noise in the classroom - often averaging 50-60 dB. Since a teacher’s comfortable speaking volume is not much greater, it’s easy to see how students might have trouble distinguishing a teacher’s words from background noise.
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Reverberation (echo)
High ceilings, large windows, hard floors, walls and desks reflect and amplify many distracting sounds. Reverberation (echo) in the classroom has a dramatic negative impact on speech understanding makes it difficult for the students to understand what the teacher is saying.
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Press
