Classroom Acoustics At School- Are Our Children Missing Their Education

By Author: Kevin Richard
Total Articles: 242
Comment this article

Just imagine you are reading am important textbook for a specific subject. How would you feel if you find that one in every four words is completely omitted. Undoubtedly, you will return to the book store and ask for a refund!
Still, such issues are actually happening in schools throughout the country as students are literally missing words from their mentors in inferiorly designed classrooms and the lecture halls. In such situations, there is no refund, only social expenses that keep on affecting the batches of the students.
In this post, we will discuss the different ways in which the design of education institutions have gone wrong and badly need a classroom acoustics and some possible solutions for noise control.
Noise control issues
Though noise control issues can be due to student discipline problems, those are not the only reasons for those high noise problems. There are two main acoustic problems in the classrooms. They are:
1. Immense noise
2. Immense reverberation
These two issues directly affect the speech, the most vital aspect we should maintain in education. Immense reverberation ...
... may turn the smallest whispers of the students into huge sounds when they get repeatedly reflected from the walls. This enhances the noise of the classroom and the teacher has to increase his level of voice to be heard. The voice of the teacher is also subject of the same reverberation, creating a notable noise in the speech. Even while utilizing a microphone, reverberation issues can worsen the situation without a microphone. Immense noise is generally due to poor isolation between classrooms. Some schools boast open classroom, which are a very bad idea from the acoustic point of view, as unwanted noise from any other class can be easily transmitted to another. Architectural noise control becomes hard, even if attempts are made to maintain discipline among the students. There are other types of noises, but it is generally a blend of other noises and reverberation, that makes speech unlistenable after quite some time.
Why is lack of noise control dangerous?
One may think that only hearing impaired students require better noise control. This is not at all true. Even if a student doesn’t have hearing issues, there are cases where noise absorbing curtains will be able to protect you from noise related issues. For instance, younger students don’t have the same amount of knowledge as older students that have attended college. Therefore various formative lessons, where vital basics are taught, missing a single word may affect the learning process of the student.
The lack of understanding of the student by not using sound absorbing curtains may turn into a regrettable situation. Even older students require better noise control. Foreign students entering university, where English might now be their first language, may face problems if they can’t hear the lecturer.