Improved language lessons at Bilingual Grammar School in Žilina Slovakia. Before the acoustic improvements, students had to cope with poor speech intelligibility and excessive reverberation during their language lessons. It was not only the students who complained about the poor acoustics, but also teachers were angry about the environment because they had to strain their […]
Education
You can never start thinking about sound too early!
Guest post by Fiona Young, Studio Director at Hayball Architects Studies have shown that elevated sound levels can impact on learning ability. and stress levels. of students and their teachers. A recent study. on educators’ and architects’ perceptions of the affordances of learning environments for deep learning indicated that both professions recognise overly noisy spaces […]
Changing acoustics means changing everything
ICA 2019 in Aachen gave an opportunity to present results of interesting questionnaire survey done in large primary school in Poland which focused on a correlation between room acoustics and changes in the communication, behaviour and wellbeing of students and teachers. The survey took place in modern school building, completed in 2012 which according to […]
Is it really possible to predict the room acoustic values in a non-diffuse room?
We made acoustic measurements as part of a remodelling of our training area at our head offices during the different phases of the acoustic treatment in the refurbishment. This is outlined in a previous Acoustic Bulletin post which highlighted the need for wall absorbers to remove the flutter echos, thus reducing the reverberation time and […]
Designing out “Chinook” flutter echoes in speech communication rooms
In September, it was a pleasure to present a work in progress “Optimising the acoustic design for a multi-purpose room used for speech communication activities” at ICA 2019 in Aachen. One of our inhouse head office rooms recently remodelled to accommodate a mixture of training functions. The sound environment for a room designed for speech […]
Finnish study finds that the sound environment affects children’s listening skills
Noise and a poor sound environment can hinder linguistic development of nursery school children, says Doctor of Philosophy Elina Niemitalo-Haapola in her dissertation. According to the study, more attention should be paid to children’s sound and learning environments. While working as a speech therapist, Elina Niemitalo-Haapola went to kindergartens, schools and homes to find out […]
Report looking at the implications of open learning spaces, acoustics and teacher personality
Background to the report Despite resistance to open plan classrooms in many countries, the movement towards innovative learning environments continues in parts of Europe, especially Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand. Their definition (ILEs), is an ongoing discussion in itself and their success is dependent on many aspects. However, understanding the changes in pedagogic approaches, including […]
Harmful noise is prevalent in Danish schools
An extensive well-being survey maps noise problems in Danish schools. About one in ten children from preschool to the third grade can’t hear the teachers instruction because of noise. Sound and acoustics is sadly often far down on the list of priorities in the design of buildings. However, this problem becomes particularly absurd when even […]
Global School User Survey has acoustics questions!
Title image credit: Cover from the OECD School User Survey. The newly launched OECD School User Survey is designed to support the improvement of learning spaces by empowering school users. Significantly for us as acoustic enthusiasts, among the broad range of holistic topics and important aspects that it covers, the survey also includes 5 acoustic […]
Better speech communication and learning in the classroom
At this years Transitions18 Education research seminar in Copenhagen, Viveka Årlander Lyberg Associate Professor at Lund University, presented the latest developments around Suvi Karjulainen’s PhD “Better communication and learning in the classroom”. This unique and applied study around the quality of speech communication for teachers and students also links to the investigation of the classroom […]
