Activity noise in comprehensive school classrooms in Finland

摘要

School classrooms are spaces where young children learn skills and get knowledge for studying, to graduate and qualify themselves as professionals in different occupations. Young children need best possible conditions for learning. Noise interferes with voice production in classrooms. Noise is a risk factor for voice disorders that are very common among teachers. Noise decreases speech perception and even more in children than adults. Children with specific language impairment or hearing loss perform under that of normal children. Noise affects attention, language learning, mathematical performance and memory. Noise has dose-response function on cognitive function: the higher the noise levels the greater their effects. 92 % of teachers experience activity noise annoying. Children are also annoyed by noise; intermittent noise has been shown to disturb more than constant one. The average noise disturbance is best determined by L_(Amax) levels. In this study activity noise levels were measured during classroom instruction in comprehensive school classrooms (N=40). It was found that activity noise levels in classrooms during classroom instruction are high for speech communication and learning: L_(Aeq) 69±6.2 dB, L_(10) 68±4.2, L_(50) 55±4.7 and L_(90) 42±4.1 dB(A). Activity noise levels did not correlate to any other acoustic parameter than room gain. The reason for this may be that activity noise levels also depend on many other background variables than acoustics.