Important: Background Noise and Classroom Design

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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Important: Background Noise and Classroom Design

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

This is a very important piece. I routinely visit schools to observe lessons and the 'noise' issue is an important one. Rarely is a class quiet enough for the best teaching and learning:

http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2017/9/13/-1
However damaging noise may be to adult performance, there is good reason to believe that the negative impact of noise is even worse with infants and young children, and this has been borne out by a growing body of research (e.g., (2)). Given how central learning is to early childhood development, and how much of knowledge transmission occurs through speech, the fact that infants and children are less equipped to understand and learn from speech in the presence of background noise is perhaps particularly concerning (e.g., (3)). Consequently, limiting background noise in children’s environments should be a critical priority if the goal is to create optimal learning environments.

In light of the evidence showing the negative effects of noise, why has there been an increase in the use of open classrooms and workspaces for both children and adults? The idea behind open classrooms and workspaces was that removing walls would increase collaboration. Although increasing collaboration may be a worthy goal, an unintended consequence of removing walls is that it results in very noisy workspaces. This is an example of how one type of evidence is used to justify an educational change without consideration of other factors.
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