In which situation can you absorb more information and learn more?
This demonstration helps present the relative importance of sound and hearing in learning and attainment: specifically, that hearing is hugely important to the learning experience, yet is generally overlooked.
Ensuring sound and vision in class
Ideally, of course, all students would have full access to sound and vision in class, but the reality is that a significant proportion of children cannot hear what they should. This is partly because many children may have some sort of temporary hearing loss – for example, conditions of the middle ear, such as glue ear and the effects of colds that lead to that “bunged up feeling” are the single most common health care problem in children.
In addition, children’s cognitive abilities and capacity to make sense of the speech they hear is not fully developed. Their speech comprehension is worse than for adults in comparable circumstances, so speech presented in noise typically has to be louder for children than for adults to be heard correctly and understood – i.e. children require a higher Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) compared to adults.
Add to this the effects of classroom design and acoustics, which can present poor listening conditions for children. In particular, it has been found that a majority of classrooms are likely to be considerably noisier than that stipulated in UK building guidelines, therefore presenting poor SNR and listening conditions.
The implication is that children have exacting needs when listening to - and understanding – speech. These needs are not being met by classrooms in the UK.
One method of improving listening, SNR, the intelligibility of speech and quality of sound in class is through the use of a Soundfield system. In fact, the importance of sound and hearing in learning has recently been consolidated in a new report by the independent charity, Deafness Research UK, which reviewed empirical study data to assess Soundfield’s value to normal hearing children in classrooms.
Results of better classroom sound and acoustics
The Deafness Research UK Report considers the effectiveness of Soundfield as an intervention to improve sound in class, on several educational parameters:
General Classroom Behaviour: studies show that teachers commonly report improvements in children’s attention and listening behaviour with Soundfield.
Speech Perception in Class: Soundfield has a positive and immediate impact on speech perception. Long term developmental advantages are more complex due to advancing student abilities with time.
Language tasks & comprehension: Soundfield improves comprehension. The paper notes that due to their developing hearing and other factors, on any one day, one third of children may be considered “hearing impaired”. As Soundfield has been observed to be particularly effective for hearing impaired students, this means that a significant number of children would be advantaged by Soundfield. In addition, Soundfield prevents students not in close proximity to the teacher from being disadvantaged by their distance from the teacher.
Listening in Class: Soundfield could positively influence children’s listening behaviour, although the precise influence of room size is not yet fully resolved.
The conclusion is that in addition to positive learning outcomes brought about by providing students with better access to sound, teachers express very positive opinions of using Soundfield as a solution to improved sound in class. This reflects benefits in pupil listening and attention, as well as reduced overall strain on the teacher, making teaching a more pleasant experience.
Opportunities for the future
Adding to the weight of formal research, this January at BETT in London, Primary head teacher, Mr E Pearson-Shaul presented his personal observations on the importance of sound on learning.
Mr Pearson-Shaul explained clearly the effects of hearing on teaching and learning - specifically that learning had three vital stages:
Hearing the message – students need to hear the message to be aware of its content
Listening to the message – once aware of the message, it needs to be intelligible so that students can listen to it to decipher its content
Understanding the message – students need to be able to understand the message correctly to make sense of it and learn from it.
The observation is that the most fundamental learning opportunities in class are facilitated by ensuring that students correctly hear what teachers say.
However, in addition to securing the basics, progressive teaching environments increasingly need to provide more interactive opportunities as well as staple sound strategies, such as:
Podcasts: record and post podcasts of lessons, readings, excerpts and projects for review and revision by students or for sharing with other students.
Multimedia: online, offline, video and recorded content all require sound. With a variety of sound sources to share with the class, reproduction of sound is becoming more important than ever.
Projects and presenting: as students love to share their knowledge, so the benefits of a mutual learning environment in which to present and communicate are being increasingly explored.
These advanced features develop the requirements for better sound in classrooms, creating a richer learning and education experience, building on the original requirements of hearing and understanding.
So it seems that not only can you learn plenty with your eyes shut, but that by optimising conditions to hear properly in class too, you may considerably improve learning opportunities now and in the future.
To find out more about the importance of sound in classrooms, how to improve acoustics conditions in class or request more information on the reports and information cited above, visit www.Soundfield.info.
020 7833 1733
contact@deafnessresearch.org.uk
