Most learning activities take place through correctly heard and spoken presentation. Acoustic factors play the largest role in learning in the first to sixth grades when a child’s language recognition and memory skills are being developed and formed. It is imperative to shield noise when constructing learning facilities to aid learning.

The objective of good classroom acoustics is to give constructive speech intelligibility for all students, prevent language interference, provide suitable background sound levels from all sources not in the room and equip sound decay times (reverberation time) that improve speech, allow effortless listening and reduce the noisiness.

If you are dealing with a new build then finding a suitable location for your school building is the first task. External sound sources directly impact the quality of interior sounds. Many studies have revealed that all other social-economic limitations being equal, children in schools near major sound sources such as busy roads or industrial buildings get lower results on standardized tests. Placing the buildings in reduced noise areas or erecting sound barriers such as tree lines will go a long way towards reducing negative external noise. Reverberation time is an echo or a measure of the time it takes sound to die out. Sound crumble time is identical with reverberation time.

Speech privacy, speech interference and background reverberation are next to be considered when moving on towards assessing the internal sound qualities of your building. Speech privacy happens when a person in a neighboring space cannot hear adequate words to have an understanding of words spoken. Speech interference materializes when sound from other places prevents a person from understanding the phrases by a person to whom they are listening. For instance, placing the band class over the science classroom could lead to difficulties and increase the final costs of construction. Likewise, having the language room neighboring to a practical woodworking room reduces the success of the room to assist in conveying education to the listeners. Background noise is all the sound heard from unrelated sources that affect on concentration, communication, seclusion and productivity. Road traffic, playgrounds, music rooms and more can attribute to this as well as sounds from other classrooms, cafeterias or administrative areas.

Next one needs to measure and set reasonable expectations and targets for speech privacy, speech interference, background noise levels and reverberation times in each room. Ideally you should consult a specialist in acoustic services to allow them to provide sound advice based on previous experience. The ability of an structure to control sound properties between spaces is can be estimated using single number files such as (STC) or (NIC) ratings and specific background sound heights are set in each interior space.

Acoustic services range from specialties in laboratory, machinery, building, product manufacturing and vehicle acoustics so try to find a company that has worked with teaching or public buildings before. If you are on a tight budget, as most learning institutes are, then you can identify priority areas with the specialist and roll-out structural changes over time.


Brendan Telarin is the author of this article on acoustic solutions. Find more information, about noise control here