In case you missed the live event, the ‘Noise in School Classrooms’ webinar recording is now available via the VDEI Digital Resource Hub.
Professor Gary Rance presents data from two studies carried out at the University of Melbourne, exploring the effects of the classroom environment on primary school students, with and without hearing loss.
The first of these studies measured physiological stress levels (cortisol concentration in saliva) and found that while all participants showed evidence of increased stress when undertaking cognitively challenging tasks in noise, children with auditory processing deficits were particularly affected.
The second study investigated the effects of the physical classroom environment (open-plan versus enclosed-classroom) on listening development and academic progress. A cohort of year 3-4 children from six schools were tracked over the course of a school year while they alternated between terms spent in open and enclosed-plan classrooms. Reading fluency was particularly affected by classroom environment, showing relatively lower rates of development through the open-plan phases.
View the Noise in School Classrooms recording.
