Teachers report that while teaching in a noisy classroom can be a challenge, lessons succeeding a wet-day recess are typically much more difficult to deliver and often have poorer outcomes. Why? They, for one, have not been able to regroup fully from the previous lesson, not least if they have been on yard duty. Here the lack of acoustic insulation in the classroom means that the noise of children playing together often escalates quickly to a level that can only be described as chaotic. Not only is this stressful for the teacher, but the students themselves are also unwittingly subject to the chaos, which affects their ability to focus, process instructions and stay on task during the next lesson.
It also seems that the expectations placed on teachers are increasing, without necessarily providing them with the setting in which to achieve the increased outcomes. These days, for example, teachers are required to plan multiple detailed lessons for each day of the week that satisfy very specific curriculum requirements and are at the same time differentiated to cater for the individual learning needs of each child. This requires a high level of thinking and concentration and yet teachers are typically given a mere three hours per week to plan around twenty of these lessons. In addition, they are often expected to be able to do this while their heads are still spinning from spending one or more hours working with their students in a classroom with very little or no acoustic insulation in place.
A classroom is not a café, so why is it designed like one? In a café, a moderate level of reverberation is considered ideal. It creates the constant hum that adds life to the café’s atmosphere. The acoustics of a successful café have often been strategically designed to avoid complete silence, but at the same time making it difficult to overhear conversations taking place at neighbouring tables and at the counter.
A classroom, on the other hand, serves a completely different purpose to a café. In a classroom, it is essential that the students are able to clearly hear what their teacher is saying and that any disrupting noises are absorbed as quickly as possible. With a focus on increased performance, schools also need to be provided with the necessary means to achieve these goals. Teachers need more time to plan high quality lessons that will deliver optimal results, and classrooms need adequate acoustic insulation and be designed to facilitate learning, not distractions.
Pricewise Insulation specialises in the supply of thermal and sound insulation, the latter of which is highly effective at managing acoustics in classrooms and other confined spaces.
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Company Name: Pricewise Insulation
Contact Person: Paul van Oord
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Phone: 1300 729 639
Address:11 Buch Ave
City: Epping
State: VIC
Country: Australia
Website: https://www.pricewiseinsulation.com.au/
