When someone laughs or slams a desk, vibrations travel through the air. These vibrations are what’s known as sound waves. These sound waves may be just background noises to you, but to someone else they may be unwanted noises that disturbs their quiet working conditions.

In schools and preschools, it’s not uncommon to have an average noise level of 70 decibels. Once the level gets above 40 decibels, which is roughly the level during a normal conversation, this reduces the working capacity and negatively affects learning conditions for students. A poor acoustic environment requires individuals to use more of their working memory to hear and interpret what the teacher is saying instead of focusing on the actual message. This results in tiredness and lack of concentration, among other things.

Investing in the acoustic environment is worthwhile for both teachers and students. It is in fact a necessity for students with hearing or reading and writing difficulties, for those who are non-native speakers and definitely for students with concentration problem.