We publish articles, studies and materials on noise, acoustics, concentration and the wellbeing of children and teachers.
We release materials gradually, as each study is completed.
A quiet room can still have poor speech intelligibility. On reverberation, the signal-to-noise ratio and what an acoustician actually measures - based on research, guidance and measurement.
Prepared by: the research team of the Institute for Educational Comfort
Read more12 articles and studies
Articles prepared on the basis of scientific research, literature reviews, institutional reports and technical guidance. The list grows with each new study.
An adult in the back row understands the teacher without effort - it does not follow that the seven-year-old beside them has an equally easy task. Ten studies on how age changes the difficulty of listening in noise and reverberation.
„This room is at 58 decibels - is that a lot?" There is no answer until we know what was measured. A guide to the parameters of an acoustic report: LAeq, reverberation time, STI, sound insulation.
„I do not even hear it any more" - a sentence heard in every school beside a busy road. Eight classic studies from 1973-2004 show why the absence of a reaction is not the absence of a cost.
A school’s boundary fence is not the boundary of its acoustic environment. Eight studies on road and aircraft noise around schools - including those that found no association at all.
The same reading on a sound level meter can mean entirely different conditions for learning, talking and resting. Eight studies on how pupils perceive sound at school and when their judgements agree with the measurements.
Sound-absorbing materials are not the answer to every problem, and „quieter" does not mean „easier to hear". Seven studies on what really changes after acoustic treatment - including results that do not fit the success story.
A child can complete the task and report no problem, and still pay for a day in noise with tiredness and irritability. Eight studies on noise annoyance, stress responses and pupils’ wellbeing.
A teacher does not speak in a vacuum: in a noisy, reverberant room the same instruction costs more effort to deliver. Six studies on vocal load - and on what cannot be concluded from them.
The teacher says one sentence and the sound wave is the same for everyone - access to the information is not. Six studies on why identical acoustic conditions do not mean equal access to the lesson.
A quiet room can still have poor speech intelligibility. On reverberation, the signal-to-noise ratio and what an acoustician actually measures.
Noise does not have to make a task impossible to make it harder. A review of six studies on attention, working memory and reading.
A review of WHO and EEA data and of the RANCH, Schiller et al. and Polewczyk and Jarosz studies - including what does not follow from them.
The publications can also be browsed by the Institute’s main research areas. These are the same articles, ordered by subject.
3 publikacje
How the sound environment affects the health, wellbeing and everyday functioning of pupils and teachers.
3 publikacje
Research on concentration, memory, the development of listening and how children cope in demanding acoustic conditions.
3 publikacje
Measurement, acoustic parameters, speech intelligibility and research on how effective changes to school spaces are.
3 publikacje
School acoustics seen from the perspective of accessibility, users’ experience and the influence of the building’s surroundings.
Photographs marked with the AI symbol were generated using artificial intelligence.
