Relationships between classroom acoustics and voice parameters of teachers at the beginning and at the end of a school year

The objective of this longitudinal study is twofold: to determine changes in the voice use of teachers along a school year and to study the relationships between voice and classroom acoustics parameters, which account for the background noise level during the teaching hours too. Thirty-one teachers from two secondary schools in Torino (Italy) were involved at the beginning of a school year and twentytwo of them participated in the monitoring campaign also at the end of the same school year too. Each teacher was asked to perform an interview before each monitoring in order to obtain reference values of conversational voice. Teachers adjust their voice significantly with noise and reverberation, both at the beginning and at the end of a school year. Moreover, teachers who worked in worst classroom acoustic conditions showed higher voice sound pressure levels at the end of the school year. Based on these results, it is of great importance to improve classroom acoustics to allow teachers reducing their vocal effort during the working hours at school.