Acoustical parameters for learning in classroom: A review

A review on the reference values of the acoustical parameters that have the greatest influence on students' performance at different ages has been completed in this study. Published studies from 2002 to 2020 were summarized, which focus on testing learning attainments and cognitive skills, speech intelligibility, and subjective perceptions under different classroom acoustic conditions. Only 38 papers out of the 56 containing empirical findings on the influence of acoustical parameters on students’ performance were considered, as the remaining 18 lacked ecological validity or did not respond to the selection criteria. Studies were only included if they considered normal hearing subjects and typical lesson settings provided in classrooms without an amplification system. Thus, the studies selected involved subjects between 5 and 40 years old. The values of the acoustical parameters that led to better or worse learning performance were tabulated and the distribution of occurrences was created. The median and interquartile range for the distribution of occurrences were used to describe the central tendency and dispersion and analyzed considering two different age groups. The results obtained were used to develop classroom acoustic guidelines for better learning performance for students under or over 12 years of age, and identified the thresholds that lead to worse performances.