A recent report by Coventry University has been highlighted by the Nuffield Foundation and links reading difficulties with hearing impairments. The Nuffield article writes: “The researchers believe that if there was more awareness of youngsters’ hearing problems – as well as an understanding of what particular aspects of literacy they struggled with – then the […]
educational environments
How open should a learning space be – acoustically? School Case Study 1
Noise is not something we only hear but something we feel, making teachers stressed and disturbing students. However, what feels like unwanted noise for some over distance, may be wanted sounds for another locally. This can create a conflict, so it is important to be able to separate these in order to create a sound […]
If Carlsberg built a University and hosted an education conference, they would discuss the value for good acoustics…..”probably!”
Well, not only does the Campus have good acoustics but it was host to the Annual European Education Research Association conference where acoustics was indeed a key part of one of the sessions…. The LEaRN team from the University of Melbourne organised an interesting session where the focus was industry and academia collaboration around educational […]
Transitions17, where education and architecture meet
Going beyond the traditional borders, be it education and pedagogy, architecture or geographical borders was the red thread of the Transitions symposium, the traveling ‘roadshow’ of the ILETC project when it came to London and Regent’s University for the first ever European edition (full program here). The world we live in is changing rapidly and […]
Are we listening or hearing in classrooms? The Indian perspective
There seems to be a universal agreement with the fact that proper acoustic treatment of a classroom will enhance comprehension abilities of its audience. This is more true with children as occupants compared with adults. To understand better, let’s first look at how our brain perceives sound. The adult brain takes all sounds we hear […]
Interview with Acoustic Bulletin editor – Jiri Strnad
It’s time to meet a new Acoustic Bulletin Editor, and this time we go to the Czech Republic and have a chat with Jiri Strnad. Jiri has an identical twin brother, talks a million miles an hour, knows a lot about school acoustics, and if you’re ever lucky enough to meet him under more informal […]
Visiting a sound place to learn
The bold new twin-site, City of Glasgow College super campus, imbued with Glasgow’s energy and complexity, is impressive. A host of design awards for Michael Laird and Reiach and Hall Architects, supported by Arup Acoustics, is a testament to this. The £228m twin-site super campus itself constitutes a city community, a so-called “sticky” campus, […]
Open learning landscapes – if the acoustics aren’t right, the whole educational concept fails
De Werkplaats in Bilthoven is one of the Netherlands’ first primary schools without any classrooms, where pupils and teachers work in an open learning environment. “The success of such a concept largely depends on good acoustics,” says architect Kees Willems of Teeuwisse & Willems architects. In one corner we see a group of children watching […]
Better performance during the teacher training sessions – highlights need for good school acoustics!
Case study: How acoustics dramatically improved the teaching facilities at training centre for teachers CESIRE, Barcelona, Spain Above: dBplus Acoustics explaining acoustic improvements One good thing leading to another The idea behind the collaboration between CESIRE, dBplus Acoustics and Ecophon came about after Ecophon hosted a knowledge seminar in Barcelona which shared a local case study […]
A sound environment for learning – is a must have!
NBCS Sydney Focusing on learning rather than teaching, changes almost everything we know about a school set up and organization but it is not an easy change. By Mie Guldbaek Broens, LOOP.bz I work with observing, studying and developing educational environments that are changing from a system where predominantly teaching is taking place, to an organisation […]
