Noise measurements during focus-based classroom activities as an indication of student’s learning with ambient and focused artificial light distribution

Students’ learning is of utmost importance in classrooms. The environmental conditions in classrooms have been found to impact students’ ability to learn. This study investigated how artificial light distribution impacts students’ learning during focus -based learning activities, e.g., mathematics, reading, and paper-based activities, by measuring the noise level in classrooms. The
measurements are carefully designed so that the similar focus-based activities are planned with two different light distributions, one being an ambient artificial light distribution and the other being a focused artificial light distribution. In each light condition, the noise levels from pupils doing similar focus-based activities are compared. Four classrooms covering from elementary school year 1 to 6 (aged from 6 to 11) are measured, ending up with 20 comparable pairs in terms of the activity and the pupil’s number with help of video footage analysis. It is found that the noise level with the focused lighting is reduced in 14 out of 20 cases. The average reduction of the noise level with the focused light distribution is found to be 1.7 dB.