Here’s a simple question for you: why are we told to switch our mobile phones to silent mode every time we visit the theatre or the cinema?
The answer is obvious: because noise can be distracting.
Many people find it harder to concentrate in a noisy environment. But, as new research from the University of Portsmouth illustrates, some of us find it more difficult to block out noise than others - a fact that has clear implications for efforts to make sure that all pupils have equal access to learning.
The study, published in July 2022, measured the impact of noise on 349 children between the ages of 7 and 11 and found that pupils who struggle to regulate their attention and behaviour are more likely to be annoyed and easily distracted by noise.
The research was split into two separate studies, the first of which began in 2016, when French teacher Philippe Frasseto raised concerns about the noise in his school with Dr Jessica Massonnie, who is a lecturer in psychology and early childhood studies.
“As a teacher, Philippe found noise agitating. But he was also worried noise was affecting children’s concentration and damaging wellbeing,” says Massonnie. “We decided to create a survey to collect pupils’ views, to discover their perspective and tolerances.”
In study one, Massonnie and Frasseto asked 112 children to respond to 18 statements related to classroom noise - for example, “When you do an activity alone in the classroom, if noise catches your attention you lose track of your thoughts” - with a four-point response scale: (1) almost never, (2) rarely, (3) quite often, (4) very often.
The majority (81.6 per cent) of children said that in general, they were “not at all or only a bit noise sensitive”, and almost half (48.1 per cent) said they almost never experienced hearing difficulties. Around 82 per cent of the children said they did not feel irritated by classroom noise, and that they were either calm or very calm. However, three children reported that they “very often” experienced hearing difficulties, and one child reported being “very” irritated.
“There were different dimensions to children’s reactions to noise; a few found it difficult to hear the teacher or their classmates. In general, when pupils found noise distracting and struggled to focus on schoolwork, they also found it annoying,” says Massonnie. “These reactions are slightly different but tend to be correlated. If you find yourself distracted by noise, you tend to be annoyed by it as well.”
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In the second study, conducted in 2018, Massonnie wanted to see if there was a link between children’s reactions to noise, and their temperament.
Around 240 children in England completed the same survey as in study one. Teachers were also asked to respond to statements about each child. Statements were things like: “This child pays attention” and “This child says the first thing that comes to mind”, and teachers had to indicate how true these statements were considering the child’s behaviour within the past month, using a four-point response scale from (1) almost always untrue to (4) almost always true.
The results indicated that the children who struggled with attentional focus, impulsivity, behavioural control and ability to engage in schoolwork were more sensitive to noise - and therefore have multiple risks to learning.
“Our findings question the assumption that children who are perceived as difficult to engage in schoolwork ‘do not care’ about distractions - they do particularly care,” Massonnie explains.
“The danger is these children who are already being labelled as less focused will face a downward spiral if noise levels in classrooms are not controlled.”
How to reduce noise and improve attention
So, how should teachers respond to this information? Should they be asking the entire class to work in silence for the benefit of a few pupils who might be particularly sensitive to noise?
Massonnie has trialled interventions in this area, and found two approaches that seem to have a positive effect: specific classroom activities aimed at reducing noise, and an activity that builds pupils’ ability to regulate their own attention and behaviour.
She delivered one-hour sound awareness workshops to two classes of students, in which they explored the concepts of sound and noise. Pupils were invited to pay attention to the sounds they could hear inside and outside the classroom, and discuss the impact on attention, memory, wellbeing, and the auditory system.
A visual display monitor that showed the noise level through colour was installed in the classroom: low (green), moderate (orange) or high (red). It went black when the class was calm for more than a few seconds, with no sound standing out from the context.
Children were invited to play the “silence game” every day, reducing noise levels so the panels became black, and holding this silence for as long as possible (up to three minutes). Children also had to regularly estimate the amount of noise corresponding to a given behaviour, before checking the value with a handheld sound-level meter.
For the second intervention, Massonnie used an unusual method to build pupils’ self-regulation skills: she introduced taekwondo in PE lessons.
“We found taekwondo lessons were associated with improved attentional control in children,” she says. “It seems quite disconnected, but there were some promising results. The ritualised process in taekwondo in which you have to be very controlled and specific under certain rules, can really help children to manage their attention and behaviour within lessons.”
There are, however, some limitations to this work.
In both studies, noise levels in children’s home environment weren’t considered, and Massonnie highlights there is a gap in knowledge around whether a chaotic or noisy home environment either trains children to be more used to noise, or exhausts their ability to deal with it.
In addition, when it came to both the noise workshops and the taekwondo, further research wasn’t conducted to see if the impact had a lasting effect. And of course, schools would need the resources, space and expertise to implement the interventions - which could be a struggle, especially for taekwondo.
Ultimately, though, Massonnie wants her work in this area to bring awareness to teachers about the impact of noise. And often, she says, the best thing to do is look at children on a case-by-case basis.
“It could be about offering a quiet corner, or earplugs. It’s about awareness: if a child is more impulsive, perhaps they’d be better off sitting at the front, rather than the back of the class,” she says.
The research at the moment is small-scale, but Massonnie has plans to expand her work. So while it may not be something that will radically change your teaching, it may be worth listening to - particularly the next time the noise in your classroom reaches deafening levels.
