Vocal effort of teachers in different classrooms

Classroom acoustics can be one of the reasons for causing voice disorders among teachers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the vocal effort of teachers and the noise level of students under different classroom conditions (reverberant and less reverberant classrooms, junior and senior level, different teaching types like teacher-centered teaching and team work). We were able to carry out measurements over a period of two weeks, where the same two classes were taught by the same teachers in a reverberant classroom during the first week and in a less reverberant classroom during the second week. The results indicate a much greater increase of the vocal effort of the teachers over a period of six hours in a reverberant classroom compared to a less reverberant classroom. In addition, teaching younger students requires a greater vocal effort since the noise level is much higher. Also, extended breaks are crucial for the recovery of the voice in reveberant spaces, whereas the voice needs less time to
recover in less reverberant spaces. A questionnaire filled out by the participating teachers confirmed that the level of exhaustion at the end of the day is much greater in reverberant spaces.