Download The Effects of Classroom Amplification Systems on Early Elementary

“The Effects of Classroom Amplification
Systems on Early Elementary Students’
Academic Achievement, Attending Behavior,
and Their Ability to Hear Their Teacher”
Faith Loven
Nancy Anderson
Kelly J. Fisk
Sheila J. Johnson
University of Minnesota Duluth
Hermantown Elementary School
Cedar Mt. Schools
Children’s Hospitals and Clinics
Background Information
Importance of audition in the classroom
45% of a child’s school day is spent engaged
in listening (Berg, 1987)
Schools are terrible auditory
environments
Noisy
Reverberant
An audio example of the auditory
environment of a typical classroom
Speech Understanding
Poor acoustics and speech understanding
Loven & Collins (1987)
Children with Hearing Loss
in the Classroom
Unidentified hearing loss
Fluctuating hearing thresholds
Otitis media
On any given day, 30% of children in a regular
education placement are struggling with an
educationally significant hearing loss, known
or unknown (Nelson & Schmidt, 1993)
Loss of important linguistic cues and contextual
information
FM Amplification Systems
Improves the acoustics of the classroom
A picture
A demonstration
Sound Field Amplification
Systems
Address the problems of
personal FM systems
Benefit ALL children
Not so much an
amplifying system as
it is an equalizing
system
Efficacy of Sound Field FM
Amplification Systems
Mainstream Amplification Resource Room Study
(MAARS) in 1980
Hearing impaired children in regular classroom settings
made greater academic improvement than similar
children in a resource room placement
Other studies
Improvement in
Academic achievement (Sarff, Ray, & Bagwell, 1981)
Test taking performance (Burgener & Deichmann,1982)
Vocabulary growth (Lovass, 1986)
Identification of vowels and environmental sounds (Lovass, 1986)
Speech discrimination ability (Jones, Berg, & Viehweg, 1989)
Language development (Gilman, 1989)
The Research Questions
What are the effects of classroom amplification on
“normal” hearing students in primary grade
classrooms in terms of the following dimensions?
Academic achievement in three core areas
Reading
Mathematics
Spelling
Objective attending behavior
Students’ subjective judgments of the listening
environment
Methods
Subjects
48 second grade boys and girls in two separate classrooms
in a northern Minnesota K-3 elementary school
Predominantly Caucasian
Ages ranged from 7-9 years
24 students were in each classroom
No known impairments that would affect learning
The Amplified Classroom
Classroom “A”
Deluxe Classroom Amplification System
manufactured by Audio Enhancement
4 ceiling-mounted speakers
Cordless microphone and transmitter
Used during instructional time
Gain adjusted to provide a 65 dBA
presentation level
Sound Level Measurements
of the Classrooms
Classroom “B” (non-amplified)
Average signal-to-noise ratio was +5 dB
Occupied teacher quiet vs occupied teacher talking
Classroom “A” (amplified)
Average signal-to-noise ratio was +14 dB
Occupied teacher quiet vs occupied teacher talking
Measures of Academic
Achievement
Core area curriculum used in both classrooms
Math in My World (McGraw Hill, 1998)
Collections from Young Scholars (Open Court Publications,
1999)
Dolch Sight Word Lists (University of Illinois Press 1974)
Unit tests in reading, mathematics, and spelling
Scores recorded by the classroom teacher
# items correct/# items possible
Data periods
Period 1: November-December. Pre-amplification
Period 2: January-March: First comparison
Period 3: April-May: second comparison
Measures of Attending Behavior
Six students (3 boys/3 girls)
randomly selected in each
classroom
Observation recording form
Attending behaviors:
Eye contact w/teacher
Eye contact w/another student
called upon by the teacher
Eye contact w/materials currently
in use by the class
20 random observations
Observations made during
period 1 and the end of
period 3
Measures of Listening Judgments
Student survey form
Filled out by every student
in Classroom A and B and
two first grade classrooms
and two third grade
classrooms during period
1 and at the end of period
3
144 students surveyed
Results for Academic
Achievement
Each curricular area analyzed
separately
Figure shows the average
reading test scores as a
function of observation
period for amplified and nonamplified classrooms
T-test determined a significant
(p<.05) difference between
the two classrooms during
period 3
Results for Academic
Achievement
Figure shows the average
spelling test scores as a
function of observation
period for amplified and nonamplified classrooms
T-test determined a significant
(p<.05) difference between
the two classrooms during
period 3
Results for Academic
Achievement
Figure shows the average
mathematic test scores as a
function of observation
period for amplified and nonamplified classrooms
T-test determined no significant
(p<.05) differences between
the two classrooms any of the
three observation periods
Summary of Results for
Academic Achievement
Significantly better performance was demonstrated
in the amplified classroom, compared to the nonamplified classroom, after some period of
exposure to the system in the areas of reading and
spelling. No differences were evident between the
two classrooms for math.
Results for Classroom
Attending Behaviors
Two-way factorial analysis of variance Procedure (ANOVA)
ANOVA summary suggests a significant (p<.05) interaction
between classroom and observation period
Results for Classroom
Attending Behaviors
Figure plotting the average
number of positive attending
behaviors recorded as a
function of classroom and
observation period
Tukey Test for Honestly
Significant Differences
Significant (p<.05) differences
involve the May time period
between the amplified and
non-amplified classroom
Summary of Results for
Classroom Attending Behavior
Observations of attending classroom
behaviors increased significantly in the
classroom with the FM sound field
amplifier, after installation of the unit
Results for Listening Judgments
Tables show the averaged
responses to each survey
item across all
classrooms
The last item shows a
difference between the
average %-change
across the two
classrooms
Summary and Conclusions
Classroom amplification systems, used in classrooms
with normally hearing, normally developing
second graders, lead to significant gains in
academic achievement
The benefit of amplification is not immediate
Objective measures of classroom listening behavior
increases in an amplified classroom
May be related to the childrens’ perception of a quieter
classroom in the amplified classroom