Teachers' voice use and wellbeing in relation to the classroom acoustics and background noise

Although many studies have shown that teachers' vocal health is challenged by noise and the room acoustics, research on classroom sound environment from the perspective of teachers' well-being is scarce. This study aimed to explore the relationship between teachers' wellbeing, voice use and classroom acoustics. In this study, wellbeing refers to self-reported vocal health, self-assessed level of stress, burnout and self-efficacy. Twenty-three primary-school teachers answered questionnaires on well-being. In each teacher's classroom, the acoustical properties were measured with the variables reverberation time, clarity of speech (C50) and ventilation system noise (VSN). A series of non-parametric correlations were run to determine the relationship between teachers' well-being and classroom acoustics. There was a significant bivariate correlation between burnout and VSN, (dBA), that, however, after correction for multiple analyses remained non significant, Voice symptoms correlated with VSN and teaching grade. This study indicates that higher degree of burnout in teachers is associated with higher levels of VSN in classrooms. Moreover, teachers' voice symptoms increase with higher levels of VSN. Teachers teaching lower grades had more voice symptoms than those teaching higher grades.