Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is the quality of an inside building’s environment in relation to the health and wellbeing of those who occupy that space. It includes air quality, pleasant lighting and acoustic conditions and a general state of comfort of the occupants. Classroom’s indoor environmental quality affects significantly schoolchildren’s wellbeing and academic achievement.

Research has shown how exposure to noise or inadequate listening conditions in the classroom may significantly interfere with children’s participation in classroom activities, their listening or cognitive effort, their academic performance, and, ultimately, their learning. Adverse listening and lighting conditions in classrooms affect all children, but particularly those who already experience communicative or learning problems, because of language and learning disabilities, attentional disorders, hearing impairment, or those who are acquiring a second language at school.

The main goal of the research project is to assess primary schools’ Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) in the Veneto area with regard to children’s subjective perception of IEQ and the effects of classrooms acoustic on their cognitive effort and academic performance. We focus in particular, but not exclusively, on children with hearing impairment or learning disabilities.   

The project will:

• Develop new indexes of subjective IEQ, including dimensions of cognitive effort as measure of IEQ. 
• Develop a new digital tool (a game-like App) for measuring children’s cognitive effort in noise;
• Define new guidelines and best practices booklets for schools IEQ.

The project addresses three goals of the 2030 Agenda for a sustainable development: goal 11 (sustainable cities and communities), goal 3 (good health and wellbeing) and goal 4 (quality of education).