Acoustics in School Sport Halls and Its Implications for Physical Education

Due to the demanding acoustic conditions in physical education lessons and the related problems with health and academic success, the aim of this study was to examine the acoustic conditions of teaching in sport halls in Slovenia. Thirtyfive sport halls were selected, reflecting four types of school sport halls grouped according to the period of their construction. The reverberation time was measured, and speech intelligibility was calculated by means of the Speech Transmission Index. Eighty-six per cent of the sport halls have poor or merely satisfactory speech intelligibility; statistically significant differences in acoustics were observed between different types of sport halls. The best acoustic conditions were found in the newer, multi-purpose sport halls, which allow three classes to be taught simultaneously; the worst conditions were observed in the older, single-class sport halls. The acoustics of the school sport halls should be improved, and the strain on the voice of the teachers should be reduced by means of a more suitable organisation of lessons and the use of information communication technology equipment.