Abstract
The varying indoor environments among educational buildings can have an impact on students’ ability to learn. This study looks at field data from 220 classrooms in the Midwest, United States, over a two-year period, to analyze the effects of the visual environment on student achievement. The visual environmental metrics considered within this scope include the three new view metrics introduced within the EN 17037 “Daylight of Buildings” standard (Horizontal Sight Angle, Outside Distance of View, and Number of View Layers), as well as standard daylight and electric lighting metrics, focusing on light availability and glare. To capture student achievement, math and reading achievement scores were used, accompanied by auxiliary demographic variables. This allowed for a correlational analysis using multivariate regression. Among the notable results of this study, there was a positive effect of the availability of view on reading achievement. However, another view metric, Horizontal Sight Angle, showed a significant negative interaction with free and reduced lunch recipients on reading achievement, indicating that demographics can also have a significant role in the way the visual environment can affect learning.
Highlights
Building environments can influence occupants’ mood [1], health [2,3], and performance [4,5,6]
Higher scores for building condition led to higher attendance, while higher attendance decreased the number of students with poor academic achievement
The SEESA project focuses on the overall indoor classroom environment, including acoustics, indoor air quality, thermal comfort, and visual environment for 220 classrooms, this study focuses on the visual environment; to that end, visual data was gathered using both occupied logging during multiple school days and unoccupied measurements along with simulations in K-12 classrooms, allowing for several different metrics to be assessed, including daylighting, electric lighting, and view variables
Summary
Building environments can influence occupants’ mood [1], health [2,3], and performance [4,5,6]. Bowers and Burkett compared two facilities of different ages and found that students in the modern building scored significantly higher in reading, listening, language, and arithmetic tasks than students in the older facility [8]. They found that less discipline was needed in the newer building, which showed significantly higher attendance. Phillips found the same significant achievement score differences for reading and arithmetic with new buildings compared to older ones [9]. The environmental conditions of a building refer to the lighting, thermal, and acoustical environment, as well
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
