Suppose, too, that the speaker wasn t using a public address system. If the presentation was anything less than riveting, you would probably walk out. Students, of course, cannot walk out of a classroom. But many have the same problems hearing a voice coming from the other side of the room. A growing body of research confirms that many students cannot hear clearly and comfortably in class.
Additional studies show that students in classes with sound amplification equipment perform better.
In a related benefit, teachers using amplification systems report fewer medical problems related to strained vocal cords. Why Students Can t Hear Many younger students simply cannot hear properly to begin with, having yet to develop a mature sense of hearing. According to Karen L. Anderson, an educational audiologist with the Puyallup School District in Puyallup, Wash., the auditory paths in the brain can take 15 years to mature fully. Other students hear with difficulty because of what audiologists call fluctuating hearing loss related to ear infections commonly suffered by children. Ninety percent of all school children will have at least one ear infection, Anderson says.