Using a smart noise regulator to mitigate learners’ poor performance in Grade 10 mathematics classrooms

Abstract

This study was both a development and an evaluation study whose aim was to design a Smart Noise Regulator (SNR) technological device and assess its potential in monitoring extraneous noise in mathematics classrooms, with a view of increasing efficiency of teacher control of classroom learning environments. Learners’ classroom noise has been identified to impact on their mathematical performance. Using a technological device, named the Smart Noise Regulator (SNR), this study aimed to mitigate learners’ poor performance in Grade 10 mathematics. The SNR device, which was developed in this study, was designed to generate a signal to learners when their noise level exceeded an appropriate level in each phase of a mathematics lesson. The study explored five main variables associated with learners’ poor performance in mathematics, namely, classroom noise level, inappropriate classroom behaviour, extraneous cognitive load (ECL), learners’ motivation to engage in the lesson, and teaching and learning time. The SNR device was largely infused into a series of single experimental research designs using a multiple-baseline and A-B-A-B designs for three successive years. Study participants consisted of 205 learners and their six mathematics teachers. Six Grade 10 mathematics classes were sampled from a population of 30 schools and two stages of cluster sampling were used. The participating group was drawn from three clusters, each of which had a different environmental noise sources identified as follows: ten schools were closest to the railway line, ten schools were within the inner-city proximity, and ten schools had the oldest school buildings assumed to be possibly subjected to noise from loose decaying building structures. Data related to the noise level were captured using the sound level meter with a computer software and the lesson observation instruction guideline. Data sought to determine numbers and types of mathematics errors that the learners made in three type of tests administered to them in the classroom that was controlled by SNR device, with the noise level range of 50 to 60 dBA and the classroom without the SNR device with the noise level ranging from 70 to 80 dBA. The analysis of the combined data from six schools revealed that the use of SNR device in a mathematics lesson had resulted in an average of 4,8% reduction of classroom noise. Learners’ accuracy in responding to algebraic tasks, Euclidean geometry and basic and mental calculations increased by 23% when the SNR device was used. Incorrect answers decreased by 16% when the SNR device was used. About 22.3% of learners’ responses indicated that a noise-infested environment of 70 to 80 dBA seemed to imposed relatively undesirable constraints to effective learning when compared with a noise environment of 50 to 60 dBA when the SNR device was used.