Take a Moment to Listen
Order in the Chaos of Classroom Noise
J. Y. Gao
IT WAS DURING ONE OF DR. STOBO’S HISTORY CLASSES LAST YEAR when I first took notice of the sound in the room. Before I am accused of not concentrating in class, I want to explain this peculiar moment by first introducing some observations I’ve made about the classroom environment – especially in regards to segmented ‘moments’ of a period; they are familiar to us all, I am sure of it: first, there are the moments when your teacher is explaining a topic to the class and, thus, requires all of your attention; then, there are moments when your teacher sets a task for you to complete in silence; of course, to employ modern teaching methods that encourage learning through sharing and communication, there are moments when you are asked to “discuss with the person next to you” your own opinion on the topic; and finally, there are moments your teacher conducts a class discussion where you get the opportunity to share with the class an appropriate response or comment (these moments, by themselves, spark a very interesting conversation about our unique motivations behind ‘raising and sharing’ – but that is for another article). In summary, I’ve recognised the four main ‘scenes’ that you are most likely to encounter during a lesson. Though my interest lies within the transitional phases that morph between these ‘scenes’. Whilst these four ‘scenes’ correspond to four distinct noise levels, the transitional phases can be sorted into two categories: an increase in noise, or a decrease in noise (the amount of time the class takes to complete the decrease or increase in volume is, on the other hand, wholly dependent on the ‘scenes’ between which it transitions).
The reason for my interest in these transitional stages stems from the unique opportunity it provides. If I start from the beginning of this thought process, I must start with agitation. The agitation teachers and some students feel when the rest of the class has decided to linger on conversations a little longer or continue a heated lunch discussion by raising the volume louder – an overwhelming cacophony of noise, really. Or at least that’s what it feels like. But, like most things, such a chaotic tangle of voices untangles quite quickly when you start to listen carefully. So often is our impression of the room enhanced by emotions and assumptions that we overlook the order that is present within a chatty class of 25 teenagers. All that needs to be done is to pick out a conversation or a distinct voice within the chaos and find its person of origin. Place it geographically within the class in relation to you and repeat the process for the other voices that you hear. Soon you will find, especially in the cases where the class has been asked to refocus and quiet down, what had seemed like 10 different voices coming from all angles is actually just three – two at the back and one at the front. Suddenly, the overwhelming cacophony of noise seems like three distinct, clear conversations, and the room feels far less chaotic (maybe the same volume, but certainly less overwhelming).
In other instances, like when the whole class is doing the “discuss with the person next to you”, and there are far too many voices for you to pinpoint and remember, try to pick out the one(s) that strikes you as most prominent. You will often find, after recognising and, hence, isolating the one loud voice, the rest of the room lies at a comfortable volume. Try it!
In a similar case, like when the class transitions from quiet to loud, you will notice that after applying this method of deconstructing the noise, what normally felt like a wave of noise that spontaneously arises is actually a handful of timid conversations that are secretly listening in to the volume of other conversations and growing in confidence as neighbouring ones grow also in volume. Gradually, in an attempt to out-compete each other as interlocutors try to make their point clear, the once small handful of timid conversations grows to a small handful of louder conversations.
These observations are empty words if they go unpractised. Try thinking about this next week (or perhaps next term if you are away on camp), and just notice how the room changes when you perceive sound from a different perspective.