By: Abagail Kiem
The lighting in a classroom plays a crucial role in a student’s learning experience. Proper lighting can significantly impact a student’s concentration, mood and overall performance. Students may also experience overstimulation from the lights which can cause headaches, mood swings or general irritability. To prevent these negative results, students may stay home thereby contributing to increased absences in schools.
In March, I interviewed 27 students and asked, “which classroom do you thrive in: full light, partial light or no lights/natural light?” About 81% of students responded by saying that they learned better in partial light. However, in my experience, most teachers at DDHS choose to have full overhead lights on in their classrooms.
While there have been many articles on the subject, every environment is different. The website phys.org published an article in 2022 stating that low levels of light can impact a student’s learning environment negatively and a fully lit classroom creates more productive results. However, DDHS numerous students have stated that the bright fluorescent lights our school provides typically overstimulates them. In contrast, classrooms that use primarily natural light or only half the rows of lights have a more positive effect on the perceived productivity of DDHS students.
This research shows that teachers should be more mindful of the connection between lighting and learning as it may impact their students’ concentration, mood and absenteeism rates. If our educators took a more personalized approach to the lighting in their classroom, Delavan-Darien School District might increase student comfort and productivity.
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