Sensory learning environment research project gets underway

13 April 2010

Nightingale Associates’ research project to explore the impact of sensory design in optimal learning environments has begun.

Pupils at All Saints RC Primary School in Liverpool are among the first to take part in Nightingale Associates’ research project aimed at exploring the impact of sensory design on the school learning environment.

Research shows that children learn best when all senses are engaged. Nightingale Associates’ Design Research and Innovation team are exploring this theory with a particular focus on smell and hearing, using smell and sound interventions to explore their impact on pupils’ educational achievement, motivation, performance and behaviour.

Working with a psychologist from Glyndwr University, Wrexham the team hope to be able to collect enough data to make an accurate analysis of the relationship between pupils’ performance and key environment variables in relation to the senses. Following this analysis these results will be used to create a toolkit that will inform decisions when refurbishing and designing new schools to enable teachers and architects to create an optimal learning environment.

“We know that children are best prepared to learn when they are active and alert. The challenge for teachers and designers is to create school environments that encourage this state-of-being and enhance the emotional and intellectual receptiveness of learners.”

Caroline Paradise, Design Research Coordinator,
Nightingale Associates

The project partners include Glyndŵr University’s School of Health, Social Care, Sport and Exercise Sciences; ScentAir; sonic art and design house, Condiment Junkie; and leading global manufacturer of acoustic ceilings and wall panel solution, Ecophon Sant Gobain.

The research project will be carried out within a carefully regulated framework, for four weeks by All Saints School’s classroom teachers with two classes of 10-11-year-olds. The project’s results will be published in May/June 2010.