Indoor Environmental Quality towards Classrooms’ Comforts Level: Case Study at Malaysian Secondary School Building

Abstract

The indoor environmental aspects of classrooms in secondary school buildings need to be determined to ensure that they meet the users’ basic requirements. Students’ efficiency and learning productivity can be affected if the classroom’s indoor environment is of poor quality. The question raised here: how can we ensure that the comfort level provided to building users in terms of indoor aspects is up to their satisfaction? Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) is an instrument to examine the success of building design and performance after occupancy. It indicates users’ satisfaction and comfort level related with the indoor environment. Considering users as a benchmark, there is a large potential for improvement in buildings’ indoor environmental aspects. As reflected by the title, the study’s main purpose is to evaluate students’ satisfaction and perception of their classrooms’ comfort level along with recommendations to enhance the quality of their indoor environment. The survey method applied in this study is by distributing questionnaires to 382 students in classrooms where physical measurements were taken to determine how environmental aspects affect these students. This is because these students are highly correlated with the level of comfort and productivity in the classroom. To enhance physical satisfaction during the learning process, semi-structured interviews consisting of 35 experts in related fields were selected, of whom 17 experts are those with a technical background while the remaining 18 experts are from non-technical fields. The results of this interview will be integrated in finding the best methods to improve Indoor Environment Quality in the classroom. The paper recommends the adaptation of POE in order to evaluate the indoor environmental aspects of classrooms as significant learning spaces in school buildings that need to be managed and monitored continuously.

Relationship between environmental indoor conditions of a classroom and the performance of undergraduate students

“…The indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and indoor thermal environment of university buildings can affect students' physical health, mental health and learning efficiency (Zhang and Bluyssen, 2019;Li et al, 2021;Guevara et al, 2021;Norazman et al, 2021).…”

“…In general, school buildings are not thermally comfortable. Thus, classrooms must be designed accurately, more so in terms of facilities such as lighting and ventilation (Norazman et al. , 2021).…”

Preliminary Study on Student’s Performance and Thermal Comfort in Classroom

“…Thus, the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) of the classroom is significant to be preserved. Besides that, thermal comfort conditions in educational buildings also encouraged student productiveness during the teaching and learning process [4]. Many researchers have studied the effect of environmental conditions on student performance.…”

Natural Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality in Domestic School Building: CFD Simulation and Improvement Strategies

“…Studies have shown that natural ventilation can greatly reduce the amount of energy used and can save up to 25% of overall building energy consumption compared to a mechanical ventilated building [1], while Zhao et al, [2] reported about 40% of building energy consumption is compensated to mechanical ventilation and 35% of carbon dioxide emission in Europe country. The physical environment and thermal comfort level in a classroom could significantly influence the performance of students in terms of their motivation to study as well as their concentration during classes [3,4]. In relation to this, natural ventilation is attained by purposely built openings around the enclosure, or recently, the wind-assisting device is often applied to facilitate the process [1,[5][6][7].…”