Group work in classrooms can be challenging for children

Several research studies have looked at the ability to recall a sequence of items in the presence of background noise. Noise was particularly impactful when the children were exposed to “irrelevant sound,” especially when the sound had a changing-state characteristic (e.g., background speech, as opposed to steady-state white noise).
An example of this in practical terms would be the high levels of noise present when students are involved in group work (irrelevant sound), which could be said to have a greater effect on memory than the background noise of a fan (steady-state sound). Once again, age was associated with poorer results. Recall performance dropped by 39% in the presence of noise (relative to quiet) in the second graders, compared to an 11% decrease in adults.
Klatte M, Bergström K, Lachmann T (2003). Does noise affect learning? A short review on noise effects on cognitive performance in children. Frontiers in Psychology, 4(578). doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00578. PMID: 24009598; PMCID: PMC3757288.

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Several research studies have looked at the ability to recall a sequence of items in the presence of background noise. Noise was particularly impactful when the children were exposed to “irrelevant sound,” especially when the sound had a changing-state characteristic (e.g., background speech, as opposed to steady-state white noise). An example of this in practical terms would be the high levels of noise present when students are involved in group work (irrelevant sound), which could be said to have a greater effect on memory than the background noise of a fan (steady-state sound). Once again, age was associated with poorer results. Recall performance dropped by 39% in the presence of noise (relative to quiet) in the second graders, compared to an 11% decrease in adults. Klatte M, Bergström K, Lachmann T (2003). Does noise affect learning? A short review on noise effects on cognitive performance in children. Frontiers in Psychology, 4(578). doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00578. PMID: 24009598; PMCID: PMC3757288.