Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Heat and Learning

Not specific to gifted education, but interesting IMO.

Heat and Learning
by Joshua Goodman, Michael Hurwitz, Jisung Park, Jonathan Smith - #24639 (ED EEE LS)
NBER

Abstract:
We provide the first evidence that cumulative heat exposure
inhibits cognitive skill development and that school air
conditioning can mitigate this effect. Student fixed effects
models using 10 million PSAT-takers show that hotter school days
in the year prior to the test reduce learning, with extreme heat
being particularly damaging and larger effects for low income and
minority students. Weekend and summer heat has little impact and
the effect is not explained by pollution or local economic
shocks, suggesting heat directly reduces the productivity of
learning inputs. New data providing the first measures of
school-level air conditioning penetration across the US suggest
such infrastructure almost entirely offsets these effects.
Without air conditioning, each 1°F increase in school year
temperature reduces the amount learned that year by one percent.
Our estimates imply that the benefits of school air conditioning
likely outweigh the costs in most of the US, particularly given
future predicted climate change.

That is interesting! However, the costs of air conditioning is raising a generation who is unable or unwilling or doesn't know how to acclimate to temperature change. Dependence on air conditioning is a big energy hog. While student test scores may improve, the long term impacts of conditioning everyone to cooler temperatures could be maintaining the populations' devastating energy consumption.

I have a health condition that is very sensitive to temperature change, and I'm prone to heat and cold stress injuries. However, I have found that in summer the one thing that makes me unwell is air-conditioning. I really question what the greater health and well-being implications are of being dependent upon air-conditioning, especially when millions of people who have not acclimated to heat are suddenly exposed to heat during a power outage.

I would also suggest that the classroom situation of excessive sitting has more impact than the actual heat. In heat, our blood vessels dilate and increased sweating leads to hypohydration. These two factors reduce blood flow to the brain. For people with health problems like me, it's sudden and dramatic. But the phenomenon exists for all people and I would suggest that the inactivity of the classroom environment as well as the restriction of food and fluids in the classroom environment may be the cause of hypohydration and reduced performance.

Even though I disagree with the author's conclusion about the best course of action, I am thankful you shared this piece and look forward to further conversation on the topic.

One has to assume that the students whose scores were hurt by long-term heat exposure WERE acclimated to the heat they had been experiencing. This feels kind of like the old "this generation is a bunch of weak whiners" excuse that we as a society like heaping on generations that follow our own.

It would certainly be better for the Earth to use less a/c. But it would be EVEN BETTER for everyone if we simply used electricty that wasn't generated in an earth-destroying way, AND made spaces where kids (and everyone else) could generally be comfortable enough to be at their best.

I admit that I didn't read the whole thing - just the abstract and skimmed the first couple of pages.

That said, given that they were talking in the first couple of pages about how heat can degrade adult performance on a variety of intellectual tasks, I wonder if they know whether the results had to do with the kids' being too hot - or the teachers. Hypohydration is definitely a potential issue for teachers, too. I remember my mother talking about how she carefully rationed how much she had to drink, because it was so difficult to go to the bathroom during the day at school when she was teaching elementary school. And she was a "specials" teacher, so she probably had more breaks than the average classroom teacher.

I can tell you being too cold doesn't help your brain either.

It seems quite misleading to claim that the only benefit of energy consumption is improved test scores.

"each 1F increase in average temperature associated with 4.5% lower GDP per capita"
"Heat may indirectly impact learning... on agricultural income, nutrition, and the opportunity costs of schooling in developing economies and on economic activity, institutional norms and political stability."
"Heat may also impact learning directly by altering human physiology and cognition. Even moderately elevated
temperatures can impair decision-making "

Any impact of sitting (do you have cites/references to support your suggestion) does nothing to change this data, and I'm not a supporter of "we can only address one topic at a time" arguments. Being active or having A/C isn't an exclusive either/or.

Reducing energy consumption at a cost of poor learning, lower education, poor nutrition, lowered GNP, political instability, reduced cognition, and impacted physiology is a bit more impactful than low test scores.

Saying on the classroom situation, movement helps mitigate the effects of blood pooling in the limbs. That's how movement comes into play. Perhaps the same temperature would not impact test scores if the students were taught to make counter maneuvers or had under desk steppers or something else which would use muscle pump action to improve circulation. So my question is if heat alone is affecting test scores or if heat + inactivity is affecting test scores. Installing air conditioning is an expensive solution, but permitting and encouraging movement breaks is free. If movement mitigates the academic impact of heat, then adding movement to classrooms would be a free intervention for low-revenue districts.

As far as bigger picture, a serious global effort to reduce human consumption and soil fuel use seems to be in order. The temperature is only going up from human activity. The more we air condition (and other energy consuming comfort necessities) the faster that planet heats up.