Learning and Work hybrid seminars, spring/summer 2026

When: Tuesday, 9th of June
Time: 12.00 - 13.00
Where: TS49 - 0.003

Speaker: Elke Claes & Mariët Bogaard

Titel: In the Heat of the Moment: Effects of Hot, Humid Classrooms on Student Performance

Abstract: Indoor environmental conditions are increasingly recognized as important factors for performance and productivity. Since students spend most of their time indoors, it is valuable to understand how classroom conditions affect their performance. This paper examines the impact of indoor dry-and wet-bulb temperature on student performance. Unlike dry-bulb temperature, wet-bulb temperature incorporates both heat and humidity, providing a more accurate measure of heat stress experienced by students than air temperature alone. We use data from a large field study that monitored environmental conditions in 216 Dutch primary school classrooms from 2018 to 2021. We combine this sensor data with biannual math and reading scores obtained from the student administration systems. Applying a fixed-effects strategy, we exploit within classroom variations in temperature and humidity across different tests. Our results show that indoor dry-bulb temperatures are associated with lower student performance. We find that higher wet-bulb temperatures, which combine temperature and humidity to measure heat stress, are associated with lower math scores, with performance declines already emerging at moderate levels and becoming larger at higher levels. In contrast, we find no statistically significant effects for reading performance. Our findings indicate that thermal classroom conditions matter for student performance. This underscores the need to monitor and manage both indoor temperature and humidity to create supportive learning environments that safeguard student performance, especially for cognitive demanding tasks.

Scheduled seminars

23.06.2026 Sabine van der Veer 
07.07.2026 Amelie Schiprowski (Uni Bonn)