Lighting¹ conditions in UK classrooms could be needlessly harming children's school performance, psychologists have claimed. Mark Winterbottom and Arnold Wilkins assessed 90 classrooms in 11 secondary schools across the UK during the Summer of 2006.

Past research has shown that fluorescent² lights that flicker³ imperceptibly at a rate of 100Hz are harmful to mental performance. They're easily replaced by more efficient and less harmful lights, yet Winterbottom and Wilkins found 20 per cent of classrooms were lit solely⁴ by the harmful variety. In the remaining classrooms, an average of 90 per cent of lighting was of the harmful variety.

Excess or inadequate⁵ luminance is another problem in classrooms, usually caused by a lack of control over lighting in different areas of a room. The researchers found that luminance exceeded recommended levels in 88 per cent of the classrooms they investigated. More fine-tuned light control and more use and servicing of blinds could easily ameliorate these issues.

Another lighting problem, brought about since the introduction of data projectors⁶ into classrooms, is glare reflecting off the projection⁷ screen into pupils' eyes. The researchers found that all bar one of the classrooms they studied had equipment arranged in such a way as to exacerbate⁸ this problem, with projectors on the ceiling and screens mounted vertically⁹. The situation can be improved by tilting¹⁰ the screen upwards¹¹ slightly, so that the glare is directed towards the ceiling.

"Most of these problems are unnecessary and appear due to poor policy decisions," Winterbottom and Wilkins concluded. "In most cases, action to correct the problems would be simple, and any costs would be offset¹² in the medium term, due to increased efficiency, reduction of wastage, and benefits in terms of health of pupils and staff."

心理学家宣称，英国学校的教室灯光条件可能对学生的表现产生不必要的不良影响。这是马克·温特伯顿和阿诺德·威尔金斯于2006夏季评估了英国11所中学，90间教室之后得出的结论。

过去的研究发现，荧光灯闪烁频率在100赫兹时，会对头脑的思维活动产生损害，尽管人察觉不到。换成能效更高、危害更小的灯并非难事，但温特伯顿和威尔金斯发现，20%的教室里用的全是会造成损害的灯；而其余的教室里，有害灯光所占比例平均为90%。

另一个问题是教室里的光照过度或不足，原因通常是对不同区域的光照缺少控制。研究者们发现有88%的被调查教室光照强度超过了推荐水平。可微调的光照控制加上窗帘的使用和维修将轻而易举地改善这些问题。

还有一个因使用数码投影仪带来的光照问题，即学生常常受到从投影屏反射的强光照射。研究者们发现除了一间教室外，所有教室都把投影仪挂于天花板上，屏幕垂直安装，这样的设置使问题更加严重。正确的做法是将屏幕向上稍稍倾斜，从而能把强光折射到天花板上。

“大多数问题都是不应该出现的。糟糕的政策决定或许才是原因所在，”温特伯顿和威尔金斯得出结论，“大部分情况下，问题的解决其实很简单，所付出的代价也会在以后不久的时期内获得补偿，因为能效提高了，耗能下降了，学生和教职员的健康也受益了。”