By Jaya Carrier
I hope you’re all having a good week! Following an earlier article this year about the role of gesture in the classroom, this week I was interested to see an article in Edutopia summarising the available evidence about the role of the teacher’s tone of voice in learning and in classroom relationship building.
Objectives: To understand the impact of the tone of teacher voice in the classroom
Summary:
The article cites a study published in 2022 which looked at the impact of how students reacted to common instructions said in different tones, ranging from controlling, neutral to supportive.
The study concluded that controlling tones appeared to undermine students’ sense of competence, whereas supportive tones enhanced their sense of connection to teachers.
They particularly noted that controlling tones appeared to inhibit students from possibly disclosing important information, including about whether or not they were being bullied
They also cite a 2021 study which suggests that there elements of emotions being ‘contagious’ when pertaining to tone of voice. For example, when teachers were warm and supportive students tended to stay engaged for longer and behave better. When teachers were sensed as panic, or had a rise in vocal register, were more likely to have students engaged in a more combative atmosphere.
The article also states that older students see an overly strict tone as a challenge, and will aim to rebel.
The author suggests that teachers would benefit from considering what sorts of scenarios might occur in classrooms, and to practise dealing with these. They also suggest adopting a tone that might best be described as ‘warm demander’.
How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:
What is my tone like when speaking to students?
Whose tone in the Academy is effective? Why does it work well?
What can I do to practice my tone and develop a ‘warm demander’ tone?
Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you!
This is an even more interesting post than usual! I admit to being fascinated by the range in tone of voice that I've heard teachers use over the years. It might be tempting to assume that a louder, "controlling" tone will help with classroom management but my accumulated experience is consistent with the study cited: Often the calmest, learning-focused lessons I see are those in which the teacher is relatively quiet and encouraging. The reference to emotions being "contagious" resonates!
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