How voice training can help teachers improve wellbeing in the classroom

Teachers use their voices in the classroom to build enthusiasm, convey knowledge and defuse tensions.

A warm, encouraging voice boosts pupils’ motivation, reduces anxiety and improves connections with teachers and classroom dynamics. Controlling or harsh tones can unknowingly create stress for pupils, erode trust and lead to disengagement.

But teachers are also stressed, and stress can affect the way we speak. Being stressed affects the control we have over our speech. We tend to speak at a higher pitch with more variation, which can induce vocal strain.

Further, listeners can perceive the speaker’s stress from their speech. That perceived stress has the potential to influence the emotions of the listener, too, which in a school can negatively shape a classroom’s atmosphere.

Few teachers are trained in how to use their voice effectively. Neither are teachers trained in how to protect their voice to ensure career longevity and prevent voice-related illness. Providing voice awareness training for teachers could help reduce the impact of stress and overuse on teachers’ voices and transform communication within the classroom.

Supportive classrooms

It has long been known that children learn more and participate better in supportive and engaging classroom atmospheres. The way teachers speak can affect their pupils’ wellbeing, engagement and self-esteem.

Teachers can create these environments by using a tone or style of voice that demonstrates their interest in their pupils. Vocal delivery affects cooperation, and emerging evidence suggests that it has an influence on how pupils learn.

Pupils are less likely to engage in thinking about concepts and problem solving after hearing a harsh-sounding voice. Instead, they rely more on simple repetition, which is less effective for long-term learning. Together, these studies suggest that teachers can create supportive, optimal learning environments through a nuanced use of voice in the classroom.

After hearing harsh, controlling-sounding voices, pupils have reported heightened negative emotions and feeling disconnected from teachers. Listeners take less than a quarter of a second to detect harsh voices, suggesting specialised brain mechanisms for processing threat-inducing voices.

Listening to supportive-sounding voices, which are often soft, warm and slower-paced, enhances wellbeing, increasing feelings of self-esteem and competence.

Research has found that showing an interest in others through voice cues changes the way listeners disclose information. This means that teachers using a supportive tone of voice could help pupils talk to them about important or difficult issues, such as bullying.

Vocal training

One of us (Silke Paulmann) has carried out research to evaluate the vocal awareness training offered by a teacher training organisation. After training, the teachers spoke in a less monotone voice, increasing their pitch and volume range, and at a slower pace. They used softer ways of speaking, demonstrating that vocal awareness training can alter teachers’ speech patterns.

Teachers are also at risk of voice problems. In a 2018 study, 30% of teachers surveyed reported voice problems, such as hoarseness, a sign of vocal strain or fatigue, or voice loss. In general, teachers are more likely to develop voice disorders compared with the general population.

However, unlike actors or singers, who also rely extensively on their voices, teachers do not typically receive vocal training. Voice training helps prevent long-term voice damage or strain. Proactively addressing teacher voice health could reduce missed work days due to voice-related issues and help improve teacher wellbeing, as they often occur together.

The vocal training we evaluated included techniques to help the trainee teachers master vocal delivery, as well as tips and tricks around voice health. The training emphasised how harsh and sharp-sounding voices can negatively affect students’ wellbeing.

It focused on how classroom communications benefit from soft, warm-sounding tones, creating a supportive and motivating classroom environment. Comparisons of the teachers’ voices before and after training indicated that their vocal quality improved.

Incorporating even short voice awareness training into teacher education and professional development could better equip educators to create supportive, engaging learning environments, protect their vocal health and support their wellbeing. Currently, though, the availability of voice awareness training for teachers is sparse.

Vocal awareness training can improve teachers’ vocal delivery, enhancing classroom communication and engagement. As education systems focus on both teacher and student wellbeing, incorporating such training into teacher development programmes is a crucial step forward.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Claire Oakley, University of Essex and Silke Paulmann, University of Essex

Read more:

• How generative AI is really changing education – by outsourcing the production of knowledge to big tech
• More ethnic minority teachers are needed in UK schools – but teaching can affect their mental health and wellbeing
• LGBTQ+ teachers don’t receive the training and support they need

In future work, Claire Oakley will collaborate with Mario Education (https://marioeducation.com/) as part of an evaluation project.

Silke Paulmann receives funding from the University of Essex Impact Fund and work on motivational prosody has previously been funded by the Leverhulme Trust. She collaborates with Mario Education (https://marioeducation.com) and 5Voices (https://the5voices.com) on projects related to teacher voice use.