An Experimental Test of Children’s Reactions to Tone of Voice Used by Teachers

May 19, 2024

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Cognitive Science, Mental Health

Teachers’ behaviors drive motivational climates that shape children’s engagement and well-being in the classroom. Still, few studies examine how specific teachers’ behaviors such as wording, body language, or voice contribute to these outcomes in isolation. This study set out to discover the role that teachers’ tone of voice plays in a student’s learning.

Words and Actions Are Important, but So Are Voice Patterns

Most current literature focuses on words and actions that create motivational climates. There has been early work outside the education domain that shows that voice patterns can affect adolescents’ behavior, well-being, and connectedness. The research builds on the self-determination theory, a macro-theory of human motivation that argues that motivation can be autonomously driven by personal valuing or interest (derived internally). Alternatively, motivation can be control-driven by external demands, pressures, or consequences (derived externally). In previous research with children and adolescents, controlling versus autonomy-supportive social contexts have been shown to undermine well-being in and out of the classroom 

Some research suggests that children will not learn as effectively if spoken to in a voice that is considered inappropriate (e.g., a negative tone used when delivering instructions) or that sounds unpleasant and is not preferred. Furthermore, teaching with impaired voices (e.g., hoarse, weak, strained) reduces how well children process information. Voice impairment related to pitch, volume, tone, and voice quality has been linked to continuous straining of voices, such as when teachers try to maintain discipline in a noisy classroom by shouting over the noise level for evidence that teachers speak habitually louder when teaching in noisy environments.

Students React Quickly to a Controlling Voice, but Some May Not Feel Safe When They Hear This

Two hundred fifty children from the UK, aged 10-16, participated in an online study. They listened to pre-recorded auditory samples of different tones of voice and responded to survey questions like, “How would a teacher who spoke like this make you feel?”

The results indicated that children expected to feel less psychological satisfaction and lower well-being, including affect and self-esteem, when they heard teachers using controlling, demanding tones. They also felt less inclined to share personal information with such teachers. Controlling tones captured the children’s attention more than neutral or autonomy-supportive tones did. The study demonstrated a moderate effect on the children’s anticipated well-being from brief exposure to controlling voices, highlighting the powerful impact of vocal cues in educational settings.

Students Get Used to Hearing Firm and Harsh Voices From Their Teachers in Class

These results also suggest that the detrimental effects of controlling teaching styles on students’ well-being, as highlighted in previous research, may be partly due to how teachers use their voices. Unlike prior studies that examined motivational voices used by parents, this study found minimal evidence that tone of voice significantly altered children’s intentions to cooperate. This discrepancy indicates that motivational voices may have varying effects in different areas of children’s lives. In school settings, children might be conditioned by peers and the overall environment to react specifically to teachers who use controlling tones. Many teachers report adopting firm and harsh tones to manage classroom behavior, suggesting that such vocal patterns are not just occasional but are commonly used in educational environments.

Notable Quotes: 

“Taking our findings in sum, controlling sounding voices, in comparison with neutral ones, failed to achieve what they set out to do – ensure the child’s compliant behavior – while also producing unintended costs in the form of undermined psychological needs, well-being and children’s willingness to self-disclose.”

“When exposed to controlling climates, youngsters and adolescents, in particular, have been shown to rebel rather than cooperate with adults.”

“Interestingly, exploratory analyses looking at needs separately showed that controlling sounding voices thwarted all three basic psychological needs consistent with previous research.”

Personal Takeaway: 

It was an interesting study and a good reminder that our tone of voice can affect the classroom climate. We should think about the general tone we bring to the classroom and reflectively examine why we do so.—Matt Browne

Paulmann, S., & Weinstein, N. (2023). Teachers’ motivational prosody: A pre‐registered experimental test of children’s reactions to tone of voice used by teachers. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 93(2), 437-452.