Teachers Notebook

Back in my training year at Loughborough University, we had a session with a voice coach where we learned basic techniques to maintain and protect our voices. Fast forward to last year—I was mentoring a young trainee teacher who had fantastic classroom skills, but her biggest challenge in behavior management was simply being heard over the noise.

We recorded one of her lessons from the back of the room and reviewed moments when she was trying to get students’ attention—such as calling “3,2,1 SLANT” during a science practical. The issue wasn’t that students were ignoring her; they were so engaged in the practical that they just couldn’t hear her. After that lesson, we discussed how to project her voice from the diaphragm, control her breath, and add authority to her tone.

This experience made me wonder: why don’t we have formal voice coaching when our voice is one of our most powerful tools in the classroom?

Insights from Research: The Impact of Voice Training

A recent study by Paulmann & Weinstein (2025) explored the effects of vocal awareness on teachers’ voices. The study examined how primary school teacher trainees produced different tones of communication—motivational, soft and warm, harsh and controlling, or neutral—before and after attending a voice education programme. This programme included:

• Raising voice awareness
• Understanding vocal anatomy
• Breath control exercises
• Voice care strategies

The results were extremely interesting. Trainees who underwent the training spoke more slowly, with reduced vocal effort, and created a more supportive learning environment. The programme focused on five distinct teaching voices, each suited to different classroom contexts:

Voice Category	Teaching Context
Advisory/Comforting	Providing support and praise
Encouraging	Praise and compliments
Centred Neutral	Maintaining behavior expectations
Firm	Demands and warnings
Extra Firm	Warnings after a request

Project your Voice

A key takeaway from the study was that excessive use of firm and extra firm voices can lead to stress-like responses in children. If these tones are overused, especially as a default behaviour management strategy, they may create a tense learning environment rather than a supportive one. Raising awareness about the impacts of firm voice use on children’s well-being, self-esteem and willingness to disclose problems to teachers can lead to teachers using a neutral voice with clarity and confident tone when signalling for compliance.

Beyond Classroom Management: The Role of Tone in Engagement and Motivation

Voice training isn’t just about behavior management. The tone of voice used by a teacher can influence student engagement, attention, and emotional response. Research suggests that:

• Teachers, like actors, use a higher pitch when communicating support and encouragement.
• A more restricted pitch range is used when speaking in a neutral manner.
• Low pitch is often associated with dominance (Tusing & Dillard, 2000), which can create an authoritative but not necessarily supportive atmosphere.

Effective teachers adjust their tone to foster motivation and confidence. Praise, for example, can feel disingenuous if the pitch or tone does not match the intended warmth. By using positive vocal tones, teachers can boost student motivation and overall classroom morale.

Voice Training in Teacher Development Should Happen

Given the importance of voice in the classroom, it seems logical to incorporate voice training into teacher development programs. Just as actors and public speakers receive vocal coaching, teachers could benefit from formal training in:

• Projection and breath control
• Managing vocal strain
• Adapting tone for different teaching situations
• Using voice effectively to enhance student engagement

By equipping teachers with these skills, we can enhance both classroom management and student learning experiences. Perhaps it’s time to make voice coaching a standard part of teacher training programs.