In my first few years of teaching, I was often told to lower the pitch of my voice. It was suggested to me that this would help children to hear me better, as my voice would travel more easily across the classroom, cutting through their discussions. In response, I learnt to moderate my voice and to use it more effectively. I also learnt that reducing my comments to a quiet whisper and simplifying the language I used seemed to be more effective when communicating with children. Less, I found, was more.

Throughout my career, I have received further comments about my voice. I was once told by an interview panel that my tone was considered “inappropriate” ; children told me they liked the “different voices” I used when I read aloud to them, and how they could tell from my tone how I felt about their behaviour and learning.

I understand my voice is a powerful tool in my teaching toolkit and I try to use it with nuance and care. But now it seems our voices also share a different message; research suggests that children measure how competent we are at our jobs by our voices.

A teacher’s tone of voice

It is already accepted that listeners judge men and women with lower-pitched voices to be stronger, more powerful, and more physically and socially dominant than those with voices of relative high frequency (Pisanski, K and Bryant, G A, 2019). Studies have also shown that both men and women tend to select male and female leaders with lower-pitched voices that are rated as more masculine. Furthermore, adults rate these leaders as more competent than their higher-pitched counterparts (Klofstad et al, 2012, 2015).

A new study by Cartei and colleagues (2021) has investigated whether these effects are the same for children. The researchers asked a sample of 48 eight- to 10-year-olds to rate how competent different people were at their jobs by listening to their voices. Of the nine occupations used, three were stereotypically female (babysitter, beautician, nurse), three were gender-neutral (doctor, student, writer), and three were stereotypically male (builder, lorry driver, mechanic). In line with gender stereotypes, children rated men as more competent for the “male occupations” and women as more competent for the “female occupations”. Moreover, children rated speakers of both sexes with feminine (high-pitched) voices as more competent for the stereotypically female occupations. Finally, children rated men with masculine (low-pitched) voices as more competent for “male occupations”.

The results indicated that the stereotypical voice-based judgements previously identified in adults are also made by children of the stated ages. So stereotyping starts early.

Could it be that, from the children’s perspective, lowering the pitch of my voice might encourage them to consider me more capable of teaching? Perhaps, the colleagues who once advised me to lower the tone of my voice were acting on their innate sense of what they believed to show greater competence?

Teaching is about communication and perhaps as much as 80 per cent of communication is non-verbal. Although we communicate through words (and words matter enormously), we also communicate through gestures, our facial expressions, and by what we don’t say. But when we do speak, it seems the pitch of our voice might matter more than we think it does. In this case, competency could be in the ear of the listener.

Megan Dixon is director of research at Holy Catholic Family Multi Academy Trust

This article originally appeared in the 12 March 2021 issue under the headline “Pitching it right: why tone matters”