Early in my teaching career, a student told me that I was the only professor who had so far remembered her request to call her by her second name rather than her first. At the time, I was curious: What had prevented other educators from remembering her preferred name? 

With experience, I have gained more perspective on the obstacles to learning and using student names, especially during my busiest teaching semesters when I was seeing over 150 students in class each week. Remembering names does not always come easily; large or online classes can appear seemingly anonymous; multiple sections blur together; some names may be difficult to pronounce in their unfamiliarity. 

Research demonstrates that student name use is a simple and readily implemented strategy for engagement and inclusion – and that it’s well worth the effort, despite the obstacles (Kitzmiller 2024). In this post, we’ll explore the benefits of using student names while teaching and identify concrete strategies to learn and use student names. 

The benefits: Connection, persuasion, classroom management

Knowing and using students’ names while teaching create a cascade of benefits. 

Name use is a core facet of building connection with your students. An act of care, using student names promotes relatedness, or the social connection between people, which can in turn motivate engagement and learning. Corroborating previous studies, Barney and Leavitt (2023) provide evidence that name use increases student confidence, thereby encouraging participation in class proceedings. With benefits for the whole class, student name use also promotes interaction and community between peers (Glenz 2014). 

Name use is a rhetorical tactic for persuasion: the person who remembers and uses names appears more relatable, attentive, and warm, and their audience is therefore more likely to reciprocate (Allred et al. 2022). In the context of post-secondary education, the audience is a classroom of students who become more likely to reciprocate in the interactions of learning because they feel seen and cared for by their professor. 

Finally, the literature suggests that name use is an effective tool for classroom management because it creates a contractual relationship between professor and student and a personalized sense of accountability on the part of the student (Barney and Leavitt 2023). Students are not anonymous attendees in class, but rather recognized members of a learning community. Their contributions and presence matter and are monitored.  

Strategies for learning, remembering, and using student names

1. Before each class, review your roster. Look at the photo class list on the portal. Familiarize yourself with names before you meet students in person or online. This can prime you to match names to faces. 
2. If you choose to do a roll call at the outset of each class, adopt a consistent format and communicate to students how they are to indicate their presence to you. Also specify how students should handle late arrivals. 
   • For privacy reasons, ensure you are not sharing the attendance list publicly (e.g., on a screen where all students can see it) when taking the roll call. 
3. When teaching online, ensure student names are correctly displayed instead of emails or device names (e.g., “Ann’s iPhone”). 
   • You might say something like, “A friendly reminder to please change your name to how you would like to be referred to in class. It’s important to me to know and use your names.”
4. Create a seating chart, which can assist with learning names in the early weeks of the semester. A seating chart can be especially useful in large classes (where there are too many names to memorize) for use throughout the semester. If you become confident with names as the semester progresses, you might consider shifting the seating chart periodically, so students mix. 
5. Use name tents. Have students create the tents during the first class. Ask students to clearly write the name they would like you to use in class. Collect the tents at the end of each class and have students pick them up from you when they arrive at the next class meeting. 
   • In addition to using name tents to remind you of names during class proceedings, they can be used to track attendance. Compare the tents that are leftover against your roster to note absences. 
6. Glenz (2014) suggests using a “passport for class”: like name tents, these passports include each student’s name but are stamped or initialed to verify attendance. Reviewing passports and greeting students in the process can reinforce learning names week over week. 
7. Early in the semester, have students introduce themselves to you and the class. You might ask them to interview and introduce a partner to the class or tell a story about their name. You can also tie a content-based ice breaker to introductions. 
8. Small group activities can facilitate learning names for both you and your students. Integrate short, frequent opportunities for students to break off into pairs or groups for assigned tasks. Circulate to monitor progress and chat with groups.  
9. Get pronunciation, preferred names, and pronouns right. It’s okay to ask students for clarification and help in getting it right! Ask students to say their names for you during their introductions and write down the phonetic spelling or a mnemonic on your roster. 
   • You can say something like, “As we go around the group, can you please say your name for me and anything else about how you should be referred to in class?”  
10. Check in when you don’t remember names or pronunciation. Confirming information shows you care and want to get names correct. 
    • Some language you might use: “Can you remind me of your name?” “I want to get the pronunciation right – it’s important to me. Can you say your name for me again?” or “Can you teach me how to pronounce your name?”
11. Use names consistently and often. Use names every class during everyday interactions with students as well as during class discussions and the fielding of questions. Use names when you approach individual students and small groups to offer support in class. Consistent name use reinforces your own learning while creating a supportive classroom culture.

Be patient with yourself in learning and using names. Remembering a whole class of names might not be feasible for you, so feel free to lean on tools like a seating chart and name tents. Online teaching presents the advantage of displayed names on videoconferencing apps, but that feature is only useful in as far as the name displayed is accurate, you know how to pronounce it, and you use it consistently. Regardless of modality, demonstrating you care enough to acknowledge your students by name goes a long way in creating a caring learning community. 

References

Allred, A. T., King, S., & Amos, C. Can recognizing students by name influence student evaluations of teaching? Journal of Education for Business, 97(2), pp. 69-75. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08832323.2021.1888277

Barney, D. C. & Leavitt, T. (2023). Effects of the PE teacher knowing and using student names in PE class: a qualitative investigation. The Physical Educator, 80, pp. 495-507. https://doi.org/10.18666/TPE-2023-V80-I5-11435

Glenz, T. (2014). The importance of learning students’ names. Journal on Best Teaching Practices, 1(1) (2014), pp. 21-22. http://teachingonpurpose.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/JoBTP-vol.-1-issue-1.pdf

Kitzmiller, A. (2024). Creating classroom connections: faculty learning student names. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 19(4), p. 402. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1557308724001483?via%3Dihub