Learning Student Names: It's Hard, but You Can (and Should) Do It! 

In a few weeks, we will be starting a new academic term. With each new group of students comes a new batch of names to learn. While some instructors are able to master a large number of student names in a short amount of time, most of us struggle with this task, even though we are aware of its many benefits. Not surprisingly, students whose instructors learn their names, or make an honest attempt to do so, feel more valued, more engaged, and have a stronger sense of belonging in their courses.

Benefits notwithstanding, many instructors have a hard time mastering student names at the start of each new term, especially given numerous competing demands on their mental resources. This is perfectly normal, Professor of Psychological Science Michelle D. Miller, assures us in her recent book, A Teacher’s Guide to Learning Student Names. Why You Should, Why It’s Hard, How You Can (2024) . If you think you are simply "bad at remembering names,” think again! Miller’s volume offers insight into why human brains find the task of name-learning challenging, as well as practical tips for instructors who wish to try anyway.

The first part of Miller's book (2024) draws on recent human cognition research to explain why struggling to learn names "is the rule and not the exception” (p. 20). The seemingly straightforward task of name recall turns out to be more complicated than it seems for a number of reasons:

• Compared to remembering faces (a recognition task), remembering names (a recall task) presents a much greater challenge for the human brain.
• Hearing a name involves a different process (input phonology) than uttering it (output phonology), so simply hearing student names does not provide us with practice in the task of retrieving (and producing!) them.
• Personal names are arbitrary labels that do not carry the same rich (memory enhancing) networks of associations as other types of words.
• The familiar “tip of the tongue” effect (which increases with ageing!) frequently stalls the process of name retrieval: we “know” the word/name but cannot access the sound needed to produce it because the neurological meaning-to-sound connection is not working.

Those of us who struggle with learning student names (i.e., the bulk of us) can rest assured that we are not alone. To help us out, Miller provides evidence-informed tips for enhancing name encoding, storage, and retrieval:

• Attend : all learning requires attention, so make sure to focus closely on the task of absorbing student names as they are shared.
• Say : repeating the student’s name several times will activate output phonology (the weakest link in name recall!) as well as providing the student with an opportunity to correct your pronunciation. (You can use phrases like, “Hello X” or “Welcome to the class Z” to practice name repetition.)
• Associate : create a mental association between the sound of the name and the student. You can do this by (1) linking the sound of their name with a like-sounding object, or similarly-named celebrity or family member and then (2) associating that object/person with the student in question by creating a mental image that links them together. (For example, if my student’s name is Sejal, I can link her name to the like-sounding word “sage” and then create an association by imagining the student holding a bouquet of sage sprigs.)
• Retrieve : take every opportunity to actively retrieve names by greeting students as they come to class, calling them by name during class, using names when returning student work, saying goodbye at the end of class, etc.

To illustrate what these tips might look like in practice, Miller recommends viewing a recorded lecture by Michael Sandel at Harvard University which illustrates effective use of student names in a large lecture-hall setting. She also provides a play-by-play example of her own first-day-of-class exercise that allows her to learn a large number of names in one go:

1. She begins by studying the student photo roster before class, to give herself a head start.
2. Once in class, she pairs up her students and asks them to introduce themselves to one another while she walks around and tries to take in as many names as she can, occasionally interacting with students and repeating their names.
3. After this initial round of paired introductions, she mentally divides her class into sections and asks students to introduce their partners to the whole class, section-by-section. During this process, she listens attentively, does her best to form quick associations with the names she's hearing, and then repeats the names of the students in each section before moving on to the next one.
4. Finally, she challenges herself to retrieve all names at the end of the session. Even if the retrieval is not 100% perfect, students are impressed by and appreciative of the effort!

Other strategies for effective name-learning listed in Miller’s volume include using name tents/labels that make student names visible in the classroom; inviting students to participate in name-themed ice-breakers (e.g.,“share an image to help us remember your name”, “share the meaning/story behind your name”, “create a rhyme that includes your name”, etc.); and using technology tools that support the correct pronunciation of names (e.g., audio-recording features in Blackboard/Canvas or web-based tools like Pronouncenames, Namedrop, Vocaroo, Name Shark, Nameorize, etc.)

Finally, in addition to learning student names ourselves, we should encourage our students to learn their peers’ names as well. Michelle Miller recommends Judith Davidson’s Faculty Focus article Activities for Helping Students Learn One Another’s Names for tips on creating a class culture where using names frequently and correctly is a shared--and cherished--norm.