Book Review of Michelle D. Miller, A Teacher’s Guide to Learning Student Names, volume 2 in the Teaching, Engaging, and Thriving in Higher Ed Series
by Beth Petitjean, Digital Learning Specialist, Reinert Center
Names are part of our identity. We might not like our names, we might love our names, we might have nicknames, we might have dead names, we might have married names, we might have titles or honorifics attached to our names, our names might change many times over the course of our lives. Names are important.
Many people assume that my name is Elizabeth. It’s not. Nor is it Bethany, and it certainly is not Betty. Just Beth. I wasn’t supposed to be Beth. As a teenager, my mom’s dream for her future children was to follow a family naming convention with the letter “J.” She planned for me to be “Jill Ellen.” Flash forwards a few years and my mom married a man who had a lisp and couldn’t say L’s very well (ironically, his name was Larry). Jill Ellen was out, so was Elizabeth, and they arrived at Beth. I desperately wanted to be Jill when I was a kid so I could fit in with all my J-named cousins, but today, I can’t imagine myself being Jill.
I share this story because explaining meanings or stories about names is one of the techniques that Michelle D. Miller describes in A Teacher’s Guide to Learning Student Names, volume 2 in the Teaching, Engaging and Thriving in Higher Ed Series published by the University of Oklahoma Press. This short book offers a brief explanation of how memory works, why it’s so hard to remember names, offers several techniques for learning names, and addresses special challenges such as pronouns, face blindness, and pronunciation.
Miller starts the book by sharing an amusing story about the challenges of learning student names during her first semester as a TA. Many of us can think back to our first teaching experience and perhaps feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of remembering “all the names.” I had the hubris to think I would do fine at names, then I met the “Kates” on my first day of teaching. One section, three students named some version of Katherine or Caitlyn with C’s or K’s, I’s or Y’s, wanting to be called Kate, Katie, Cat. And they all sat near each other. And there were more Kates of other varieties in my other sections that semester. I tried but rarely got it right, prompting eyerolls from the Kates in response every time I got it wrong. It was a nightmare.
Learning student names is an aspect of showing respect and acknowledging the human beings who have chosen to spend part of their educational journey with us as their guide. For the student, hearing their name makes them feel recognized and known, that they are not just another faceless Banner ID, that they matter. Miller notes that research shows that “hearing their names used makes students feel more engaged and supported by their instructors.” [6]
Miller’s research is in memory and she is adept at simplifying the process for the non-specialist by explaining that learning names is a retrieval practice made up of encoding (creating some lasting impression of information), storage of that information, then retrieval to create “a virtuous cycle by which the more you remember something, the easier it is to do so again.” [20-22]. For retrieving student names, it is “all about individuating a person” [30-31].
To distinguish one student from another, Miller suggests we train our brains through a method of ASAR, or “attend, say, associate, and retrieve” the student’s names and associated information. Besides the “ask about the meaning of the name,” which is the one I chose for the opening of this blog, Miller offers a several techniques and suggestions including icebreakers in pairs, using table tents, or even index cards, as well as responding to students by saying their names [see chapter 2]. Chapter 3 is a highlight of this book for it includes advice on how to adapt these basic techniques for name retrieval practice under specific circumstances such as neurodivergence, prosopagnosia (face-blindness), age, or unfamiliar languages.
Miller wraps up this book in chapter 4 with resources to keep practicing and suggestions for helping students use each other’s names (the “dance card” idea on page 88 seems like it would be fun to adapt!). She concludes,
“And this brings us right back to the reasons to worry about learning names in the first place—relationships. Positive relations, ones in which people feel appreciated as the unique individuals that they are, are the foundation that can support better classroom atmospheres, positive interactions between students, and instructor-student rapport. They are also a step toward establishing trust in you as the instructor, something that’s also tremendously important to learning, especially when you are asking students to take risks and adopt new perspectives.” [88-89].
Learning names is about more than just preventing the inevitable eye roll when we get a name wrong. It’s about building trust that leads to student success, which is, really, why we’re here. Next week, coincidentally, we will review Elizabeth Norell’s The Present Professor. She’s an Elizabeth who goes by Liz, but hopefully, you’ll remember that I’m just a Beth. And don’t get me started on my last name.
Additional Resources:
“How to Get to Know Your Students.” Resource Guide. Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching & Learning.
“Strategies for Learning Student Names.” Resource Guide. Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching & Learning.
“Tips for Using Student Names in Large Classes.” Resource Guide. Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching & Learning.
For more information or to discuss how you might incorporate these ideas into your courses, contact the Reinert Center by email or submit a consultation request form.
The Notebook 