Knowledge about voice and the importance of voice as an educational resource in the perspective of university professors

PURPOSE: to investigate the knowledge about voice and its importance as an educational resource in university professors. METHODS: the subjects were 112 teachers, mean age 46.60, 35.7% males and 64.3% females, 66.1% Ph.D. The Vocal Production Conditions-Teacher questionnaire was used with adaptations by the researcher proposing new questions of interest to the research and an analogic zero to ten scale was used. A sample of teachers' voices was collected and analyzed by speech therapy assessment. Closed questions were analyzed statistically where the means of self-reported scores were considered in each studied variable. The results were related using the variables gender and presence/absence of voice disorder. The answers to open-ended questions were organized according to content similarity and frequency of occurrence. RESULTS: there was a significant association between female sex and high-pitched voice, fatigue and voice loss; voice disorder and weak voice, hoarseness, insufficient voice for work and vocal fatigue. The professors partook in the study in order to cooperate and improve voice in teaching; they would change their voices as far as intensity, tone and modulation; the most frequently used vocal resources in the classroom were tone and intensity variation, modulation and pauses; and when there is a voice disorder, they undergo vocal rest and hydration. The score attributed to voice as an educational resource was 9.42. CONCLUSION: the participants' knowledge about voice was appropriate and it was evaluated as an essential educational resource.