Following the research, there were very large differences in preferred terms of address between respondents in different countries. So even though we asked our respondents to tell us how they would address their teacher if they studied in the USA, apparently many of them were still strongly influenced by their home country norms. We will take ‘Dr. Peter Smith’ as an example.
The alternatives are as follows:
The general level of informality of addressing their teacher with the given name is only popular in Britain. It is very surprising that all of the British students had a strong preference for addressing their teachers by their given name. This tendency was also strong in Ireland and the other Northern European countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland.
While exceptions are always possible, the usual method in primary and secondary schools in the United States is to address the woman by her last name/ surname/ family name, preceded by the honorific she prefers.
Some unmarried women prefer to be called "Miss [Surname]", while some unmarried women prefer to be called "Ms. [Surname]"
Some married women prefer to be called "Mrs. [Surname]", while other married women prefer to be called "Ms. [Surname]"
For example:
“Miss Jones, I lost my homework.”
“Ms. Smith, may I get a drink of water?”
“Mrs. Doe, do we have a test tomorrow?”
In colleges and universities, if the teacher has a doctorate, he/she would be addressed as "Doctor [Surname]"; if she holds a professorship she then becomes "Professor [Surname]"; and if the teacher is a nun (as many of mine were), she would be addressed as "Sister [First name]" in other words, Sister Joan Smith is "Sister Joan", not "Sister Smith."
As Anne-Wil Harzing stated, some of the significant differences that she found between countries would certainly seem to be related to general cultural differences, such as the higher level of informality in Northern Europe and the generally higher level of power distance in Asian and Latin countries.