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Gender effects on student evaluations of faculty
Abstract
Examined the effects of student and instructor gender on teaching evaluations. The research investigated potential sex bias between male and female students in their ratings of male and female instructors. 537 male and female Ss completed questionnaires concerning their instructor's attitudes and effectiveness. Female Ss gave higher ratings than male Ss, female instructors received higher ratings than male instructors, and those Ss who expected higher grades gave higher ratings. An interaction was also found where female students gave female instructors significantly higher ratings. A multiple regression analysis found that both gender of instructor and expected grade were significant predictors of evaluations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... Also, aspects that might have a biasing effect on assessing course satisfaction have been identified. For example, male students tend to give lower ratings as compared to females when evaluating teaching [33]. However, Leao et al. [34] found no difference in general course satisfaction between genders in the context of engineering education. ...
... We examined the relationship between the reported course satisfaction and gender, because the previous literature [33] has identified that gender might affect the reported educational satisfaction. We did not find any statistically significant difference between the reported course satisfaction and gender (M dn = 8 for both). ...
... As input features, we utilized the eleven agency factors and gender. Gender was added as a control variable based on the previous literature (e.g., [33]). For all classifiers, we divided our data into training (80%) and test (20%) using a stratified split according to satisfaction category. ...
This Research Full Paper presents an examination of the relationships between course satisfaction and student agency resources in engineering education. Satisfaction experienced in learning is known to benefit the students in many ways. However, the varying significance of the different factors of course satisfaction is not entirely clear. We used a validated questionnaire instrument, exploratory statistics, and supervised machine learning to examine how the different factors of student agency affect course satisfaction among engineering students (N=293). Teacher's support and trust for the teacher were identified as both important and critical factors concerning experienced course satisfaction. Participatory resources of agency and gender proved to be less important factors. The results provide convincing evidence about the possibility to identify the most important factors affecting course satisfaction.
... gender (Tatro, 1995); ethnicity (Chevannes, 2001); disability status (Scullion, 2000); age (El Ansari and Oskrochi, 2006); and students' prior entry qualifications (Ofori, 2000). Similar attention has also been paid to the student's achievement in terms of the grades that students accomplished at the end of a module (Marsh and Dunkin, 1992). ...
... Similar attention has also been paid to the student's achievement in terms of the grades that students accomplished at the end of a module (Marsh and Dunkin, 1992). Collectively, such multiplicity of variables implied that a holistic evaluation of satisfaction would comprise many 'background' variables (Tatro, 1995). ...
... However, in the current study, females were more satisfied and achieved higher grades than males (Table 3). Although the study's gender differences in achievement did not reach statistical significance, they are nevertheless in agreement with Kevern et al. (1999) who reported that mature women performed well overall, and with Tatro (1995) who found that female students achieve higher ratings than males. However, gender findings seem to be multi-factorial and difficult to disentangle; e.g. ...
This study explored the factors associated with student satisfaction with their health/social care educational encounter. It examined quantitatively three different student satisfaction indicators: extent, index, and overall satisfaction. An 18-item questionnaire was employed at a British University to examine the factors associated with students' satisfaction with educational experiences, and their achievement in their modules. Student satisfaction and achievement were analysed in relation to nine demographic and educational variables: gender, disability, ethnicity, age bracket, academic level, mode of study, qualification aim, entry qualification and nature of module. The questionnaire exhibited high reliability. The sample reported satisfaction levels in agreement with other studies. For most variables, increase in a group's overall satisfaction was associated with increase in their academic achievement on the module and vice versa, although the differences in grades were sometimes not significant. The nature of the module, study mode and academic level were significant predictors of student satisfaction. Some student groups reported low satisfaction that might require consideration. These were younger males, with disability, of non-white ethnicity, with 'A' level entry qualifications, level 3 full-time students aiming at BSc degrees and attending pre-registration modules. It is concluded that course organisation and support systems will need to attune to the needs of diverse student groups.
... A number of different theoretical frameworks have been used to explore gender biases of students, including fairness (Basow, 1995), empathy (Tatro, 1995), and expressiveness (Arbuckle & Williams, 2003). However, as in other organizational settings, the role that social power plays in contributing to gender bias in the classroom has received very little attention (for exception, see Elias & Loomis, 2004). ...
... A number of studies have contended that student gender is also an important variable of interest. Some studies have found that female students rate instructors differently than male students (Bachen et al., 1999;Centra & Gaubatz, 2000, Elias & Loomis, 2004, Tatro, 1995. A subset of these suggest a same-gender bias for females only, with female students rating female instructors higher on various teaching-related dimensions (Centra & Baubatz, 2000) while others suggest a same-gender bias for both sexes, with both female and male students rating same-gender instructors more favorably (Bachen et al., 1999). ...
This study examines whether students at two universities perceive social power differences between male and female business faculty. Using gender schema and social power theories, we posit that female faculty members will be perceived by students as having greater referent power and that male faculty members will be perceived by students as having greater expert, legitimate, reward and coercive power. Results of a survey involving 892 students at two universities indicate that male faculty members are perceived as having greater expert power, while no gender differences exist on referent, reward and coercive power. Contrary to our hypotheses, female faculty members are perceived as having greater legitimate power.
... En términos generales, gran parte de los estudios ha identificado que si bien ambos sexos son usualmente evaluados de forma distinta, los sesgos producto del género son menores y dependen de otros factores como la raza de los docentes o incluso a veces favorecen a las mujeres, quienes recibirían, en conjunto, mejores evaluaciones que los hombres (Tatro, 1995;Garduño, 2000;Smith, Yoo, Farr, Salmon & Miller, 2007;Smith, 2009). ...
... Es interesante también notar que este patrón de género solo fue observable con claridad al implementar una estrategia de análisis multivariable, lo que es coincidente con lo afirmado por Basow (1998), respecto de que si no se introducen variables contextuales (en nuestro caso, el ciclo de estudios), los patrones de género pueden pasar desapercibidos. Por ello, el estudio de los efectos aislados de nuestras variables indicó simplemente la ya reportada tendencia de las mujeres a evaluar un poco mejor que los hombres -quizá por un sesgo de aquiescencia o por tener expectativas distintas que sus compañeros- (Aleamoni & Hexner, 1980) y una cierta propensión a que las académicas sean mejor evaluadas en responsabilidad y habilidades pedagógicas, mientras que sus colegas masculinos reciben mejores retroalimentaciones en dominio disciplinario, lo que coincide también con lo reportado por otros estudios realizados en el ámbito de las humanidades, las ciencias sociales y las comunicaciones (Tatro, 1995;Basow, 1998;Smith, et al., 2007). ...
Este artículo reporta los hallazgos de una investigación acerca de la presencia de patrones de género en las respuestas de estudiantes universitarios chilenos a un Cuestionario de Evaluación de la Docencia (CED). Se analizaron 9.132 cuestionarios, los que fueron aplicados a alumnos de una facultad de Ciencias Sociales utilizando estadística multivariada. Se encontró evidencia de dichos patrones: las académicas tienden a ser significativamente mejor evaluadas por estudiantes de primer ciclo, que por estudiantes de segundo ciclo de formación y son los varones quienes peor evalúan a sus profesoras. Además, las académicas son mejor evaluadas en responsabilidad y habilidades docentes, pero peor en dominio disciplinario. Se discuten las implicancias de estos resultados para la validez teórica y aplicada de estos cuestionarios en Chile.
... Esas características incluyen entre otras: el rango, la experiencia, la reputación, las habilidades de investigación, el género y la apariencia física. 6 Ver por ejemplo los textos clásicos de: Centra y Creech, 1976;Feldman, 1983;Hamilton, 1980;Mash, 1980Mash, , 1987Perry, Abrami y Leventhal 1979;Erdle, Murray y Rushton, 1985;Greenwald y Gillmore, 1997;Powell, 1978Powell, , 1977Elmore y Pohlmann, 1978 Koermer y Petelle (1991), Tatro (1995), Cheng y Hoshower (1998) han analizado los factores relacionados con las características del grupo estudiantil 7 e hipotetizan que el interés del estudiantado, el género, su expectativa de nota y su edad tienen una influencia que puede sesgar la evaluación de la competencia docente universitaria. ...
... Evidentemente, aunque algunos estudios se han empezado a realizar en otros países, como el Reino Unido, España, Australia o Hong Kong, el grueso de las investigaciones realizadas han sido efectuadas exclusivamente en Estados Unidos y Canadá. Un ejemplo de esos trabajos incluye a Tatro (1995), Anderson y Siegfried (1997), Cheng y Hoshower (1998) y Ting (2001. Algunos otros estudios, como los de Casey (1997) y Timpson y Anderson (1997), sobre el proceso de evaluación en Australia, no han puesto su atención en el sesgo que se presenta en estas evaluaciones. ...
El presente artículo expone una revisión bibliográfica sobre la fiabilidad y la validez de los cuestionarios de opinión estudiantil, utilizados para evaluar la competencia docente universitaria, a fin de reunir información sobre el intenso debate, su complejidad, su análisis y sobre su permanente actualidad; porque la docencia se transforma continuamente, los conocimientos y las habilidades de hoy se desactualizan mañana. Por ello, es necesario evaluar la actividad permanentemente, pero con instrumentos que cumplan cabalmente estos dos componentes psicométricos. Sin embargo, es importante recalcar que muchas de estas evaluaciones no han sido estudiadas en profundidad y en muchos casos carecen de estudios estadísticos; de ahí nacen la gran cantidad de inconvenientes y problemas que enfrentan estas evaluaciones. Además, los cuestionarios de opinión han sido contrastados con variables individuales, olvidando que la docencia es un fenómeno multidimensional integrado por un conjunto de elementos contextuales y, de esa forma, ha de estudiarse, pues algunos de ellos pueden estar asociados a factores ajenos a la docencia universitaria.
... aukðtø ávertinimø ), paþymiø raðymo atlaidumas (Greenwald ir Gillmore, 1997: studentai vertina geriau, jei tikisi gauti geresnius paþymius), lyèiø efektas (reitingai priklauso nuo to, ar dëstytojas ir studentai tokios pat lyties ar ne). Ávairiø studijuojamø dalykø rezultatai sudëtingi, pavyzdþiui, lyèiø efekto atveju: kai kuriuose tyrimuose (pvz., Tatro, 1995 ), vaikinai studentai geriau ávertino dëstytojas, o merginos studentës dëstytojus; kituose (apraðyta Smith ir kt., 1994) vaikinai studentai geriau ávertino dëstytojus, o merginos studentës dëstytojas. Apskritai ðie efektai statistiðkai reikðmingi, jei tyrimo dalyviø skaièius palyginti gausus, bet efekto dydis neþymus ir gali bûti ig ...
... Several effects have been discussed in the literature such as the Dr. Fox-effect (Naftulin, Ware & Donnelly, quoted from Marsh & Ware, 1982: An actor teaches very eloquently nonsense content and gets high ratings ), grading leniency (Greenwald & Gillmore, 1997: The ratings are better if good grades are expected), gender effects (the ratings depend on whether the teacher and the students are of the same sex or not). The results of the different studies are complex, as can be seen with regard to the gender effects: In some studies (e.g., Tatro, 1995 ), male students give better ratings to female teachers and female students to male teachers; in others (reported by Smith et al., 1994), male students give better ratings to male teachers and female students to female teachers. In general, these effects are statistically significant given the large samples which are available, but the effect sizes are rather small and can be neglected for practical purposes (Gigliotti & Buchtel, 1990) and no real threat to validity if the assessment is based on a sound theoretical framework. ...
... The study of gender differences between students and teachers related to their evaluation of teaching style effectiveness have also been planned in the present research. Though the previous researches have not shown very consistent differences between the gender of students in the evaluation of teaching style effectiveness (Marsh, 1984;Watchtel, 1998) but Tatro (1995) found that female students generally gave higher ratings than males, while Koushki and Kuhn (1982) found evidence supporting the reverse. However, in case of teacher's gender the previous researches revealed that gender (Freeman, 1994;Morris, Gorham, Stanley, & Huffman, 1996) has been investigated as important teacher characteristic related to effective teaching. ...
... The review of diverse literature reveals little consistent evidence of gender bias (Watchtel, 1998). For example, Tatro (1995) found that women gave higher ratings than male students, while present findings revealed that the difference is not significant, which is also supported by Koushki and Kuhn (1982). Results also indicated that in UTES there is nonsignificant difference in men and women in the evaluation of male and female teacher. ...
The present research aimed at the development and validation
of an indigenous scale for evaluation of effectiveness of
University teaching. The research has been carried out in two
studies. First study dealt with the development of University
Teacher’s Evaluation Scale (UTES). The items of the scale
were empirically determined for content validation, and factor
analysis on university students (N = 300) including male (n =
150) and female students (n = 150). The results indicated that
UTES as an internally consistent single factor scale. Study II of
the present research was conducted on independent sample of
university students (N = 30) to establish the psychometric
properties of UTES. The convergent validity was established
with the help of Peshawar University Teacher’s Rating Scale
(PUTRS; Riaz, 2000) and both scales showed UTES as valid
and reliable instrument for measuring teaching effectiveness.
There exist nonsignificant difference between gender of
students in evaluation of male teacher and female teachers
respectively.
... In examining the influence of instructor gender on student evaluations, for example, some researchers have found that female instructors are rated lower than their male colleagues (Basow & Silberg, 1987;Sandler, 1991); other researchers (e.g., Basow & Distenfeld, 1985;Feldman, 1983Feldman, , 1993Goodwin & Stevens, 1993;Hancock, Shannon, & Trentham, 1992) were unable to find evidence of gender differences. Still others, such as Feldman (2007), Bachen, McLouglin, and Garcia (1999) and Tatro (1995) found that college students rated female instructors higher than male instructors. ...
... Hancock, Shannon, and Trentham (1992), in a large study using students from five different colleges within the same university, found evidence that female students rated their teachers higher than male students on most aspects of effectiveness, except in the college of education. Tatro (1995), when asking both undergraduate and graduate students to evaluate their teachers, also found that female students rated teachers higher than did male students. Basow and Silberg (1987) found an interaction between student and instructor gender (males rated female teachers lower than male teachers and females rated male and female teachers very similarly) on most aspects of teaching effectiveness. ...
The purpose of this study was to examine the gender bias in student ratings of effective teaching. Students in five colleges were invited to rate instructors on three factors: interpersonal characteristics, pedagogical characteristics, and course content characteristics. We analyzed group differences based on student gender, instructor gender, and student level. Ratings of pedagogical characteristics and course content characteristics yielded significant interactions between student gender and instructor gender, but no differences were found among groups on interpersonal characteristics. We concluded that gender bias plays a role in students' views of effective teaching in terms of how students evaluate pedagogical and content characteristics and that this bias generalizes across student levels.
... However, the gender bias which is normally present when making judgments. The finding was inconsistent with other studies which concluded that female undergraduates evaluated female lecturers more positively than male undergraduates did (Hancock, Shannon, and Trentham, 1993;Tatro, 1995;Summers, 1996). ...
English possesses different varieties due to its worldwide usage which challenges the tendency of favorite accents among EFL classrooms in non-English speaking countries. However, learners show more positive familiarity and preference for General American English (GA) and British English, Received Pronunciation (RP) which are grouped as the inner-circle of English. This study investigated 53 students in a university in southern part of Vietnam. They were asked to complete an online questionnaire which examined their evaluations of two accents on different traits of status and solidarity, their preference and familiarity. A verbal guise technique is employed with two female native speakers. The data was analyzed by SPSS with different T-tests and ANOVA. The study revealed that the respondents showed greater recognition and evaluations for GA which associated with prestige, familiarity and social attractiveness. Nearly two-thirds of participants revealed a preference to the American speaker although more than half of them did not recognize where she was from.
... Summers, Anderson, Hines, Gelder, and Dean (1996) reported contrary results showing both male and female students rate female instructors slightly lower than male instructors. Tatro (1995) and Kierstead, d'Agostino, and Dill (1988) and found exactly the opposite. Their results showed female 8 instructors were rated higher than male instructors by both male and female students. ...
This paper reports results of analyses made at an all-female Gulf Arab university measuring the nature and extent of biases in students' evaluation of faculty. Comparisons are made with research reporting the nature of similar relationships in North America. Two issues are investigated: 1) What variables (if any) bias faculty evaluation results at an all-female Arab university? 2) Are biasing variables different in nature or magnitude to those reported at North America universities? Using the population of 13,300 faculty evaluation records collected over two school years at Zayed University, correlations of faculty evaluation results to nine potentially biasing factors are made. Results show biases to faculty evaluation results do exist. However, biases are small, and strikingly similar in nature to those reported at North American universities.
... Female teachers got a larger part (understanding) of the assessment feedback on the task than male teacher [31]. Others have reported that female teachers are rated higher than male teachers [32]. In still other cases, researchers have found that female teachers tend to be rated higher on the rapport domain of teaching, and male teachers tend to be rated higher on the presentation and organization domains [33]. ...
... Gender of student There is some evidence that female students rated female academics more highly than male academics. Bachen, McLoughlin, and Garcia (1999), Tatro (1995) ...
In a super-saturated work of academia the real power has slowly moved from academic ownership of their own means of production to a more managerial ethos with all the accompanying control systems, surveillance, bureaucracy, performance audits and judgements. Student evaluationof teaching (SET) has become a significant evaluation tool focusing on front-line contact and quality of teaching, allowing students to make that judgement call. This leaves out a large part of the picture of how institutions are managed and function putting the onus on the academic and their relationship, teaching capability and cohort results. This leads to feelings of a sense of unfairness, questions about validity and reliability of judgement calls based on data of student evaluation of teaching, and fairness in reward and recognition. This work considers the perceptions of Jordanian academic staff of a private institution on the use of SET as a summative tool for performance appraisal. This research has confirmed that the use of SET as a dominant, if not sole factor, in judging performance, can extenuate academic stress and hence the need for results to be used in a measured way.
... Several studies have shown that women receive lower SET assessments than their male colleagues (Heckert et al., 2006;Tatro 1995). MacNell, Driscoll, and Hunt (2015) showed that students rated female professors more harshly than male professors which suggested that the former would have to work harder than the latter to receive comparable ratings. ...
This study examined the impact of the professors' gender according to a student evaluation of teaching (SET) in a private university. The study took place in a private university (n ¼ 103,833) on six different campuses in the north region of Mexico. The distribution of the professors' gender was analyzed according to semesters, campuses, and schools. Our findings suggested that when undergraduates evaluated their professors on specific criteria concerning teaching performance, they expressed their opinion regardless of the professors' gender. However, when being asked for a single overall evaluation, as whether they would recommend the professor as one of their best professors, the students tended to favor male professors over their female peers by a slight margin. While such perceptions might not be representative of the actual teaching quality, it would be interesting in the future to delve deeper into the causes of possible biases.
... A few previous studies have utilized SEM to test the relationships of different variables with one another [35][36][37][38][39][40][41] . While exploring the literature, several other studies have been conducted to ascertain the influence of students' gender on the evaluation of teaching quality [42][43][44][45][46][47] . Two studies conducted by Dukes and Victoria and Freeman stated that there were no gender differences among students' ratings of faculty. ...
... A few previous studies have utilized SEM to test the relationships of different variables with one another [35][36][37][38][39][40][41] . While exploring the literature, several other studies have been conducted to ascertain the influence of students' gender on the evaluation of teaching quality [42][43][44][45][46][47] . Two studies conducted by Dukes and Victoria and Freeman stated that there were no gender differences among students' ratings of faculty. ...
Background:
Students’ evaluations of instructors’ lecturing skills have proved to be an essential component of quality management in higher education institutions (HEIs). Hence, this study intended
to reveal the gender differences in medical students’ perception of lecturing skills.
Methods:
The exploratory study design was adopted to explore the gender differences in medical students’ perception of lecturing skills at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU) in Saudi Arabia. This study covers the entire population of students (n=570) studying an undergraduate medical program at IAU during the academic year 2015-16. “Students Survey of Lecturing Skills (SSLS)” questionnaire was administered to these students using “UDQuest,”. The data analysis was carried out using SPSS version-20. The SEM analysis was done using Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) software version 5.0.
Results:
The SEM analysis reveals that the variables used in SSLS are positively related to the students’ overall perception of lecturing skills (p<0.05). The perception of female students towards lecturing skills is significantly better than the male students.
Conclusion:
Variables used in the SSLS questionnaire are adequately fit to assess the students’ perception of lecturing skills. Policymakers can use these variables to evaluate and monitor the quality of teaching at HEIs. There is a significant difference observed between the gender concerning the perception of lecturing skills. Although this study was conducted in a single Saudi university, given the standard regulations governing higher educational programs at institutions in the country, the findings have broader implications.
... An abundance of correlational data has shown that women typically receive lower evaluations of teaching effectiveness than do men (e.g., Basow, 1995;Basow & Silberg, 1987;Boring, 2017;Boring et al., 2016;Centra & Gaubatz, 2000;Kaschak, 1978;Langbein, 1994;Mengel, Sauermann, & Zolitz, 2017;Mitchell & Martin, 2018;Rivera & Tilcsik, 2019;Sidanius & Crane, 1989;Sinclair & Kunda, 2000;Sprague & Massoni, 2005). Even so, this bias is not always present (e.g., Brockx et al., 2011;Feldman, 1992Feldman, , 1993Fernandez & Mateo, 1997), and there is some evidence showing that women receive higher evaluations relative to men (Smith, Yoo, Farr, Salmon, & Miller, 2007;Tatro, 1995). Moreover, some research has demonstrated that gender differences in student evaluations may depend on the type of questions being asked. ...
Students’ judgments of their own learning are often misled by intuitive yet false ideas about how people learn. In educational settings, learning experiences that minimize effort and increase the appearance of fluency, engagement, and enthusiasm often inflate students’ estimates of their own learning, but do not always enhance their actual learning. We review the research on these “illusions of learning,” how they can mislead students’ evaluations of the effectiveness of their instructors, and how students’ evaluations of teaching effectiveness can be biased by factors unrelated to teaching. We argue that the heavy reliance on student evaluations of teaching in decisions about faculty hiring and promotion might encourage teaching practices that boost students’ subjective ratings of teaching effectiveness, but do not enhance—and may even undermine—students’ learning and their development of metacognitive skills.
... Wearing formal dress describes an individual as rational and competent, but casual clothing refers to friendly and laid-back [9]. Tatro [10] summarized that gender had little effect on faculty evaluations [11][12][13]. However, students' ratings are frequently influenced by factors that have very little to do with teaching effectiveness [14]. ...
Dress which has had the influences on the perceptions of viewers whether students or outsiders, is more than just a wearing. At first instance, the outlook imposes a very positive expectation subjective to the likeliness and behavior pattern of the students. A positive impression ultimately imposes a positive atmosphere of learning toward the students’ mind. How the dress usually influences the learning of students depending on students’ attitude is the prime concern of this study. For validation of ideas, 405 respondents' judgments were justified from eight private universities of Bangladesh through Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling. Depending on their relationship, three hypotheses such as students’ attitude to students’ learning, dress to students’ attitude, and finally dress to students’ learning were strongly supported, with path coefficients of 0.483, 0.533, and 0.425, respectively. These rationalizations finally signify the new mood of appearance in student learning paradigms in context to influential role-playing foundation of teachers into the mind of learners.
... Some evidence that female students rated female academics more highly and that generally female students tended to rate instructors more highly when compared to males (Bachen et al. 1999;Tatro, 1995) Class Size Smaller classes may result in better student evaluation Koh and Tan, 1997;Liaw and Goh, 2003 ...
There are many factors that can be explored around tensions of academic working-life including work-life balance and work-life conflict. Power has changed, moving from academics owning their own means of production to a management ethos with surveillance processes, bureaucracy, performance audits and judgements. There are key discussions around academic hyperprofessionality and hyper-engagement, new managerialism and performance management based on private sector management practices. Academics, now service providers, are being increasingly scrutinised, managed and judged by surrogate performance measures such as student evaluation of teaching (SET). This chapter further develops some of these discussions and presents on-going research on the value and use of SET data.
... In probing the influence of instructor gender on student evaluations, some researchers have found that female instructors are rated lower than their male colleagues (Bennett 1982;Basow & Silberg, 1987;Sandler, 1991;Kierstead, D'Agostino, and Dill 1988;Koblitz 1990;Rutland 1990); other researchers (e.g., Basow & Distenfeld, 1985;Feldman, 1983Feldman, , 1993Goodwin & Stevens, 1993;Hancock, Shannon, & Trentham, 1992) were unable to find evidence of gender differences. Still others, such as Feldman (2007), Bachen, McLouglin, and Garcia (1999) and Tatro (1995) found that college students rated female instructors higher than male instructors. Thus, it is probable that gender is a factor in students' evaluations of teaching, but that the relationship is a complex one (Basow, 2000). ...
This study surveyed the attitudes of primary and lower secondary school teachers in Muak Lek and Wang Muang districts of Basic Education Service Area Office 2, Saraburi province, toward the English language, and examined the significant difference between male and female teachers’ attitudes toward English and the significant difference between those with 1-4 years and those with more than 20 years of teaching experience. A modified 20-item attitude survey adapted from Gardner’s (1985) Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) was administered to 203 primary and lower secondary school teachers in Muak Lek and Wang
Muang districts, Saraburi province. The data was analysed using MINITAB version 16, and the significance of differences between means was analysed using Two-Sample T-test. The findings of the study revealed that the attitude of the primary and lower secondary school teachers toward the English language was slightly positive. The study also showed that there was no significant difference between male and female teachers’ attitudes, and no significant difference in the teachers’ attitudes between those with 1-4 years of teaching
experience and those with more than 20 years of teaching experience.
... Although some biases are found between gender and SET ratings (Boring et al., 2016;Feldman, 1977), still there are no consistent evidence of such difference exists (Wachtel, 2006). For instance, different studies have shown that male and female students give higher ratings as compared to their peers of opposite genders (Tatro, 1995). In some instances, students evaluate their same gender teachers higher than their opposite gender instructors (Centra, 1993a, b). ...
Purpose
Competition among higher education institutions has pushed universities to expand their competitive advantages. Based on the assumption that the core functions of universities are academic, understanding the teaching–learning process with the help of student evaluation of teaching (SET) would seem to be a logical solution in increasing competitiveness. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The current paper presents a narrative literature review examining how SETs work within the concept of service marketing, focusing specifically on the search, experience, and credence qualities of the provider. A review of the various factors that affect the collection of SETs is also included.
Findings
Relevant findings show the influence of students’ prior expectations on SET ratings. Therefore, teachers are advised to establish a psychological contract with the students at the start of the semester. Such an agreement should be negotiated, setting out the potential benefits of undertaking the course and a clear definition of acceptable performance within the class. Moreover, connections should be made between courses and subjects in order to provide an overall view of the entire program together with future career pathways.
Originality/value
Given the complex factors affecting SETs and the antecedents involved, there appears to be no single perfect tool to adequately reflect what is happening in the classroom. As different SETs may be needed for different courses and subjects, options such as faculty self-evaluation and peer-evaluation might be considered to augment current SETs.
... Whether gender matters in evaluations of effective teaching is another prevailing question. Some studies have found that women receive less favorable ratings than male instructors (Tatro, 1995;Heckert, Latier, Ringwald, and Silvey, 2006), but others do not find significant gender effects (Feldman, 1993;Liddle, 1997). The inconsistency found for the effect of gender could be explained as the result of gender interacting with other factors (Sprinkle, 2008). ...
Measuring the perceived quality of professors’ teaching effectiveness is a critical issue in higher education. This study involves a large-scale data exploration with a sample of 16,802 professors, in which each professor had received at least 20 ratings from the RateMyProfessors website. We find that perceived difficulty (from the students’ perspective) has a significantly negative effect on perceived quality. However, when professors teach more difficult courses at top colleges, the decline in perceived quality is relatively small when compared to other colleges. In other words, whether professors come from top colleges has a moderating effect on the relationship between perceived quality and perceived difficulty. Furthermore, through a consideration of the characteristic differences among disciplines in terms of the relationship between perceived quality and perceived difficulty, we obtain three specific groups of disciplines. These findings facilitate a better understanding of quality for professors from different disciplines. We suggest that the measurement of teaching effectiveness should avoid the use of a single criterion because differences in courses, disciplines or schools can influence the measurement results, and these factors are beyond the control of professors.
... Rather research has studied the relationship between student gender and student ratings. Studies show that women students tend to rate teaching higher than men students (Nasser and Hagtvet 2006;Spooren, Brockx, and Mortelmans 2013;Tatro 1995). Thus, teachers of courses in which the students are predominantly women can be expected to receive higher ratings. ...
Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) constitute a valuable and economical teaching force in many higher education undergraduate programmes. However, student satisfaction with their teaching has attracted little attention in the research literature. This study aimed at examining students’ evaluation of teaching of GTAs in discussion groups, as well as exploring the effects of group and GTA variables on these ratings. Data were collected using a questionnaire administered online and completed by 7078 undergraduate students. Participants were enrolled in classes taught by 278 GTAs from four faculties in a major Israeli university. Results indicated that ratings assigned to clarity of instruction were the most salient predictor of students’ overall evaluation. Generally, findings were consistent with those reported in the literature for other categories of instructors. Groups taught by GTAs in exact sciences and engineering were rated higher than those in social sciences and business management. Group size and the percentage of men students were inversely correlated with student ratings, while student attendance rate was positively correlated. Women GTAs and GTAs who taught more than one group tended to receive higher ratings. Overall student attendance rate was the most prominent predictor of student ratings. The implications of the findings are discussed.
... Bachen, McLoughlin and Gracia (1999) reveal that female students rate female faculty high and male faculty lower, whereas male students do not evaluate male and female professors as significantly different. Thus, a general pattern is observed for female and male students to rate samesex instructors than other-sex instructors ( Basow & Silberg, 1987;Feldman, 1993;Tatro, 1995). Sometimes, no interaction is found between professor sexes with student sex ( Arbuckle & Williams, 2003). ...
the present paper is to portrait the effects of the Village Knowledge Centre (VKC) in the rural Tamil Nadu. Main objective of the paper is to discuss the areas of influence of VKC on the livelihood of the rural communities. It is based on a micro level study conducted by the authors in Pillaiyarnatham, Dindigul district, Tamil Nadu. Also presents how the VKC has impacted upon the rural people in utilising the development initiatives of the government and non-governmental organisations (NGO). The paper also attempts to bring out the evidences for level of accessibility to the VKC by different section of the rural community. It helps to understand how the VKC is socially inclusive in its functioning. The major findings indicate that information resource has large extent empowered rural community by leverage the access to various services and resources. The paper also discuss operational problems in VKC, particularly in the remote area, even after having technological intervention.
... In addition, some studies have identified students' academic achievement as a factor influencing course evaluations (Dommeyer et al. 2002;Thorpe 2002). Existing literature (e.g., Thorpe 2002) also suggests that high achieving students are more likely to participate in course evaluation surveys and are also likely to rate the courses more positively (Feldman 1976;Tatro 1995;Worthington 2002). However, Hong's (2006) study with Korean college students found that students' course grades were found to be associated with the likelihood of using monotonic response patterns. ...
This study examines the prevalence, contexts, and demographic correlates of monotonic response patterns (MRPs) in online student evaluations. Results of two-level hierarchical generalized linear models show evidence of careless monotonic responses to a survey administered to students enrolled in a university-level foreign language course in the Republic of Korea. All else being equal, freshmen and students in classes with fewer survey participants were more likely to choose monotonic response patterns in course evaluations. Possible factors at work in generating MRPs are identified and discussed. The severity of the MRP problem in online ratings underscores the importance for administrators to consider possible validity threats in student evaluations before using them as tools to inform instructional and administrative decisions. It is also important to design course evaluation surveys in such a way as to minimize careless responses and to identify means to induce more thoughtful responses from college students.
... Nevertheless, the tenure policy only applies to assistant professors employed in and after fall 2005. This natural experiment permits the iden-1 McKenzie (1975), Feldman (1976), Nelson and Lynch (1984), Goldman (1985), Goldberg and Callahan (1991), and Tatro (1995), Krautmann and Sander (1999), Eiszler (2002), Kanagaretnam et al. (2003), Yunker and Yunker (2003) and Iris Franz (2010) all show that professors have an incentive to entice students to obtain better evaluations by giving easy grades. In contrast, only a few papers fail to find a significant effect of using student ratings in tenure decisions on grade inflation (Marsh and Hocevar 1991;Marsh and Roche 2000). ...
This study provides new evidence of the causal effect of the tenure system on grading leniency, teaching effectiveness, and student effort by taking advantage of a natural experiment in one public university in Taiwan. The results show that assistant professors subject to the tenure system tend to grade more leniently and fail fewer students, as opposed to assistant professors not affected by the policy. The tenure policy lowers the probability of failing a class by 15%. Teaching effectiveness measured by the valued-added model also falls significantly by 0.32 standard deviation of the average grades in subsequent courses, roughly 6.6% of the sample means. The effect on student effort also is significant. Study time and class absences decline by 3 and 10%, respectively. The results suggest that the tenure system reduces teaching effectiveness and leads to lenient grading. Moreover, although used as a measure of teaching effectiveness in tenure promotion, student evaluation of teaching cannot truly reflect teaching quality.
... The CSSQ and SEEQ have been used to measure students' satisfaction in six and nine categories respectively (see Table 1). Other categories and sub categories included Papers (Return to Schedule) students' characteristics: entry qualifications (Ofori, 2000); gender (Tatro, 1995); disability status (Scullion, 2000); ethnicity (Chevannes, 2001) and age (El Ansari & Oskorochi, 2006). Also included are the course characteristics study mode (Lee et al., 1999); course level (Kerridge & Matthews, 1998); course module and the qualification aim (Eaton et al., 2000;El Ansari, 2002). ...
The construction and built environment sector is dynamic. It is made up of professionals who are knowledgeable about design, planning, construction and cost estimation. Design is one of several courses undertaken by construction students. Assessing design drawings is demanding for tutors as the assessment criteria need careful consideration. Assessment results may encourage or discourage students. Their morale may be affected if they feel their efforts have not been rewarded. Achieving a balance between the tutors’ decisions and students’ satisfaction is therefore important. This research sought to identify factors affecting students’ satisfaction with grades in design courses. The study was undertaken among year 3 and 4 architecture students in a Nigerian university. One hundred and twenty students were invited to reply to an online questionnaire. Their responses revealed that most of them were not satisfied with their tutors. They felt that marking was inconsistent. This study identified a range of ways students felt assessment could be improved. Chief amongst these was a suggestion that the same tutors assessed the work of all students (rather than for several tutors to be involved). Based on these issues, the paper suggests ways to balance tutors’ assessments and students’ satisfaction.
... The present approach may also help explain why female professors receive higher ratings from female students (Centra & Gaubatz, 2000;Tatro, 1995). Although women are as likely as men to penalize non-communal women in non-feminine domains (Parks-Stamm, Heilman, & Hearns, 2008), female-dominated departments (where we do not find penalties) are more likely to have female students. ...
Past experimental research has shown that women are penalized with harsh evaluations when they violate gender prescriptions to be nurturing and helpful. Instructor participation in an asynchronous online discussion forum and end-of-class evaluation data from 360 courses was used to test the hypothesis that students would penalize female, but not male, online instructors based on their classroom engagement. Results showed a penalties effect in student ratings for low-participating female, but not male, instructors in gender-balanced courses. The results demonstrate the differential impact of instructor engagement on male and female evaluations, shedding light on when and why gender bias is found in student evaluations. Implications for the use of student evaluations of faculty are discussed.
... While the differences could result from actual gender differences in teaching, Sprague and Massoni believed the differences were a result of students using gender expectations to evaluate their teachers. Tatro (1995) surveyed 537 university students about teacher effectiveness. Students were requested to answer 11 questions on a Likert scale taken from a standardized teacher evaluation form. ...
While there are certainly differences ofopinion regarding teaching effectiveness, the goal of this study is toinvestigate whether there is consistency or differences in opinion based on thegender of the student doing the evaluation of the instructor or the gender ofthe instructor being evaluated. Thispaper summarizes the gender-based findings from a survey administered tostudents in fall 2011 at a mid-sized Association to Advance Collegiate Schoolsof Business International (AACSB International) accredited Midwesternuniversity business school. Thirty-fivetraits were presented for evaluation. Thefindings of this study suggest that there are differences between female andmale student ratings of teacher effectiveness.Females in general tend to rate teachers higher overall in terms ofteaching effectiveness. Furthermore,there are specific traits that appear to be more important to females, andother specific traits which appear to be more important to males. This study provides strong evidence thatthere are systematic differences between male and female students in terms of theirperceptions of the teaching traits they find important and how they rateinstructors of each gender. It isimportant that faculty members and especially administrators are aware of thepotential for gender bias in ratings of teacher effectiveness. Men and women have different perceptions. Male and female students are different, andthey perceive differences between male and female faculty members.
... Researchers have also examined whether gender (e.g. Rutland, 1990;Tatro, 1995) and gender roles have an influence on student perceptions of teaching effectiveness (e.g. Kierstead, D 'Agostino & Dill, 1988;Wheeless & Potorti, 1989). ...
AA CSB International is an educational and accrediting institution, devoted to the promotion and improvement of higher education in business administration. A new effort by AA CSB is the delivery of faculty training programs to elevate teaching effectiveness. This article describes the design, development and delivery of this curriculum. The objective and what the reader can expect to learn from this work is what are the most important attributes of effective business teachers. Incorporating these attributes into course design and delivery should lead to improvements in teaching effectiveness and student's evaluation scores, which results in students better prepared for the business field.
... Evaluations came from student cohorts that consisted of mostly females, who were enrolled into the same compulsory clinical course in the final year of the same degree program and taught within a small class setting. In studies that examined the student evaluations of courses and teachers, it has been demonstrated that female students, students in higher year levels and students in smaller class sizes tend to provide better evaluation ratings (Tatro, 1995;Koh & Tan, 1997;Denson et al., 2010). The number of reflective group discussions per academic year was limited to a maximum of six. ...
The primary aim of this study was to determine perceptions of three cohorts of third year undergraduate students (n=65) on in-class reflective group discussion as a critical reflective approach for evolving professionals. Reflective group discussions were embedded into a final year course within the University of Queensland Bachelor of Oral Health program iteratively over three years. Reflective practices were integrated with clinical practice, and were linked with assessment requirements. Students’ perceptions of reflective group discussions were obtained via questionnaires and reflective essays. The key benefits of reflective group discussions perceived by students included peer learning, peer and/or tutor support and multi-perspective critical thinking. Students welcomed the inclusion of reflective group discussions into their curriculum, not as a substitute of, but rather, complementary to reflective writing. Students invoked that reflective writing and reflective group discussions were beneficial in different ways. The interactive, supportive and multi-perspective nature of reflective group discussions was particularly appealing to students.
... Results of the analysis of 120 students' responses showed the presence of subtle gender biases in the overall students' evaluation. In a similar vein, Tatro (1995) identified gender differences in college students' rating of their lectures. The result showed that female lecturers were found to have received higher ratings than their male colleagues who appear to be conservative with the marks'. ...
Students' evaluation of teaching is one area of educational research that is becoming increasingly emphasised in recent times in Nigeria, but limited attention is still given to the identification of teaching effectiveness factors from students' point of view, in order to develop a valid and reliable instrument. Students' evaluation is commonly used in developed countries to provide information that could be used by teacher to improve his/her teaching and by administrators to make personnel decisions like promotion. This study therefore analysed the isolated teaching effectiveness factors in chemistry according to the gender of the students. The study adopted survey research design of ex-post facto type. Two thousand nine hundred and eighty eight SSII chemistry students participated, using multistage and stratified random sampling techniques from the six states in the Southwest geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Data collected through validated and reliable "Students' E valuation of Teaching Effectiveness Scale (0.78)" were analysed using factor analysis. The study found that there are significant similarities in the ratings of the teaching effectiveness factors in Chemistry classroom due to gender. Each gender profile reveals 11 pattern of underlying influence of which 7 are common to both gender. Educational planners, policy makers and administrators are therefore urged to work out modalities for the development and implementation of students' evaluation of teaching effectiveness instrument for use at the secondary level of education.
... Schertzer and Schertzer's model is as shown in Figure 4. (Tatro, 1995) it was shown that female students give higher ratings than male students, and higher ratings to female instructors compared to male instructors. The model illustrated in Figure 2 contrasts with the Perucci and Hu (1995) framework in that Manvondo et al. (2004) emphasize factors that are related to institutional qualities, such as the quality of teaching or library resources. ...
... Research is also mixed with respect to instructor gender. Some suggest a bias against women (Basow 1994;Koblitz 1990), while others found a bias for women (Tatro 1995). Feldman's (1992) meta-analysis found no gender effect. ...
Course evaluations (often termed student evaluations of teaching or SETs) are pervasive in higher education. As SETs increasingly shift from pencil-and-paper to online, concerns grow over the lower response rates that typically accompany online SETs. This study of online SET response rates examined data from 678 faculty respondents and student response rates from an entire semester. The analysis focused on those tactics that faculty employ to raise response rates for their courses, and explored instructor and course characteristics as contributing factors. A comprehensive regression model was evaluated to determine the most effective tactics and characteristics. Using incentives had the most impact on response rates. Other effective tactics that increase response rates include reminding students to take the evaluation, explaining how the evaluations would be used to improve instruction, sending personal emails and posting reminders on Blackboard®. Incentives are not widely used; however, findings suggest that non-point incentives work as well as point-based ones, as do simple-to-administer minimum class-wide response rate expectations (compared to individual completion).
... Los hombres, por su parte, también muestran el mismo patrón. Tatro (1995) observa que las profesoras son mejor evaluadas que los hombres. Siguiendo la misma ruta, Aleamori (1999) anota que las estudiantes mujeres son más críticas cuando sus cursos son dictados por hombres que cuando son dictados por profesoras. ...
The present study analyzes the variables that are intrinsically linked with the student, professor and class environment in relation to the university educational evaluation questionnaires. The participants in the study were 374 students with an age mean of 19.9 and 29 professors with an age mean of 36 from 3 different departments at the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR) at the city of Guanacaste. The hierarchical lineal models were used for the data analysis, a quantitative methodology which facilitates the evaluation of the determinants which affect the results of the study. However, only four of these determinants were associated with the evaluation concerned, class size, enrolment year, department type and forecasted achievement levels. The results obtained from the study demonstrate that these kinds of evaluation are valid despite the results being slightly affected by a range of factors from externalities to teacher competence. El presente estudio analiza las variables del estudiante, la clase y el profesor asociadas con el sesgo en los cuestionarios aplicados a los estudiantes en la evaluación docente universitaria. En la propuesta han participado 374 estudiantes y 29 profesores de tres departamentos de la Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR), sede de Guanacaste, con una media de edad de 19.9 para los estudiantes y de 36 años los profesores. Para el análisis de los datos se utilizaron los modelos jerárquicos lineales, una metodología cuantitativa, cuyas estimaciones permitieron comprobar que de todos los determinantes incluidos en el estudio, solamente, cuatro de ellos (número de estudiantes en el curso, cantidad de años en la institución, tipo de departamento al que pertenece el estudiante y expectativa de nota) estaban ligeramente asociados a este tipo de evaluación. Los resultados demuestran que estas evaluaciones son válidas y se ven poco afectadas por los elementos externos a la competencia docente.
... Several studies have found that female professors receive lower ratings than male professors, particularly in the ratings given by male students (Basow and Silberg, 1987;Hamermesh and Parker, 2005;Kaschak, 1978;Kierstead et al., 1988;Lombardo and Tocci, 1979); however, numerous studies have found no significant differences in ratings of male and female instructors (Basow and Distenfeld, 1985;Basow and Howe, 1987;Bennett, 1982;Elmore and LaPointe, 1974;1975;Freeman, 1994). Moreover, in more recent research, it has been discovered that female instructors receive higher ratings than males on a number of different traits, particularly in the ratings given by female students (Basow, 1995;Centra and Gaubatz, 2000;Tatro, 1995). ...
When evaluating potential new courses, students take into account the address forms of the instructors. Seventy college students rated the desirability of courses based on their syllabus descriptions. Syllabi differed only in the presentation of the instructors’ names with seven variations in their address listings: Dr, Professor, Mr, Ms, Mrs, Miss, or No Title. Results indicate that instructors’ address forms had a significant effect on course ratings. Specifically, courses with the instructor labeled with an academic title (i.e., Professor, Dr) received higher ratings than those with a generic title (i.e., Mr, Ms, Mrs, Miss), and those with a male address form received higher ratings than those with a female address form. Unlike previous studies, the three female titles of address — Ms, Mrs, and Miss — were evaluated similarly, suggesting that connotative differences in meaning among these address forms are disappearing.
... 15,16 Existe evidencia de que los estudiantes evalúan diferencialmente, a sus maestras y maestros. [17][18][19][20] No obstante, que se ha encontrado en algunos estudios que el sexo de los alumnos, pudiera tener un efecto pequeño sobre la evaluación de los docentes. Hoy en día, es más creciente la opinión de que el sexo de los responsables de la docencia, puede tener un impacto en la valoración de su desempeño. ...
Introduction: The preferred strategy to evaluate teaching activities at Mexican universities has been the application of ex profeso questionnaires in which students give their opinion of their teachers' educational skills. The purpose of this study is to analyze the potential impact of teachers' and students' gender on teaching evaluation and to characterize some teaching situations (different courses) that could be associated with certain types of teaching behavior. Methods: Observational study, 505 groups/teachers were evaluated in seven courses of the basic sciences during the 2007 to 2008 academic year, as part of the Unified Plan of Studies at UNAM Faculty of Medicine in Mexico. The Opinion Questionnaire for Evaluation of Teaching (COED) was used to assess teaching performance, an instrument for which there is evidence of validity and reliability. The relationship among teaching performance evaluations by medical students and teachers' gender were analyzed. Based on the proportion of teachers of a specific sex that are responsible for the teaching of a particular course, a four-type taxonomy of the courses or educational situations was designed, which by a correspondence factorial analysis were associated with differential types of teaching performance behavior. Results: The results show that teachers' and students' gender, as well as the type of course or teaching situation, are important factors that intervene in teachers' performance evaluations by the students via opinion instruments. Conclusions: The evaluations of teachers are influenced by factors different to educational competence itself. These factors should be considered when, based on anonymous questionnaires filled by students, decisions are taken to improve quality of teaching.
... The current research intends to shed light on the experiences of universities in Lebanon in the field of Student Evaluation of Teaching based on five different dimensions related to students' characteristics, namely, gender, age, university, GPA and number of credits completed. Actually, extensive studies were done on one or combinations of these aforementioned factors within the western world, since no study encompassed all of these factors (Arubayi, 1986;Prave & Bavril, 1993;Tatro, 1995;Anderson & Siegfried, 1997;Chen & Hoshower, 1998;Arbuckle & Williams, 2003;Liaw & Goh, 2003;andLavin, Korte, & Davies, 2012). However, few similar studies were conducted in developing countries such as Lebanon, putting minor focus on students' bias that may influence the SET scores (Hejase et al., 2013;andAmerican Univeristy of Beirut, 2005). ...
Students’ Evaluations of Teaching (SET) continues to be in use around the world;the reliability and validity of SET scores as measures of teaching effectiveness remain an area of considerable research interest. Research has shown conflicting views as to the validity of SET as a means of evaluation of the teaching process, using many variables related to student’s, instructor’s, and course’s characteristics.This paper aims to explore the differences in students’ perceptions of the SET process in Lebanon taking into consideration gender, age, university, GPA and credits completed. A survey questionnaire, distributed to students from various Lebanese Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)and International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE)accredited and non-accredited universities, was used. Key findings revealed a significant dependency between students’ genders and their ability to judge instructors, professor’s appearance, and type of academic course. Other significant dependencies were observed between the students’ responses and the university they study at, and; their GPA. Additionally, other significant dependencies have been observed between students’ GPAs and their tendency to participate in SET evaluations. Furthermore, the number of credits completed played a significant role in many students’ responses; in fact, a principal dependency has been detected between the number of credits completed and the students’ beliefs that professors tend to give lower grades when the latter receive poor SET scores. The paper presents a full discussion of the aforementioned results; it then gives recommendations and propositions for future research.
... One literature search indicated that there are thousands of papers on the topic (Marsh & Dunkin, 1992). Researchers have examined numerous influencing factors such as timing of administration (Seldin, 1989), location of administration (Munz & Fallert, 1998), anonymity of responses (Blunt, 1991), student or instructor gender (Bennett, 1982;Tatro, 1995), instructor personality (Radmacher & Martin, 2001) and, perhaps most controversially, students' expected grade. There appears to be a moderate positive correlation between expected grade and student ratings (for a review, see Wachtel, 1998). ...
This study used general psychology course evaluation survey data to test whether all ratings are uniformly associated with expected grade or whether an expected grade–rating relation exists only for certain questions. Students rated the course difficulty and how much they liked the textbook and the teaching. Students who expected higher grades provided more favorable teacher ratings, and they found the assigned readings easier to comprehend. Expected grade was completely unrelated to other responses, including the number of study hours and liking the textbook. More research is needed on the kinds of questions affected by expected grade effects and on possible explanations for differential effects. Research on impression management theory and exit interviewing may offer one promising approach.
... Research has shown that students' evaluations can be significantly influenced by the gender of their instructors. Many studies reveal that students tend to rate female faculty members' differently than male faculty members (Whitworth, Price & Randall, 2002;Basow & Silberg, 1987;Goodwin & Stevens, 1993;Tartro, 1995). Reasons for these findings are multifaceted. ...
A naturally-occurring intervention in a longitudinal field setting (4 months) was used to examine the presence and biasing impact of a positive reputation on subsequent ratings of work performance (student evaluations of teaching). During pre-semester interactions, first-year MBA students received information from second-year MBAs about their upcoming professors and classes. Favorable information about the two professors and course examined in the present study caused a positive reputation. Results indicated that despite four months of experiencing actual performance, the positive reputation hindered students’ decision-making process resulting in biasedly inflated ratings of instructor performance and halo error judgments of course materials, grading, and amount learned. The problematic implications of using biased student evaluations of teaching to measure faculty performance is discussed, along with suggestions of ways to mitigate against overreliance on this evaluation method and to possibly minimize reputational effects.
Students’ evaluations of teaching is a common practice in higher education institutions, with the main purpose of improving course quality and effectiveness. In this paper we would like to contribute to the existing literature on course and teaching evaluation by providing an empirical analysis based on questionnaires collected by an Italian private institution, namely the Libera Università Maria Ss. Assunta (LUMSA), for several degrees in Social Sciences. In order to identify the main factors affecting students’ satisfaction, we use not only teaching indicators and degree-specific characteristics, but also control for student-specific characteristics. Our analysis is based on a Multiple Correspondence Analysis for categorical variables, which represents a very useful method to study the multidimensional relationship among qualitative variables, along with a hierarchical clustering, in order to better summarize the results. Our findings reveal that student satisfaction relates to teaching and course organization. Moreover, we find some evidence that students typically evaluate their course on the basis of their experience rather than their personal interests.
This chapter highlights how certain external status characteristics shape student evaluations of college teaching, through the performance expectations that students form and apply to college faculty that are based on the students’ perceptions of said external status indicators. Analyzing RateMyProfessors.com reviews of 1106 full-time tenure-track and tenured faculty in nine disciplines at six different universities, this chapter examines how race, sex, age, and physical attractiveness shape student evaluations of college teaching. Findings from the study indicate that three physical characteristics of the college professor figure prominently in student evaluations of college teaching. That is to say, students’ perceptions of professors, and their ensuing treatment of them (through overall quality rating scores on student evaluations of teaching), are shaped by factors other than academic merit. This chapter also discusses the validity issues that arise in student evaluations of teaching. The proliferation of anonymous, web-based evaluation sites raises additional validity concerns.
The validity of traditional opinion-based student evaluations of teaching (SETs) may be compromised by inattentive responses and low response rates due to evaluation fatigue, and/or by personal response bias. To reduce the impact of evaluation fatigue and personal response bias on SETs, this study explores peer prediction-based SETs as an alternative to opinion-based SETs in a multicultural environment. The results suggest that statistically significant fewer respondents are needed to reach stable average outcomes when peer prediction-based SETs are used than when opinion-based SETs are used. This implies that peer prediction-based SETs could reduce evaluation fatigue, as not all students would need to do each evaluation. The results also report that the peer prediction-based method significantly reduces the bias evident in the opinion-based method, in respect of gender and prior academic performance. However, in respect of the cultural variables, race and home language, bias was identified in the peer prediction-based method, where none was evident in the opinion-based method. These observations, interpreted through the psychology literature on the formulation of perceptions of others, imply that although peer prediction-based SETs may in some instances reduce some personal response bias, it may introduce the perceived bias of others.
We discuss Chinese students’ assessment of key qualities of excellent teaching based on a study of master teaching using the Teacher Behavior Checklist. Although male and female students agreed on several qualities, we also found several interesting gender differences in students’ perceptions of the qualities that constitute master teaching.
The technology policies included on instructors' syllabi vary greatly and, in some cases, may unfavorably influence students' perceptions of the instructor. To examine this hypothesis, we randomly assigned college students enrolled in psychology courses at two different institutions (N = 163) to groups in which they viewed different syllabi for a community psychology course. The syllabi varied by the hypothetical instructor's technology policy (encouraging of appropriate technology use in the classroom, discouraging of all technology use, or a mixture of both) and instructor gender. Results showed that students rated instructors similarly on the Competency/Communication factor across all conditions but rated them significantly lower on the Rapport factor when the syllabus included a discouraging technology policy. Rapport ratings were also associated with students' self-reported dependence on technology. High instructor Rapport was associated with high levels of students' technology dependency in the encouraging technology policy condition (r = .29, p < .05), but low levels of technology dependency in the discouraging condition (r = −.31, p < .05). Our findings suggest that if instructors include technology policies on their syllabi that restrict inappropriate technology use, they should also indicate situations in which technology use is appropriate.
In 2007 Germany’s federal Ministers of Education agreed to increase the number of teachers with a migration background as part of the National Integration Plan. Due to their migration background, these teachers are assumed to have special competencies and skills. However, almost no empirical evidence has been provided whether students view teachers with migration backgrounds as important in their daily school life as about the education policy assumes. Using a mixed-methods design, this exploratory study examines those student perceptions. The results show that teachers are perceived and assessed primarily in their professional role as experts for teaching and learning processes.
Which judges are “good” at their jobs, and which are not? The answer may depend on the ideology of whom you ask. Judicial decisions inevitably involve policy making, and lawyers may prefer judges whose policy preferences match their own. This paper tests that prediction with online evaluations of judges. Criminal defense attorneys, a group likely to hold progressive views, make up a disproportionate share of the respondents. The respondents assign lower average scores to Republican appointees, especially female and minority ones, even after controlling for the judges’ backgrounds and performance measures. In comments, respondents object to judges with conservative tendencies more often than those with liberal ones. The objections to conservative tendencies correlate with large reductions in a judge’s numerical ratings, while objections to liberal ones do not. The results suggest that judicial evaluation surveys should take account of how attorneys’ ideology influences their perceptions of judicial performance.
The present study seeks to determine the variables explaining differences between the scores of student ratings given to instructors within the context of the university through discriminant analysis. Ratings given by students were grouped into two groups based on their means and instructors were labeled as low-rated and high-rated. Predictors identified by discriminant analysis are (i) class size, (ii) credit, (iii) grade level, (iv) mean grade, and (v) number of sections. Results of the study suggested that low rated instructors are those who teach courses with smaller number of students, lower credits, higher grade levels, higher mean grades, and one section. Identification of source of differences between ratings may provide invaluable information for those who are interested in assessment of instructional effectiveness.
The present study focuses on an examination of the differences in students" ratings of instructors, comparing voluntary and optional survey participation modes. The study hypothesis stated that differences in participation modes may adversely affect the authenticity of assessments, due to concerns that students would retaliate against the mandatory nature of the task. To examine the study hypothesis, we sampled 46,205 student assessments in 2008/9 and 103,164 assessments completed in 2009/2010. The assessments involved 534 instructors who taught the same 1,014 courses in both years. Differences were measured in students" overall ratings of the instructors, course structure and organization, clarity of lectures, instructors" encouragement to ask questions, instructors" attitudes toward students, and correspondence between lectures and tutorials. A significant unequivocal finding to emerge from this study is the absence of any association between the participation mode and students" rating. Findings thus eliminate any concerns regarding lack of authenticity of the assessments in the mandatory participation mode. Due to the importance of student assessments, the academic privilege should be transformed into a requirement to allow academic institutions to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching more precisely.
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