Student evaluations of college instructors: Effects of type of course taught, instructor gender and gender role, and student gender.

The college curriculum is often separated into divisions or course types (e.g., natural science, the arts) that may be perceived to differ in the extent to which they use expressive feminine attributes (e.g., affectionate, sensitive) and instrumental masculine attributes (e.g., assertive, forceful). In Experiment 1, the effects of course type, student gender, and instructor gender and gender role on student evaluations of instructor effectiveness were examined. In Exp 2, students' perceptions of the importance of various gender role characteristics in instructors of different course types were explored. Results suggest that instructor gender role is more important than instructor gender in affecting student evaluations. Both female and male students preferred instructors (science instructors, in particular) who possessed both feminine and masculine characteristics, regardless of the gender of the instructor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of teacher sex, student sex, and teacher warmth on the evaluation of college instructors.

Examined the influence of teacher sex, student sex, and teacher warmth as perceived by students and teachers on teacher evaluation. Male and female instructors in the same department were matched on the level of course taught. 22 pairs of courses evaluated by 838 college students were obtained. Twenty Instructional Improvement Questionnaire items that directly evaluate instructor performance were analyzed using a 3-factor analysis of variance and the .0025 level of significance. No interactions between faculty sex, student sex, and teacher warmth were found. When Ss rated their instructor's interest and warmth, teachers who were warmer and primarily interested in students received higher ratings in teaching effectiveness. When teachers rated themselves on warmth and interest, self-ratings interacted with faculty sex. Generally, female teachers received higher effectiveness ratings than did male teachers when they considered themselves low in warmth or interested in course content. Male teachers who rated themselves high in warmth or primarily interested in students received higher ratings than did male teachers who rated themselves low in warmth or primarily interested in course content, respectively. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validity of students' evaluations of college teaching: A multitrait–multimethod analysis.

College instructors in 329 classes evaluated their own teaching effectiveness with the same 35-item rating form used by their students. There was student–instructor agreement in courses taught by teaching assistants (r?=?.46), undergraduate courses taught by faculty (r?=?.41), and graduate level courses (r?=?.39). Separate factor analyses of the student and instructor ratings demonstrated that the same 9 evaluation factors (e.g., work load, organization, interaction) underlay both sets of ratings. A multitrait–multimethod analysis supported convergent and divergent validity of these rating factors. Not only were correlations between student and instructor ratings on the same factors statistically significant for each of 9 factors, but correlations between their ratings on different factors were low. Findings demonstrate student–instructor agreement on evaluation of teaching effectiveness, support the validity of student ratings for both graduate and undergraduate courses, and emphasize the importance of using multifactor rating scales derived through the application of factor analysis. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex and gender in the college classroom: A quantitative analysis of faculty–student interactions and perceptions.

Students and instructors from 24 classrooms across 8 departments at a major university were observed in this study to (a) assess for sex differences in faculty–student interactions and in students' perceptions of their college classroom environment, (b) compare student perceptions of their college classroom interaction patterns with observed faculty–student interactions, and (c) assess a variety of demographic characteristics together to determine their singular and/or interactive effects on faculty–student interaction patterns and student perceptions. Male and female students did not differ in their classroom participation or perceptions, and instructors did not interact differently with the male and female students. Student perceptions strongly correlated with their own behaviors and with instructor behaviors. Classroom interactions and student perceptions varied on the basis of different demographic characteristics including instructor sex, class size, instructor monitoring of gender–race equity in the classroom, gender relevance of the course, and the sex ratio of the class. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Student evaluations of college professors: Are female and male professors rated differently?

Over 1,000 male and female college students of 16 male and female professors (matched for course division, years of teaching, and tenure status) evaluated their instructors in terms of teaching effectiveness and sex-typed characteristics. Male students gave female professors significantly poorer ratings than they gave male professors on the six teaching evaluation measures; their ratings of female professors were poorer than those of female students on four of the six measures. Female students also evaluated female professors less favorably than male professors on three measures. Student perceptions of a professor's instrumental/active and expressive/nurturant traits, which were positively related to student ratings of teaching, accounted for only a few of these gender-related effects. Student major and student class standing also played a role in the evaluation of professors. The importance of gender variables in teacher evaluation studies is discussed, and implications for future research are noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of teacher expressiveness: Mediated by teacher sex-typing?

Teacher expressiveness typically results in favorable student ratings, although teacher gender may affect these results. Eighty students viewed a videotape of either a male or female instructor acting either expressively or nonexpressively. Expressive instructors received the most positive student ratings, although expressiveness interacted with teacher gender on the rating of scholarship: The positive effect of expressiveness occurred only for the female instructor. Expressiveness significantly interacted with both teacher gender and student gender on achievement scores because of the differential effect of female expressiveness on male and female students. Student-perceived teacher sex-typing partially accounts for the effect of expressiveness on student ratings but not on student achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between student personality characteristics, teacher ratings, and student achievement.

In Study 1, 388 undergraduates (a) rated themselves on the Adjective Check List (ACL), (b) viewed a videotape that varied in instructor expressiveness and lecture content, (c) evaluated the videotaped instructor and a test on the lecture, and (d) completed the ACL for the instructor. In Study 2, 87 Ss were also exposed to 2 videotaped lectures given 1 wk apart. In Study 3, 108 Ss completed the ACL for themselves and their instructors, evaluated their instructor's teaching, and completed a test on common course material. No meaningful or consistent relationship between ratings and student personality characteristics appeared to exist. Personality characteristics of instructors were related to teacher effectiveness ratings. Ratings predicted teacher-produced achievement equally well for classes that differed in the personality characteristics of the students enrolled. Teacher effects on ratings appeared significantly greater than teacher effects on achievement. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward the development of a system for instructional evaluation: Is there consensus regarding what constitutes effective teaching?

The judgment policies of faculty and students from 4 academic divisions were modeled using multiple regression to determine (a) what dimensions of teaching are considered most important, (b) whether faculty and students differ in their conceptions of effective teaching, and (c) whether the relative importance of the dimensions of teaching is seen as depending on the academic discipline being taught. 40 male faculty members and 40 male undergraduates rated profiles of 100 hypothetical instructors, which contained 7 quantified cues reflecting instructor performance on dimensions thought to be related to teaching effectiveness. The dimensions, in order of importance, were (a) amount of information imparted in the course (INFO), (b) arousal of student interest (AROU), (c) lecture and/or presentation style (LECT), (d) instructor's general knowledge of the field (KNOW), (e) intellectual demand of the course (DEMD), (f) general rapport with students (RAPR), and (g) clarity of course requirements and grading procedures (PROC). Findings suggest that a valid system of instructional evaluation should focus on INFO, AROU, LECT, and KNOW. Very few Ss varied the weight attached to the dimensions of teaching as a function of the area rate. Hierarchical grouping procedures were used to cluster raters according to policy homogeneity and 4 types of raters were identified. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Student written comments: Dimensions of instructional quality.

Students' written comments to 4 open-ended questions used in end-of-semester student evaluations of 60 courses from 10 different fields, taught by instructors of different ranks, were content analyzed and classified into 22 categories. Approximately 50% of the comments were about the instructor, with 1 of 4 comments pertaining to the instructor's pedogogical skills. The degree of favorableness of written comments about the instructor and course was sufficiently convergent with ratings based on fixed alternative items measuring overall instructor performance and course quality. Students provided similar evaluations of course and instructor quality on both open-ended and fixed alternative items; nevertheless, each type of item provides useful and different information. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender differences in risk taking: A meta-analysis.

The authors conducted a meta-analysis of 150 studies in which the risk-taking tendencies of male and female participants were compared. Studies were coded with respect to type of task (e.g., self-reported behaviors vs. observed behaviors), task content (e.g., smoking vs. sex), and 5 age levels. Results showed that the average effects for 14 out of 16 types of risk taking were significantly larger than 0 (indicating greater risk taking in male participants) and that nearly half of the effects were greater than .20. However, certain topics (e.g., intellectual risk taking and physical skills) produced larger gender differences than others (e.g., smoking). In addition, the authors found that (a) there were significant shifts in the size of the gender gap between successive age levels, and (b) the gender gap seems to be growing smaller over time. The discussion focuses on the meaning of the results for theories of risk taking and the need for additional studies to clarify age trends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Student evaluations of college professors: When gender matters.

Student evaluations completed over a 4-year period at a private liberal arts college were analyzed for the effects of teacher gender, student gender, and divisional affiliation. A significant multivariate interaction between teacher gender and student gender was found for each of the 4 semesters examined. Overall, the ratings of male professors appeared to be unaffected by student gender. In contract, female professors tended to receive their highest ratings from female students and their lowest ratings from male students. This interaction generally remained when possible confounding factors (such as teacher rank) were partialed out. The mean ratings received by female and male professors also varied as a function of the divisional affiliation of the course. Implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Face aftereffects indicate dissociable, but not distinct, coding of male and female faces.

It has been claimed that exposure to distorted faces of one sex induces perceptual aftereffects for test faces that are of the same sex, but not for test faces of the other sex (A. C. Little, L. M. DeBruine, & B. C. Jones, 2005). This result suggests that male and female faces have separate neural coding. Given the high degree of visual similarity between faces of different sexes, this result is surprising. The authors reinvestigated male and female face coding using a different face distortion. In Experiment 1, participants adapted to distorted faces from one sex (e.g., male contracted faces) and were tested with faces of both sexes. Aftereffects were found for both male and female faces, suggesting the existence of common coding mechanisms. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants adapted to oppositely distorted faces from both sexes (male contracted and female expanded faces). Weak opposite aftereffects were found for male and female faces, suggesting the existence of sex-selective face coding mechanisms. Taken together, these results indicate that both common and sex-selective mechanisms code male and female faces. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determinants of academic achievement: The interaction of children's achievement orientations with skill area.

Proposes a motivational analysis to help account for individual (e.g., sex) differences in different academic areas (e.g., mathematical vs verbal areas). It is proposed that certain academic areas (e.g., mathematics) are more likely than others (e.g., verbal) to pose difficulties at the start of new units and that the necessity of surmounting difficulties favors certain achievement orientations. To test the hypothesis that children's academic orientations interact with the acquisition demands of academic material to determine performance, 57 male and 37 female 5th graders, who were classified as helpless or mastery oriented on the basis of their attributions, were assigned to 1 of 2 learning conditions. One condition involved programmed confusion during learning, while the other was a no-confusion condition. When the learning task contained somewhat confusing material in the initial sections (even though it was irrelevant to what was to be learned), Ss with a mastery oriented attributional style significantly outperformed those with a helpless style. However, when the identical task was presented without the confusing material, both groups learned with equal facility. Results support the notion that achievement differences can result from the fit between children's achievement orientations and the demands of particular skill areas. (44 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of mental and physical health service utilization among Vietnam veterans.

This study investigated predictors of mental and physical health care service utilization among 1,632 male (n = 1,200) and female (n = 432) Vietnam veterans who participated in the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study. Using Anderson's theory as a model (Anderson & Bartkus, 1973), the authors examined both direct and mediated relationships among predisposing factors (i.e., age, marital status, and combat exposure), enabling factors (e.g., household income and insurance), and need factors (e.g., medical and psychological symptomatology) and physical and mental health care utilization outcomes. Need factors were the most consistent and strongest mediators of predisposing variables for both physical and mental health care service utilization, although there were differences between male and female veterans. For men, combat exposure indirectly predicted mental health care utilization through the need variables (with the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder being greatest). For women, physical health problems mediated the relationship between combat exposure and physical health outpatient care utilization. These findings have implications for screening and outreach efforts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contract teaching of academic skills.

Studied 92 college students enrolled in a study-skills course. An individualized contract requiring students to identify nonproductive study behaviors and agree with their instructors on appropriate strategies for desired change was examined for effects on attitudes to study and subsequent academic achievement. Two instructors each taught a contract and a noncontract group. A group of 18 Ss taught by a 3rd instructor acted as a control to check for experimenter effect. Contract Ss improved significantly more on self-reported attitudes toward study (Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes) than either noncontract or control students. A follow-up study showed that contract students gained better GPAs and maintained this improvement for 2 yrs. Results are discussed in terms of the demands made on both student and instructor by this method of instruction. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in the correlates of stimulus seeking.

Conducted 5 experiments to correlate Zuckerman, Kolin, Price, and Zoob's Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS) with other variables, e.g., scores on the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale. Ss included 518 college and high school students of both sexes and a sample of their parents (n = 341), 40 male general psychiatric patients, and 62 male alcoholic patients. Results were analyzed in terms of differences in the correlates for the total sample by sex, and differences in SSS scores for parents and their children. In males, the SSS was positively related to academic aptitude and liberal sexual attitudes, and was negatively related to authoritarianism, dogmatism, and passive food preferences. In females, the SSS was positively related to liberal sexual attitudes and negatively related to passive food preferences and to an insignificant degree to authoritarianism. SSS scores of male and female high school students showed a modest tendency to resemble those of their parents. (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ideal traits and terms of address for male and female college professors.

Examined students' perceptions of college professors' ideal traits to ascertain possible influences of sex-role stereotyping (Exp I) and the terms of address students use with their professors in public and private contexts (Exp II). In Exp I, 20 undergraduates compiled a list of 34 ideal traits of professors divided among 5 categories: intellect, professionalism, communication ability, openness, and nurturing. Another 127 Ss were divided into 3 groups, each of which assigned the ideal traits to a male, female, or unspecified-sex professor. Only slight differences in the assignment of openness and nurturing traits to male and female professors were found, and there was no significant difference between male and female Ss who assigned the traits. In Exp II, 72 Ss were asked how they would address each of their professors in private and in public. Few contextual differences were found; however, female professors, especially those in the 26–33 age group, were addressed by first names more often than their male colleagues. Also, female Ss used the familiar terms more often than male Ss. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Joan McKay versus John McKay: Do gender stereotypes bias evaluations?

Examines research using a classic, influential experiment conducted by Goldberg (1968), showing that women were likely to rate male authors (e.g., John T. McKay) more favorably than female authors (e.g., Joan T. McKay) of identical articles. Although replications of this study have been inconclusive, Goldberg's research is still frequently cited as demonstrating an evaluative bias against women. A quantitative meta-analysis of research using Goldberg's experimental paradigm shows that the average difference between ratings of men and women is negligible. Furthermore, although the effect sizes are not homogeneous, the difference remains negligible when other factors such as sex of subject or year of publication are taken into consideration. Several explanations for the heterogeneity of effect sizes and the inconsistency of findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

On translating beliefs into action: Theories of ability and their application in an instructional setting.

90 male undergraduates acted as an instructor or as 1 of 2 pupils in experimental sessions during which the instructors taught a card trick. Beforehand, instructors learned either that ability is produced through such extrinsic factors as thorough instruction (extrinsic theory), or that ability emerges from the natural development of pupils' intrinsic capabilities (intrinsic theory). Instructors were also told that one pupil possessed high ability (high ability label) and the other possessed low ability (low ability label). Pupils whose instructors operated with the extrinsic theory behaviorally confirmed their instructors' initial beliefs: Pupils labeled as having high ability outperformed those labeled as having low ability. Yet pupils whose instructors operated with the intrinsic theory behaviorally disconfirmed their initial beliefs: Pupils labeled as having low ability outperformed those labeled as having high ability. Regardless of pupils' actual performance, instructors always asserted that pupils labeled as having high ability outperformed those labeled as having low ability. Pupils labeled as having high ability asserted that instructors had more confidence in their ability than pupils labeled as having low ability. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The strategic approach to contraceptive introduction

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual educators have faced many barriers in their professions, including harassment, discrimination, and even nationwide antigay political campaigns. Recently, lesbian, gay, and bisexual educators, particularly on college campuses, have challenged such stigmatization by coming out. Because previous research has demonstrated that interpersonal contact with lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals is related to less heterosexist attitudes, the current study investigated the impact of a gay instructor's coming out on his students' attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. Data were collected from 156 undergraduate students enrolled in an Introductory Psychology course, 40 of whom were taught by a gay instructor. Herek's (1984, 1994b) Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men (ATLG) scale was used to measure students' relative levels of heterosexism and was administered to students at the beginning and end of the semester. Midway through the semester, the gay instructor disclosed his gay identity to his students as part of a lesson about sexual orientation. Results from the postcourse survey indicated that students in the gay instructor's course section exhibited improved attitudes. Conversely, students enrolled in the same course in sections taught by heterosexual instructors demonstrated no change in their attitudes. Implications of these findings are discussed, and it is argued that gay instructors' coming out may positively affect their students' attitudes toward lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. However, these efforts by individual instructors must only be a small part of more comprehensive institutional efforts by university communities to address homophobia and heterosexism in educational settings.