The Effects of Gender, Status, and Effective Teaching on the Evaluation of College Instruction

Abstract

This research examined the effects of gender, status, and effective teaching on the evaluation of college instruction. Each of 144 undergraduate subjects in six political science and sociology classes rated the teaching effectiveness of college instructors who were represented in four scenarios depicting knowledge of the subject, enthusiasm for teaching, rapport with students, and organization of the course. Within each scenario the variables of quality of teaching, gender of the professor, and status of the professor were manipulated in an experimental design. Although statistical interactions revealed some gender bias, effective teaching had by far the most important influence on teaching evaluations.