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Frequently Asked Questions
- How does age and teaching experience affect student ratings?
- How does gender affect student ratings?
- How does personality affect student ratings?
- Does research productivity correlate to teaching effectiveness and student ratings?
- What are the variables that are not related to student ratings?
- Does faculty rank affect student ratings?
- Does an instructor’s style (expressiveness) affect student ratings?
How does age and teaching experience affect student ratings?
Studies have found that age and years of teaching experience are not correlated with student ratings. Where small differences have been found, they tend to be negative, i.e., older faculty receive lower ratings according to the 1983 study by K. A. Feldman. In a longitudinal study conducted by Marsh and Hocevar (1991), they analyzed student ratings of the same instructors for as long as 13 years. They found no systematic changes over the years (Cashin, 1995). top
How does gender affect student ratings?
In a review of 14 studies, where students rated descriptions of fictitious teachers, K. A. Feldman (1992) found no differences in global ratings in the majority of studies, but in a few studies, the male teachers received higher ratings. In a 1993 review of 28 studies of actual ratings of real teachers reporting global ratings, Feldman found a very slight average difference in favor of women teachers (r = .02) (Cashin, 1995). top
How does personality affect student ratings?
Studies by Braskamp & Ory (1994) and Centra (1993), have show that few personality traits tend to correlate with student ratings. In studies measuring personality using instructor’s self reports, K. A. Feldman (1986) found only two out of fourteen traits, positive self esteem (r = .30) and energy and enthusiasm (r = .27), that had average correlation with a global item that approached practical significant correlations (Cashin, 1995).top
Does research productivity correlate to teaching effectiveness and student ratings?
J. A. Centra (1993) found that research productivity has little correlation with student ratings. K. A. Feldman (1987) found the average correlation between research productivity and overall teaching effectiveness items to be .12, which suggests that research productivity does not indicate good teaching or bad teaching.top
What are the variables that are not related to student ratings?
Age of the student, gender of the student, level of the student (e.g. freshman), student’s GPA, student’s personality, class size*, tune if day when the course is taught, and time during the term when ratings are collected (Cashin, 1995).
*Although there is a tendency for smaller classes to receive higher ratings, it is a very week inverse association (Cashin, 1995).top
Does faculty rank affect student ratings?
Regular faculty tend to receive higher ratings than graduate teaching assistants because as a group, they tend to be more effective teachers than GTA’s as a group (Cashin, 1995).top
Does an instructor’s style (expressiveness) affect student ratings?
The “Dr. Fox effect,” a 1973 study by Naftulin, Ware, & Donnelly in which a professional actor delivering little content received high ratings, suggests that student ratings may be more influenced by an instructor’s style of presentation than by the substance of the content. Manipulations of instructor expressiveness primarily influences items related to instructor enthusiasm, and manipulation of content coverage primarily influences items related to instructor knowledge and student exam performance (Cashin, 1995).top
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