Is There Gender Bias in Student Evaluations of Teaching?

Centra, John A.; Gaubatz, Noreen B.

doi:10.1080/00221546.2000.11780814

Cited by 138 publications

(76 citation statements)

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“…One situation in which students have the opportunity to externalize gender bias on others is in the case of student evaluations of their teachers. There is extensive literature on the subject of gender bias in teacher evaluations (e.g., Anderson & Miller, 1997;Basow & Silberg, 1987;Burns-Glover & Veith, 1995;Cashin, 1995;Centra & Gaubatz, 2000;Feldman 1992Feldman , 1993Linse, 2003;Miller & Chamberlin, 2000;Sidanius & Crane, 1989;Statham, Richardson, & Cook, 1991); the collective conclusions are rich but also complex. Given this complexity, it is instructive to consider these works in detail.…”

Section: Student Evaluation Of Teachersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given this complexity, it is instructive to consider these works in detail. Centra and Gaubatz (2000) used data from 741 college classes in a wide variety of subjects to examine potential bias in student evaluations of their teachers. Aggregating across all classes and all subjects, they found that female students rated their female professors somewhat higher than their male professors and the ratings of male students also had a (smaller) same-sex bias.…”

Section: Student Evaluation Of Teachersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, it also pointed out that one shortcoming of many quantitative studies that compared student ratings of male and female faculty is that the evaluations themselves did not account for student gender, assuming that there would be no differences between male and female student ratings. Similar to Centra and Gaubatz (2000), Linse also pointed out that "[s]tudents in certain fields may require women faculty to meet more stringent credibility criteria by virtue of their sex" (p. 4) and concluded that faculty should ensure that student evaluations are never used as the sole measure of teacher effectiveness.…”

Section: Student Evaluation Of Teachersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Unraveling bias from student evaluations of their high school science teachers

et al. 2009

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ABSTRACT:In this study, the evaluation of high school biology, chemistry, and physics teachers by their students is examined according to the gender of the student and the gender of the teacher. Female teachers are rated significantly lower than male teachers by male students in all three disciplines, whereas female students underrate female teachers only in physics. Interestingly, physics is also the field that suffers the greatest lack of females and has been criticized most for its androcentric culture. The gender bias in teacher ratings persists even when accounting for academic performance, classroom experiences, and family support. Furthermore, male and female teachers in each discipline appear equally effective at preparing their students for future science study in college, suggesting that students have a discipline-specific gender bias. Such a bias may negatively impact female students and contribute to the loss of females in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.

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Section: Student Evaluation Of Teachersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Student Evaluation Of Teachersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Student Evaluation Of Teachersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Unraveling bias from student evaluations of their high school science teachers

et al. 2009

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“…Both male and female students rated male faculty higher for having a relaxed demeanor, outgoing personality, sense of humor, and for being receptive to questions. Other studies with undergraduate students have shown that male students rate female instructors lower than do female students (Hancock et al, 1993;Feldman, 1993;Basow, 1995;Centra and Gaubatz, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Dissecting the voice: Health professions students' perceptions of instructor age and gender in an online environment and the impact on evaluations for faculty

Doubleday

Lee

2016

Anatomical Sciences Ed

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Gender and age bias is well-documented in academia with many studies demonstrating bias in students' evaluations of instructors. Failure of an instructor to meet gender or age-based expectations can translate to lower scores or negative comments on evaluations. While there is some evidence of bias in students' evaluations of online instructors, current studies have not fully examined the relationship between bias and instructor vocal characteristics. First-year dental students at two institutions were randomly assigned one of four videos on spinal cord anatomy to view. Videos contained identical content but were narrated by individuals of different gender and age (younger man, younger woman, older man, older woman). Students completed a content-based prequiz, watched the video, completed a postquiz, and answered a questionnaire evaluating the video and instructor. Students at Institution A rated the younger man and younger woman highest for nearly every evaluation category. At Institution B students rated the older man and younger woman highest. Results reveal that the older woman's voice received the lowest rankings for nearly every question in both samples. This report confirms the presence of gender and age bias in student evaluations of instructors in an online environment and demonstrates that bias may surface in response to vocal characteristics. Bias may impact older women more significantly than other groups. Differences in results from Institution A and Institution B suggest that factors affecting student perceptions of instructors, and the roles that gender and age bias may play in student evaluations, are complex and may be contextual. Anat Sci Educ 9: 537-544. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists.

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“…The issue of gender bias is further complicated by the fact that the student's gender has also been found to impact SETs. 36,37 In those studies, male faculty SETs were unaffected by student gender, whereas female faculty members received their highest ratings from female students and their lowest ratings from male students. In another study, female instructors were given significantly lower SET ratings than their male counterparts if they assigned a low grade to a student.…”

mentioning

confidence: 92%

Should Student Evaluation of Teaching Play a Significant Role in the Formal Assessment of Dental Faculty? Two Viewpoints

Rowan

Newness²,

Tetradis

et al. 2017

Journal of Dental Education

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Student evaluation of teaching (SET) is often used in the assessment of faculty members’ job performance and promotion and tenure decisions, but debate over this use of student evaluations has centered on the validity, reliability, and application of the data in assessing teaching performance. Additionally, the fear of student criticism has the potential of influencing course content delivery and testing measures. This Point/Counterpoint article reviews the potential utility of and controversy surrounding the use of SETs in the formal assessment of dental school faculty. Viewpoint 1 supports the view that SETs are reliable and should be included in those formal assessments. Proponents of this opinion contend that SETs serve to measure a school’s effectiveness in support of its core mission, are valid measures based on feedback from the recipients of educational delivery, and provide formative feedback to improve faculty accountability to the institution. Viewpoint 2 argues that SETs should not be used for promotion and tenure decisions, asserting that higher SET ratings do not correlate with improved student learning. The advocates of this viewpoint contend that faculty members may be influenced to focus on student satisfaction rather than pedagogy, resulting in grade inflation. They also argue that SETs are prone to gender and racial biases and that SET results are frequently misinterpreted by administrators. Low response rates and monotonic response patterns are other factors that compromise the reliability of SETs.

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Is There Gender Bias in Student Evaluations of Teaching?

Cited by 138 publications

References 13 publications

Unraveling bias from student evaluations of their high school science teachers

Unraveling bias from student evaluations of their high school science teachers

Dissecting the voice: Health professions students' perceptions of instructor age and gender in an online environment and the impact on evaluations for faculty

Should Student Evaluation of Teaching Play a Significant Role in the Formal Assessment of Dental Faculty? Two Viewpoints

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