Contradicting findings of gender bias in teaching evaluations: Evidence from two experiments in Denmark

The role of gender in the interaction between citizens and public sector employees attracts increasing attention. Notably, gender effects have been described in performance evaluations across different contexts. With respect to student evaluations of teaching, a series of observational studies as well as experimental studies have found that women are evaluated lower than men. In this paper, we conduct two experiments in Denmark to test whether a similar gender bias is present in a national context that is generally considered among the most gender equal. Study 1 investigates differences in the evaluation of two similar presentations by teachers reported to be either male or female. Study 2 focuses on the evaluation of teaching material prepared by men and women respectively. The two studies arrive at similar conclusions: There is no gender bias in favor of men in the evaluations made by students. The paper discusses the implications of these findings.

The Effect of Gender Inequities in the Classroom and Beyond in U.S. Business Schools

When women teach management in U.S. business schools they are likely to experience more gender inequities than men. In this essay we examine three dimensions of management teaching where gender inequities are likely to occur: (1) student-faculty interactions; (2) student evaluations of teaching; and (3) interactions between faculty peers. The types of inequities experienced by women when they teach include feeling social pressure to submit to ad hoc student demands for personal favors and emotional support that infringe on a professor’s time; having their teaching performance judged from student evaluations of teaching that are subject to gender bias; and experiencing lower levels of organizational inclusion compared to their male colleagues. We utilize theoretical logic from social role theory, relational practice, and perceived organizational inclusion frameworks supported by the research literature to provide greater insight as to why women are likely to experience more adversity when they teach management in business schools. After we explain the basis for gender inequities we prescribe action steps that should improve equity for all faculty who teach management. Finally, we provide a call-to-action for business school administrators to implement action steps to make an equitable teaching culture a reality.

COVID-19 Effects on Communication Course and Faculty Evaluations

Student evaluations of teaching (SETs) are utilized by universities as one component in assessing course effectiveness, despite evidence in the research regarding their validity. With the global COVID-19 pandemic, many universities rapidly transitioned teaching modalities from face-to-face to online learning, regardless of the faculty experience. This study investigates the effects on SETs of the rapid transition in teaching modalities for all sections of courses occurring during COVID-19 compared with all sections of courses taught within a Communication department at a large public research university over the past 8 years. The results indicate moderate effects from the rapid transition to online learning.

Does Course Specific Nudging Enhance Student Engagement, Experience and Success?: A Data-Driven Longitudinal Tale

Low levels of online student engagement impact negatively on student success and adversely affect attrition. Course learning analytics data (CLAD), combined with nudging initiatives, have emerged as strategies for engaging online students. This paper presents a mixed method case study involving a staged intervention strategy focussing on the employment of timely, strategic communication interventions conducted across 19 courses and six disciplines. The research methodology utilised CLAD, online surveys, student interviews and student evaluations of teaching. The findings substantiate benefits for both academics and students. Academics benefitted from the provision of a relatively simple, accessible and proactive intervention for increasing students’ capacities to be more in control and engaged in their learning. Students benefitted as the intervention accentuated critical resources to assist them to better address assessment requirements, align their expectations more realistically with those of the course, and more readily demonstrate their learning obligations and responsibilities.

Improving the Assessment of Teaching Effectiveness With the Nonequivalent Dependent Variables Approach

Introduction: Assessing teaching effectiveness is relevant for improving one’s teaching and for moving through the tenure process; however, the validity of assessment methods, such as Student Evaluations of Teaching (SET), have been heavily criticized. Statement of the Problem: Using a one–group pretest–posttest design and assessing learning over the semester has several advantages over SET; however, one drawback is in making conclusions about the cause of changes in the post-test. A change could be due to learning in the semester, maturation, history, or even a testing effect. Literature Review: To improve the inferential quality of teaching assessment, a nonequivalent dependent variable (DV) design is highly advantageous. A nonequivalent DV is an outcome that is not the target of the intervention yet responds to the same contextually relevant factors. Teaching Implications: By using a nonequivalent DV design, there might be an increase from the beginning of the semester to the end of the semester in the main DV, but no increase in the nonequivalent DV, which provides a stronger argument that the change in the main DV is due to a true learning effect. Conclusion: Using nonequivalent DV methodology improves inferential quality and is easily implemented.

Higher Education Instructors’ Usage of and Learning From Student Evaluations of Teaching – Do Achievement Goals Matter?

Identifying what motivates and hinders higher education instructors in their self-regulated learning from student evaluations of teaching (SETs) is important for improving future teaching and facilitating student learning. According to models of self-regulated learning, we propose a model for the usage of SETs as a learning situation. In a longitudinal study, we investigate the associations between achievement goals and the usage of and learning from SETs in the context of higher education. In total, 407 higher education instructors (46.4% female; 38.60 years on average) with teaching commitments in Germany or Austria reported their achievement goals in an online survey. Out of these participants, 152 instructors voluntarily conducted SET(s) and subsequently reported their intentions to act on the feedback and improve future teaching in a short survey. Using structural equation modeling, we found, in line with our hypotheses, that learning avoidance, appearance approach, and appearance avoidance goals predicted whether instructors voluntarily conducted SET(s). As expected, learning approach and (avoidance) goals were positively associated with intentions to act on received SET-results and improve future teaching. These findings support our hypotheses, are in line with assumptions of self-regulated learning models, and highlight the importance of achievement goals for instructors’ voluntary usage of and intended learning from SET(s). To facilitate instructors’ learning from SET-results, our study constitutes a first step for future intervention studies to build on. Future researchers and practitioners might support instructors’ professional learning by encouraging them to reflect on their SET-results.

Consumer and academic culture convergence:

The increasing commercialization of higher education is challenging the fundamental role of the University in today's democratic society and the consequences are grave. Increasingly, higher education is applying a customer-service approach to the student-professor relationship that is undermining effective pedagogy. Edwin Guthrie (1954) notes that the function of the University is to attempt to insure that the following generation will be more good, wise, and knowing than the present one" (p.l). Student evaluations of teaching effectiveness are often used to ensure that the function is fulfilled. Student rating websites such as Ratemyprofessr.com (RMP) offers an online community forum that exists outside the institution, where students can anonymously share evaluations of instructors with others. Students can choose instructors and courses based on the ratings. However they are selecting their professors relative to criteria that fulfills a pedagogy that is fuelled not by the drive for an enriched knowledge but by a pedagogy that is influenced by a consumer and academic culture convergence. These consumer attitudes towards higher education are spilling over into the institution and faculty members are suffering the impact. Professors need to have the freedom to motivate students to learn without having to be concerned with entertaining them. It has been argued that Universities need to re-instate their legitimacy and remind students that degrees are granted on a learning basis, not for tuition payment (Delucchi & Korgen 2002). Without a re-establishment of an academic ethic, the University could fall prisoner to the pedagogically irresponsible demands of their customers.