Does Gender Impact Business Students Perceptions Of Teaching Effectiveness?

Abstract

While there are certainly differences ofopinion regarding teaching effectiveness, the goal of this study is toinvestigate whether there is consistency or differences in opinion based on thegender of the student doing the evaluation of the instructor or the gender ofthe instructor being evaluated. Thispaper summarizes the gender-based findings from a survey administered tostudents in fall 2011 at a mid-sized Association to Advance Collegiate Schoolsof Business International (AACSB International) accredited Midwesternuniversity business school. Thirty-fivetraits were presented for evaluation. Thefindings of this study suggest that there are differences between female andmale student ratings of teacher effectiveness.Females in general tend to rate teachers higher overall in terms ofteaching effectiveness. Furthermore,there are specific traits that appear to be more important to females, andother specific traits which appear to be more important to males. This study provides strong evidence thatthere are systematic differences between male and female students in terms of theirperceptions of the teaching traits they find important and how they rateinstructors of each gender. It isimportant that faculty members and especially administrators are aware of thepotential for gender bias in ratings of teacher effectiveness. Men and women have different perceptions. Male and female students are different, andthey perceive differences between male and female faculty members.