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Gender & the Evaluation of Teaching

Gender & the Evaluation of Teaching. Joey Sprague Department of Sociology University of Kansas. Reasons to Evaluate Teaching. Skill development Personnel decisions. Administrators rely on Student Ratings. Quantitative Measures. Assume a constant metric Assume a constant referent.

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Gender & the Evaluation of Teaching

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  1. Gender & the Evaluation of Teaching Joey Sprague Department of Sociology University of Kansas

  2. Reasons to Evaluate Teaching • Skill development • Personnel decisions

  3. Administrators rely on Student Ratings

  4. Quantitative Measures Assume a constant metric Assume a constant referent But standards are gendered

  5. Research on Social Cognition: • Interaction requires shared frames • We frame instantly • Primary: sex, race & age • Frames evoke stereotypes • Stereotypes influence us without our knowing

  6. In any social institution • Frames for people • Frames for roles • Institutional frames are often gendered • Gender is “in the background”

  7. Gender & Race Expectations Evidence Needed to Demonstrate an Attribute

  8. Things That Encourage Stereotyping • Salience • Time pressure • Weak accountability

  9. Gender Shapes Evaluation • Who has influence • Who is smart • Who is likable • How work is counted

  10. Do Students See through Gender? SOME RESEARCH

  11. Professor = Masculine (Burns-Glover & Veith 1995) • Scenario: Important in a job candidate? • Sam, Sarah, Dr. Lawson • More masculine characteristics • Sam: expert, own opinion, challenging • Sarah: available, flexible, caring • Dr. Lawson = Sam

  12. Open-ended Q’s Reveal More Bias(Bachen, McLoughlin, & Garcia 1999 • Ratings on attributes • M: no gender difference • W: Women higher on caring, interactive • Open ended question • 50% of M & 62% of W: yes • Women compared to a male standard • W: hold all teachers accountable for caring • M: only women teachers accountable for caring

  13. Grades Matter (Sinclair and Kunda 2000) Survey: last semester’s teachers, courses, grades grades evaluations women punished most Experiment: evaluate the evaluator feedback evaluations women punished most

  14. How students recall teachersSprague & Massoni 2005 • Describe best and worst-ever teachers • Data: Categories of Perception • Words • …. Synonym clusters • ……………..Dimensions

  15. BEST-EVER TEACHERS

  16. BEST TEACHER: Dimensions of Evaluation GENDER-COMPARABLE GENDER-LOADEDIntelligent Funny/Fun Clear Nurturing Hard Worker Nonauthoritarian Challenging Interactive Committed Energetic Strict Understanding Fair Engaging Open-Minded Attractive Respectful Easy Approachable Caring Personable Good Person Positive Interested Honest Available Aggressive Dimensions for Evaluating Best Ever Teacher

  17. WORST-EVER TEACHER

  18. RUDE - I

  19. RUDE - II

  20. MEAN - I

  21. MEAN - II

  22. Dimensions Of Evaluation: Worst-Ever Teacher

  23. What dimensions are students using most often?

  24. BEST TEACHER

  25. WORST TEACHER

  26. Could men and women just be different kinds of teachers?

  27. TEACHER IS A MAN

  28. TEACHER IS A WOMAN

  29. Bottom line • Students use gendered frames • Standards for women more labor-intensive • A 3 is not always a 3

  30. “Doing Gender” We know we will be held accountable Perform accordingly Face consequences

  31. “Women comprise 58 percent of the nation’s 13 million college undergraduates and, in 2002, earned more doctorates than men. They’re a dominant force on campuses—until they receive a degree.” Giegerich 2004

  32. Do we want to be evaluating teaching Or the performance of gender?

  33. What Can Teachers Do? • Communicate Competence • Communicate Commitment to the Group • Give enough time for evaluation • Teach students how to evaluate us

  34. What can Evaluators Do? Increase Reliability Be more sophisticated statistically Increase Validity

  35. Increase the reliability • Ask what students are competent to answer • Be concrete • Make Standards explicit • Minimize Salience of Gender • Minimize Time Pressure • Use multiple measures of teaching effectiveness

  36. Please rate • Your satisfaction with the instruction in this class • The instructor as a teacher • The ability of the instructor to communicate effectively • The quality of this course • The fairness of procedures for grading this course • Your understanding of the course content

  37. Improve the analysis • Use medians not means • Analyze variance • Do multivariate analyses • gender • Race • expected grade • required

  38. Increase the Validity GOALS INDICATORS Syllabus readings, topics Exercises, assignments, labs, interaction with students Student work Reflective essays, training • Content is current • Using best practices • Students are learning • Teacher is developing skills

  39. We’re all after the same things: • students learn • faculty are treated fairly • no wasted effort

  40. Thanks for listening!

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