GENDER BIAS IN COURSE EVALUATIONS AT SAINT MARY

Issue

Existing research suggests that there are forms of bias against female instructors in university course evaluations. To what extent is there evidence of this bias in the course evaluations currently used at Saint Mary’s College?

Method

Undergraduate ratings for the twenty-five items on the course evaluation instrument for spring 2014, fall 2014, and spring 2015 were analyzed using a four-way ANOVA: instructor gender (male, female); student gender (male, female); year in school (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior); and school (SOLA, SEBA, SOS).
Results

In Table 1 the twenty-five items are ordered by the degree to which higher scores are obtained when the instructor isa women. Scores are calculated as the average of the six combinations of gender and school.The results of the ANOVA analysis show that for 21 of 25 items there were higher scoreswhen there was a female instructor.Items most favoring higher scores with a female instructor appear to reflect proactive instructor engagement with students (checking to make sure students understand, constructive feedback, open to diverse points of view, and encouragement to speak out and ask questions).

In Table 2 the results are presented separately by school and student gender. In all three schools female students rated female instructors higher than male instructors, markedly so in SEBA (+.23). Male students rated female instructors higher than male instructors in SEBA and SOS. However, this was not the case in SOLA where there was no significant difference in average overall rating and more of the items favored male instructors.

Conclusion

A multivariate statistical analysis of more than 19,000 student ratings on the course evaluations over the last three semesters does not support the assumption that students exhibit significant bias against female instructors.On the contrary, the results clearly show that for the preponderance of student ratings on the twenty-five-item course evaluation form these ratings are higher when the instructor is female.These findings do not preclude the existence of bias. It may be the case, for example, that more engaged teaching behaviors on the part of female instructors offset or obscure the bias.

Table 1. Weighted average difference in ratings of female versus male instructors for six groups (male students and female students separately for SOLA, SEBA, and SOS): + = higher scores for female instructors; - = higher scores for male instructors

Diff / ITEM / Diff / ITEM
+.18 / Checked to make sure students have understood / +.09 / Emphasized main points
+.16 / Constructive feedback / +.09 / Utilized class time effectively
+.15 / Open to diverse points of view / +.09 / Interest increased
+.15 / Encouraged to speak out / +.09 / Increased knowledge
+.13 / INSTRUCTOR rating / +.08 / Textbooks, reading contributed
+.13 / Consultation outside of class / +.06 / Work evaluated fairly
+.13 / Material engaging manner / +.05 / Well organized
+.12 / Sufficient evidence to assess / +.05 / High standards
+.12 / Clear explanations / -.002 / Attended class regularly
+.11 / COURSE rating / -.01 / Time and effort commitment
+.11 / Enthusiastic / -.02 / Challenged me intellectually
+.10 / Course requirements, grading clear / -.05 / Assignments returned in timely fashion
+.09 / Goals clear

Table 2. Average differences in scores with female versus male instructors by gender of student and school, controlling for class level:

+ = higher scores for female instructors; - = higher scores for male instructors

School / SOLA / SEBA / SOS
Students / Women / Men / Women / Men / Women / Men
Female-Male Average / +.09 / -.01 / +.23 / +.09 / +.03 / +.09
# Items Female Higher / 25 / 9 / 24 / 19 / 20 / 24
# Items Male Higher / 0 / 16 / 1 / 6 / 5 / 1

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Institutional ResearchSeptember 2016