Analysis of Bias in Student Evaluations of Faculty at an All Female Arab University in the Middle East

John Morgan,Thomas Davies

doi:10.18538/lthe.v3.n2.04

John Morgan, Thomas Davies

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.18538/lthe.v3.n2.04

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Abstract

This paper reports results of analyses made at an all-female Gulf Arab university measuring the nature and extent of biases in students' evaluation of faculty. Comparisons are made with research reporting the nature of similar relationships in North America. Two issues are investigated: 1) What variables (if any) bias faculty evaluation results at an all-female Arab university? 2) Are biasing variables different in nature or magnitude to those reported at North America universities? Using the population of 13,300 faculty evaluation records collected over two school years at Zayed University, correlations of faculty evaluation results to nine potentially biasing factors are made. Results show biases to faculty evaluation results do exist. However, biases are small, and strikingly similar in nature to those reported at North American universities.

Highlights

This research investigates the nature and magnitude of grade and other biases to faculty evaluation results at Zayed University located in the United Arab Emirates
The level of correlation between faculty evaluation results and grade received appears remarkably similar in size to relationships reported by North American researchers in the studies conducted at North American universities (Aleamoni,1999)
Of the nine potentially biasing variables investigated at Zayed University, five variables had statistically significant but very small univariate relationships with faculty evaluation results

Summary

Introduction

Relationships most often investigated and reported include connections between evaluation results and grade (expected or actual), subject matter, gender of the instructor and/or the student, class size, and time of day courses are taught. Correlation has been the statistic most widely used in research literature for evaluating the nature and strength of observed relationships between student ratings of faculty effectiveness with other studied variables such as grade received, subject matter, course level, gender of teacher, and class size.

Results

Conclusion