College students' views of male and female college teachers: Part I?Evidence from the social laboratory and experiments

Abstract

A review of laboratory and experimental research on college students' preconceptions of male and female college teachers shows that, in the majority of studies, students' global evaluations of male and female college teachers as professionals were not different; in a minority of studies, however, male teachers received higher overall evaluations than did female teachers. For the most part, the perceptions and ratings of the two genders in most other areas either showed no differences or inconsistent differences across studies. Moreover, most studies found that male teachers and female teachers were not perceived differently by male and female students. Interaction effects found in a particular study between the teacher's gender and other factors (teacher's expressiveness, physical attractiveness, mode of teaching, academic field and the like) usually were not confirmed by findings in other studies. More studies found indications of students' perception of female teachers (compared to those of male teachers) being more heavily influenced by these other factors. Ratings of teachers were sometimes enhanced by gender-typical attributes and behaviors and sometimes by gender-atypical attributes and behaviors.