Teaching Assistant Traits: Their Influence on Student Ratings

Abstract

Formal student evaluation of teaching and course effectiveness has been the subject of considerable research. In an attempt to isolate specific variables that might influence student perceptions about instructional effectiveness, investigators have focused upon student characteristics (sex, class level, cognitive ability), teacher traits (experience, sex, rank, degree), and environmental factors (class size, elective vs. required classes, time of day). This study was designed to look at teacher traits more specifically, characteristics of teaching assistants. The results of much of the reported research literature regarding teacher traits are, perhaps, best summarized by Dwyer (5) who based his opinions on a review of 62 stud ies dealing with characteristics and relationships of selected criteria for evaluating teacher effectiveness. He concluded that there are no significant relationships in ratings with reference to teaching experience, age of the instructor, class size, sex of the instructor or student, severity of grading, and maturity of the rater. In a similar review of the literature, Costin, Greenough, and Menges (3) reported that, in general, most studies confirm a lack of a signifi cant difference in the ratings received by men and women instructors. They also noted that a comparison of teach ing experience with ratings either report no difference or that more experienced college teachers receive higher rat ings. This agrees with the findings of Walker (11) who re ported that junior college instructors with more experience tend to get higher ratings.