Student evaluations of physics teachers: On the stability and persistence of gender bias

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Gender in Physics.] There is a long history of research which confounds the simple interpretation that evaluations in an educational context are purely measures of competency. One such issue is that of gender bias in student evaluations of their teach...

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Main Authors: Geoff Potvin, Zahra Hazari
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society 2016-08-01
Series:Physical Review Physics Education Research
Online Access:http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.12.020107
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spelling doaj-05e164b8c1c54ab08ea77e19ceb113932020-11-24T21:04:48ZengAmerican Physical SocietyPhysical Review Physics Education Research2469-98962016-08-0112202010710.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.12.020107Student evaluations of physics teachers: On the stability and persistence of gender biasGeoff PotvinZahra Hazari[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Gender in Physics.] There is a long history of research which confounds the simple interpretation that evaluations in an educational context are purely measures of competency. One such issue is that of gender bias in student evaluations of their teachers. In our prior work, we found that male students underrated female high school teachers in biology and chemistry while all students underrated female high school teachers in physics. In the current work, we independently checked and extended this earlier work to examine the effect of physics identity on student evaluations and gender bias. Employing multiple regression on survey data from a representative sample of 6772 college students across the U.S., attending both 2-year and 4-year post-secondary institutions (including STEM and non-STEM majors), we find the core physics effect is unchanged despite a gap between studies of nearly 10 years. Namely, both male and female students underrate their female high school physics teachers, even after controlling for physics grades and classroom experiences. Our new focus on physics identity reveals that students with a strong physics identity show a larger gender bias in favor of male teachers than those with less of a physics identity. These results may help to explain how structures that privilege certain groups and marginalize others are prevalent amongst the youngest members of a defined physics community and may serve to uphold the status quo as these young members traverse to higher levels of physics community membership. Furthermore, biased evaluative feedback structures may be one of the propagators of women’s lower competency beliefs in physics, a result that has been found by many prior studies.http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.12.020107
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Geoff Potvin
Zahra Hazari
spellingShingle Geoff Potvin
Zahra Hazari
Student evaluations of physics teachers: On the stability and persistence of gender bias
Physical Review Physics Education Research
author_facet Geoff Potvin
Zahra Hazari
author_sort Geoff Potvin
title Student evaluations of physics teachers: On the stability and persistence of gender bias
title_short Student evaluations of physics teachers: On the stability and persistence of gender bias
title_full Student evaluations of physics teachers: On the stability and persistence of gender bias
title_fullStr Student evaluations of physics teachers: On the stability and persistence of gender bias
title_full_unstemmed Student evaluations of physics teachers: On the stability and persistence of gender bias
title_sort student evaluations of physics teachers: on the stability and persistence of gender bias
publisher American Physical Society
series Physical Review Physics Education Research
issn 2469-9896
publishDate 2016-08-01
description [This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Gender in Physics.] There is a long history of research which confounds the simple interpretation that evaluations in an educational context are purely measures of competency. One such issue is that of gender bias in student evaluations of their teachers. In our prior work, we found that male students underrated female high school teachers in biology and chemistry while all students underrated female high school teachers in physics. In the current work, we independently checked and extended this earlier work to examine the effect of physics identity on student evaluations and gender bias. Employing multiple regression on survey data from a representative sample of 6772 college students across the U.S., attending both 2-year and 4-year post-secondary institutions (including STEM and non-STEM majors), we find the core physics effect is unchanged despite a gap between studies of nearly 10 years. Namely, both male and female students underrate their female high school physics teachers, even after controlling for physics grades and classroom experiences. Our new focus on physics identity reveals that students with a strong physics identity show a larger gender bias in favor of male teachers than those with less of a physics identity. These results may help to explain how structures that privilege certain groups and marginalize others are prevalent amongst the youngest members of a defined physics community and may serve to uphold the status quo as these young members traverse to higher levels of physics community membership. Furthermore, biased evaluative feedback structures may be one of the propagators of women’s lower competency beliefs in physics, a result that has been found by many prior studies.
url http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.12.020107
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