Kimberly Rios Morrison, Ph.D. Department of Psychology, University of Chicago Jennifer J. Moreland, ABD School of Communication, The Ohio State University.

Kimberly Rios Morrison, Ph.D.Department of Psychology, University of Chicago

Jennifer J. Moreland, ABDSchool of Communication, The Ohio State University

PurposeGoal: Explore how students rate their teachers

on www.RateMyTeachers.com How do students perceive their teachers in

terms of teacher gender, ease, helpfulness, “coolness,” clarity, and quality?

Emerging popularity of online forums for discussing education from students’ perspective

Implications for students and teachers

Background:http://www.ratemyteachers.com/Over 15 million ratings and counting!K-12 teachers, public and private schoolsCompletely anonymous Students provide ratings, comments(Very similar to www.RateMyProfessors.com)

Theoretical BackgroundGroup comparison and stereotyping

perspectiveEvaluations of instructors are “gendered” (e.g.,

Basow, 2000, Miller & Chamberlin, 2000)

Teachers as “outgroup” members (Sinclair & Kunda, 2000)

“Halo Effect”

Individuals motivated to stereotype outgroup members to increase positive perceptions of the self (Sinclair & Kunda, 2000; Tajfel & Turner, 1986).

Students more likely to evaluate female instructors as less competent than male instructors after receiving negative feedback (Sinclair & Kunda, 2000).

Theoretical Background, Con’t

HypothesesH1: Teacher gender will moderate the

relationship between easiness and overall quality.

H2: Teacher gender will moderate the relationship between easiness and coolness ratings.

MethodAnalysis of 1,045 teachers’ composite ratings (M = 10.53, SD =

14.98) (5 point scale: 1 = bad, 5 = great)“Easiness” (M = 3.54, SD = .96)“Helpfulness” (M = 3.72, SD = 1.10)“Clarity” (M = 3.71, SD = 1.12)“Popularity”—dichotomous by student awarding sunglasses for

teaching being “cool” (dummy coded)U.S. and District of Columbia teachers onlyhttp://www.directoryofschools.com/high-schools/US.htm

used to randomly a draw a school name Random number generator used to select teacher

Method, Con’tPredictor variables:

Teacher gender (dummy coded: 0 = male, 1 = female)Easiness ratingsInteraction between teacher ratings and gender

Outcome variables:Overall quality composite measure (helpfulness and clarity

ratings averaged to form overall quality measure) (α = .96; M = 3.71, SD = 1.09)

Coolness (dummy coded: 0 = uncool, 1 = cool)

Zero-order Correlations

Gender (0 = male)

Easiness Overall quality

Coolness (0 = not cool)

Gender -.14** -.06* -.12**

Easiness -.14** .53** .39**

Overall quality

-.06* .53** .68**

Coolness -.12** .39** .68**

ResultsH1: Teacher gender will moderate the relationship

between easiness and overall quality.Overall effect of easiness:

Teachers judged as higher in quality the easier they were perceived to be (β = .54), t(1041) = 20.09, p < .001.

Significant teacher gender x easiness interaction (β = .09), t(1040) = 2.21, p < .03.

Positive association between easiness and overall quality was stronger for female teachers (β = .59), t(1040) =

16.62, p < .001, than for male teachers (β = .47), t(1040) = 11.75, p

< .001.

Results, Con’tH2: Teacher gender will moderate the

relationship between easiness and coolness ratings.

Gender did not moderate relationship between easiness and popularity ratings (B = .14, SE = .18), Wald χ2 = .61, p < .44

Results, Con’tOverall effects of gender and easiness were

each significant, but gender X easiness interaction was not:Male teachers more likely to be voted “cool” than

females (B = -.31, SE = .16), Wald χ2 = 4.05, p < .05

Easier teachers more likely to be voted “cool” than more difficult teachers (B = 1.02, SE = .09), Wald χ2 = 132.50, p < .001

Discussion & ImplicationsStudents discussing teacher performance onlineWhen facing a more difficult teacher, students are

more likely to derogate female teachers, compared to male teachersMale teachers are “cooler”“Easier” teachers are “cooler”Positive association between easiness and overall quality

was stronger for female teachers than for male teachers

Student-teacher communicationGender

Future researchHow do these ratings compare with objective

ratings?Other online forums of interest?

Discussion & Implications

Thank you!Questions?Please email

moreland.68@osu.edu ORmorrisonk@uchicago.edu

Have a great conference!