Growing evidence of anti-female bias in student surveys

The results of the Wagner et al. study confirm previous findings (Centra, 2009; Centra & Gaubatz, 2000; Feldman, 1993) that the effect of instructor gender on student ratings of instruction is small and should most likely not affect personnel decisions, as long as ratings are not the only measure of teacher effectiveness. We agree with Wagner et al. that “Cut-off points for excellence in teaching…are arbitrary and need to be complemented with qualitative feedback in order to get a holistic picture about teacher performance in class” (p. 92). We are troubled, however, that virtually no information is provided in the article about the survey used to collect ratings, other than it “features questions about the course in general and one question about each specific teacher” (p. 83). Moreover, no evidence is presented to support the instrument’s validity and reliability. In fact, the measure of teacher effectiveness is based on a single item. In order to get a complete picture of instruction, we must continue to insist that students’ voices be heard - we owe them the opportunity to provide input about their learning experiences. That feedback is valuable to the instructor as it can help them improve their teaching, and it is valuable to the institution as it provides another set of data that can be used to help evaluate, support and grow its faculty.

It also does not mentions if the students surveyed were mostly males? There is a possibility that the majority of the students are females.