英语资讯：网络课学员对男讲师的评价较高.docxVIP

A new study shows that college students in online courses give better evaluations2 to instructors4 they think are men -- even when the instructor3 is actually a woman. The ratings that students give instructors are really important, because theyre used to guide higher education decisions related to hiring, promotions5 and tenure, says Lillian MacNell, lead author of a paper on the work and a Ph.D. student in sociology at NC State. And if the results of these evaluations are inherently biased6 against women, we need to find ways to address that problem.To address whether students judge female instructors differently than male instructors, the researchers evaluated a group of 43 students in an online course. The students were divided into four discussion groups of 8 to 12 students each. A female instructor led two of the groups, while a male instructor led the other two.However, the female instructor told one of her online discussion groups that she was male, while the male instructor told one of his online groups that he was female. Because of the format7 of the online groups, students never saw or heard their instructor.At the end of the course, students were asked to rate the discussion group instructors on 12 different traits, covering characteristics related to their effectiveness and interpersonal skills.We found that the instructor whom students thought was male received higher ratings on all 12 traits, regardless of whether the instructor was actually male or female, MacNell says. There was no difference between the ratings of the actual male and female instructors.In other words, students who thought they were being taught by women gave lower evaluation1 scores than students who thought they were being taught by men. It didnt matter who was actually teaching them.The instructor that students thought was a man received markedly higher ratings on professionalism, fairness, respectfulness, giving praise, enthusiasm and promptness.The difference in the promptness