Gender Issues and Students' Perceptions of Instructors' Immediacy and Evaluation of Teaching and Course

Abstract

This study reports on relationships between teachers' immediacy and students' evaluations of the course and teacher, and differences among these variables based on teachers' and students' gender. Analysis showed that for 197 undergraduate students (105 women and 92 men) immediacy, course evaluation, and evaluations of their teachers (104 men and 92 women) were positively correlated. There were no differences by gender for immediacy, but three gender differences were found—female instructors received higher teacher and course ratings than their male peers, and female students with male instructors rated the course lower than any other gender grouping.