Examining gender bias in student evaluations of music teacher educators

ABSTRACT Through a randomised controlled experimental design, the purpose of this study was to determine whether the gender of a music teacher educator influenced student perceptions of professional and interpersonal teaching skills. Participants (N = 146) completed a student evaluation questionnaire after viewing five-minute teaching videos of a professor leading a lecture and mentoring a student teacher. The teaching videos were scripted and directed by the researchers. The female professor in this experiment scored significantly higher than the male professor on interpersonal measures (p < .001), however there was no significant difference between the male and female professor on professional quantitative measures. The male professor received a greater proportion of positive comments in the open response section of the questionnaire (p < .05) and significantly more positive comments related to professional traits (p < .05) than the female professor. These results suggest students may perceive professional and interpersonal teaching qualities differently in male and female music teacher educators.