Reference no: EM132295868

Professor Evaluation Biases

Dr. Ash decided that he was going to review the student evaluation forms filled out each semester to measure the performance of the professors. After a thorough review, he noticed some interesting trends. First, he found that students rated professors in the business school higher than in other colleges. He determined this was due to a fear of retribution of business professors giving students lower grades. Second, he noticed that professors in the marketing department tended to receive ratings right in the middle of the scale. He didn’t think that all marketing professors were average, but that marketing students tended not to use the extreme responses on the rating scale. Third, he found that many of the comments about Dr. Figler, a management professor seemed to be based on information students heard about him before taking his class. In addition, students who thought Dr. Figler’s tests were hard tended to rate him negatively in all other areas. Ratings for Dr. Makarius, on the other hand, tended to be based on her performance at the end of the semester based on the positive student comments. Third, he found it interesting that female students tended to rate female professors higher whereas male students rated male professors highly. Last, he noticed that some students seemed to be using the attractiveness of the professor as a criterion for ratings. Dr. Ash certainly learned quite a bit in analyzing the student evaluation forms!

1. Students who rated professors in the business school higher for fear of retribution were likely making this error:

Horns error

Inflationary pressures

Inappropriate substitutes

Similarity error

2. Which of the following would be an example of similarity error?

Professors in the marketing department getting middle-of-the range ratings

Students basing their evaluation of Dr. Figler on what they heard about him ahead of time

Female students rating female professors higher

Students using attractiveness as a criterion for ratings

3. The fact that ratings for Dr. Makarius tended to be based on her performance at the end of the semester is likely an example of which of the following:

Availability bias

Anchoring bias

Central tendency

Halo error

4. Professors in the marketing department seemed to be affected by this performance rating error:

Horns error

Similarity error

Leniency error

Central tendency

5. Which of the following is the best example of an inappropriate substitute for performance?

Using what was heard about Dr. Figler before his class to rate him

Using the difficulty of exams as a criteria for rating

Using the attractiveness of the professor as a rating criteria

Focusing on information from the end of the semester to make ratings