Identifying Significant Predictors of Student Evaluations of Faculty Through Hierarchical Regression Analysis

Abstract

College teachers' ages and personalities, and students' course grades, gender, enrollment status, academic abilities, and ages were investigated as predictors of student evaluations of faculty. An evaluation form containing 7 items reflecting the personality trait of extraversion and 8 items reflecting teaching effectiveness was used to collect data from 351 undergraduates. Teachers' extraversion (.79) and teachers' ages (-.08) were correlated highest, and students' gender was correlated lowest (.08) with teaching effectiveness. Hierarchical regression revealed that teachers' extraversion was the only significant predictor of student evaluations (β = .76, p < .001) after controlling for enrollment status, course grades, and student ages.

Key Words:

• extroversion
• hierarchical regression analysis
• student evaluations of faculty
• teacher personality
• teaching effectiveness.