Dr. Claire Major mentioned in a recent Tweet an article about a study on perceptions by students and faculty about effective and ineffective teachers. Entitled “No Disrespect: Student and Faculty Perceptions of the Qualities of Ineffective Teachers” and published in the journal Teaching of Psychology, Zayac and colleagues review previous studies and provide enough background for someone like me who hasn’t read this literature to get a sense of the major findings and evolution of this area of research. The article itself is (to my surprise after being intimidated by the journal title!) easy to follow and engaging. I learned about the Teacher Behavior Checklist (TBC) by Buskist and colleagues (2002), and I now want to read this!
Zayac RM, Poole BD, Gray C, Sargent M, Paulk A, Haynes E. No Disrespect: Student and Faculty Perceptions of the Qualities of Ineffective Teachers. Teaching of Psychology. 2021;48(1):55-62. doi:10.1177/0098628320959978
The authors actually did two studies at different institutions using surveys for students and faculty to evaluate and rank statements about classroom instructor behaviors. Their goal was to study what constitutes poor or ineffective teacher behaviors, and the authors did this by analyzing both instructor and student perceptions. There were several fascinating findings in the data tables, and a quote below from the abstract provides a summary:
“Students and faculty identified being disrespectful as the number one perceived quality of ineffective teachers. Both groups of respondents also agreed that having weak rapport was indicative of ineffective teachers.”
Zayac et al. 2020
This, I believe, emphasizes the importance of instructor presence, clear communication, and being human and empathetic. There was a thread on Twitter that mentioned that the student focus on social skills of instructors may put introverts at a disadvantage, creating a structure that privileges extroverts. This is thought-provoking, and Claire Major responded “Yeah, introvert here, so I get it, but in the article, they seem to be talking about things like being respectful, caring, accessible, helpful, and so forth. So maybe a better way to say is focusing on relationships….” on Twitter on 12/31/2020. I agree and consider myself an introvert too. Nevertheless, again an emphasis on being engaging, clear communication, and reasonable expectations is my takeaway here. Towards the end of the article, the authors conclude:
“Particular attention should be focused on the consensus top five perceived qualities of ineffective teachers selected by students (being disrespectful, having unrealistically high expectations, using unrepresentative assessments, not being accessible/helpful, and not being caring).”
Zayac et al. 2020
I do hope I am never disrespectful toward students in the courses I teach, but acknowledge I am learning about micro aggressions and bias. I want to improve my teaching to be more inclusive! However, unrealistically high expectations and unrepresentative assessments made me think! I want to challenge students to create and have been using more “non-traditional assessments” including e-portfolios, podcasts, and the creation of lessons and video tutorials. I do think that these are assessments aligned with the course objectives and scaffolded to support students in analyzing resources and creating. This also aligns with the “no throw away assignments” and open pedagogy philosophy I have. My challenge as an instructor is to support growth and learning and clearly connect these assignments and assessments to the real world in the eyes of the students. How to achieve this goal and foster engagement will require more thought and trials in my case. Nonetheless, this study and the above quote highlight how important being clear in communications and accessible/helpful are critical behaviors for instructors.
