Students' ratings of teaching effectiveness: a laughing matter?

Psychol Rep. 2005 Feb;96(1):225-6. doi: 10.2466/pr0.96.1.225-226.

Abstract

Gump in 2004 identified a positive significant relationship between awareness of daily class objectives and ratings of the instructor's overall teaching effectiveness. The idea that rating of teaching effectiveness can be related to other non-teaching related attributes of the lecturer was further examined. Correlations based on ratings of teaching effectiveness from 453 undergraduate students (M=21 yr., SD= 5.5; 73% women) showed that another nonteaching related variable, namely, how funny the instructor was perceived, was significantly related to indicators of teaching effectiveness.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Attitude*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Laughter*
  • Male
  • Students / psychology*
  • Teaching / standards*