The biasing impact of positive instructor reputation on student evaluations of teaching

• Published in: The international journal of management education 2022-03, Vol.20 (1), p.100607, Article 100607
• Main Author: McNatt, D. Brian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Belief perseverance; Perception bias; Performance appraisal; Reputation; Student evaluations of teaching
• ISSN: 1472-8117
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijme.2022.100607

A naturally-occurring intervention in a longitudinal field setting (4 months) was used to examine the presence and biasing impact of a positive reputation on subsequent ratings of work performance (student evaluations of teaching). During pre-semester interactions, first-year MBA students received information from second-year MBAs about their upcoming professors and classes. Favorable information about the two professors and course examined in the present study caused a positive reputation. Results indicated that despite four months of experiencing actual performance, the positive reputation hindered students’ decision-making process resulting in biasedly inflated ratings of instructor performance and halo error judgments of course materials, grading, and amount learned. The problematic implications of using biased student evaluations of teaching to measure faculty performance is discussed, along with suggestions of ways to mitigate against overreliance on this evaluation method and to possibly minimize reputational effects. •Positive reputations bias judgment and lead to inflated evaluations of performance.•Positive reputations create inaccurate assessments of things not directly related.•Positive instructor reputation biases amount students think they've learned.•Positive reputations not fully warranted; students don't actually learn more.•How much students think they learn not correlated to how much they actually learn.