The Effect of Opposite-Gender Preference in Teachers’ Grading

Abstract

Higher education plays an important role in passing on of knowledge, and grading from teachers to students may significantly affect these students’ development in the future. Gender preference has been extensively explored in various domains. A common question is whether gender preference exists in teachers’ grading. If so, would teachers give students of the opposite gender a higher grade without noticing this opposite-gender preference? A survey was conducted between 2020 and 2021, and a total of 1,604 student scores were collected. The independent samples t-test and ANOVA were performed to test the collected data. This study found that first, female teachers, compared to male teachers, gave significantly higher scores (p < 0.000). Second, male teachers’ grading was not affected by the gender of their students (p = 0.067). Third, female teachers gave male students, compared to female students, significantly higher scores (p = 0.003). These preliminary findings suggest that opposite-gender preference may exist. However, this study only collected simples from teachers and students from the department of design, and therefore, it is not clear yet whether the above preference can be observed in all education settings.