Effects of lecture style on learning and preferences for a teacher

Abstract

Male and female college students read a lecture transcript, then completed a multiple-choice test covering transcript material and evaluated the lecturer. The actual content of the lecture was always the same, but the material was presented either in a demanding, stereotypically masculine style or in a supportive, stereotypically feminine style, and attributed either to a female or male teacher. Students generally preferred the supportive style, and evaluated those using it as more competent, warmer, more sensitive to student needs, more interested in student learning, but less forceful. Students learned significantly less from a female using the demanding style than from a male using the supportive style, a male using the demanding style, or a female using the supportive style.