Students are much more reluctant to give female lecturers a ¡°perfect 10¡± in teaching evaluations than men but rate them equally highly when a different scale is used, a study has found.

The experiment ¨C which found that the apparently minor tweak to a six-point scale virtually eliminated gaps in survey scores in male-dominated fields ¨C suggests that learners are likelier to associate ¡°genius¡± or ¡°brilliance¡± with male academics and raises further doubts about the reliability of student feedback, according to researchers.

In their , due to be published in the?American Sociological Review, Northwestern University¡¯s Lauren Rivera and Andr¨¢s Tilcsik from University of Toronto outline how one North American university¡¯s decision to switch from a 10-point satisfaction scale to a six-point one had radically altered the distribution of marks.

Under the 10-point scale, in four subject areas?that? were most male-dominated in terms of staffing, 31.4 per cent of men¡¯s ratings were a perfect 10 ¨C making it the most common result ¨C whereas only 19.5 per cent of women¡¯s scores were. Eight was the most common score for women, whose average score was about a point lower than men¡¯s.

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However, under the six-point scale, there was no substantial difference in the frequency of the top rating being awarded: sixes accounted for 41.2 per cent of men¡¯s ratings, and 41.7 per cent of women¡¯s scores. Likewise, there was no longer a major difference in the average scores of men and women.

The stronger performance of women using a six-point scale was probably explained by the tendency of students to regard female academics as being ¡°merely good rather than brilliant¡±, Dr Rivera told?Times Higher Education.

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Students felt more able to award a six-out-of-six score to women since it did not have the same associations of ¡°genius¡± or ¡°brilliance¡± more commonly attached to male tutors and accompanied by 10-out-of-10 ratings, she said.

¡°Whereas 10 out of 10 elicited images of perfect performance that don¡¯t fit with our typical image of female faculty, the six-point scale didn¡¯t carry such heavy cultural connotations of flawless performance,¡± Dr Rivera said.

This ¡°enabled a wider range of performance¡­to be recognised as meriting top marks, which closed the gender gap?that used to exist in the most male-dominated fields in our sample¡±, she added.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com