The Impact Of Faculty Apparel In The Classroom William A. Dowling, ( Savannah State University

Transcription

1 College Teaching Method & Style Journal January 008 Volume 4, Number The Impact Of Faculty Apparel In The Claroom William A. Dowling, ( Savannah State Univerity I n addition to imbuing tudent with traditional field baed knowledge, faculty in college of buine adminitration have increaingly been aked to intill a ene of profeionalim in tudent. Faculty member are, at the leat, expected to bring a ene of profeionalim to the claroom, and it i undertood that thi tart with profeional dre on the part of faculty. A concomitant aumption with the expectation of profeional behavior and dre on the part of faculty, i the belief that faculty dre ha a poitive impact on the claroom environment thu on learning. The literature dicuing the interaction of faculty image on the claroom commence with a reference to Workman, who found that faculty who dreed profeionally were viewed a creditable. Further, adminitrator viewed profeionally dreed faculty a overwhelmingly profeional, reponible, and confident. The obviou leon being that if one wanted to increae their employability, then they hould dre profeionally. In fact, common advice for new faculty ha been found to include pointer on the impact of dre on claroom management. There have been tudie that have examined the impact of faculty attire on perception of teaching competence held by tudent 3. Other have examined the impact of attire on credibility, likeability, interperonal attractivene, and dominance 4. According to Gorham, Cohen and Morri, tudie of tudent perception related to faculty apparel ugget that apparel doe impact perception. In that apparel that increae the perception of coolne on the part of the faculty member decreae the tudent perception of peronal attractivene and women are more perceptive to apparel than are men 5. Gorham, Cohen and Morri cite Rollman work in which he demontrated that tudent perception baed olely on apparel differ markedly. Specifically, two picture of the ame faculty member were hown tudent with the only difference being the apparel. Faculty member in caual apparel were viewed by tudent a more friendly, more flexible, more ympathetic, more fair and more enthuiatic than thoe formally dreed. Faculty member dreed formally were perceived a being- better organized, more knowledgeable, and better prepared than thoe in caual apparel 6. It i appropriate to note that thee inference were baed on tudent perception of faculty where the tudent were only hown picture of faculty thee perception were not the reult of actual claroom interaction. Further, thee outcome were only tudent perception not meaurement of the impact on tudent learning. In 996, Morri, Gorham, Cohen, and Huffman made an attempt to addre thi iue when they meaured tudent perception of guet lecturer 7. The guet lecturer were graduate tudent. The guet lectured to different ection of a univerity level, multi-ectioned, introductory coure uing the ame lecture o that the only variable wa apparel. They found that caual apparel for male guet lecturer led to higher core on perception of Workman, J. E. (984). Effect of appropriate and inappropriate attire on attribution of peronal dipoition. Clothing and Textile Reearch Journal, 3(), 0-3. Effect of graduate teaching aitant attire on tudent learning, mibehavior, and rating of intruction. K David Roach. Communication Quarterly Univerity Park: Summer 997. Vol. 45, I. 3, p. 5-4 (7 pp.) 3 Chowdhary, 988; Morri, Gorham, Cohen, & Huffman, 996; Roach, Molloy (988), Raicot (986) 5 Fahion in the claroom III: Effect of intructor attire and immediacy in natural claroom interaction. Joan Gorham, Stanley H Cohen, Tracy L Morri. Communication Quarterly Univerity Park:Summer 999. Vol. 47, I. 3, p (9 pp.) 6 Ibid 7 Morri, T. L., Gorham, J, Cohen, S.H., & Huffman, D. (996). Fahion in the claroom: Effect of attire on tudent perception of intructor in college clae. Communication Education, 45,

2 College Teaching Method & Style Journal January 008 Volume 4, Number ociability, extroverion and the judgment that their (caual apparel) wa the mot intereting preentation. Formal apparel wa only aociated with higher competency rating for female. Baed on the reult of thi tudy, a faculty member would be well advied to emulate the pro-typical Maynard G. Crebb profeorial model. Again, it i appropriate to point out that thi wa an experiment of limited duration (one guet lecture), not the reult of a emeter (or any other grading period ) duration. In 977, Gorham, Cohen, and Morri repeated the 996 tudy with conideration of faculty immediacy (Immediacy behavior are thoe that promote phyical and pychological cloene between interactant i the faculty member perceived a approachable?). Their purpoe wa to tet whether or not intructor immediacy might have overwhelmed the impact of apparel that wa reported in their 996 paper. So they included faculty immediacy a an independent variable ince all guet lecturer in their 996 tudy were viewed a immediate. Thu, the 997 work ued two independent variable and looked at their impact alone and together on tudent learning outcome 8. Gorham, Cohen and Morri reult indicated that intructor immediacy wa indeed the major factor influence tudent perception about claroom interaction. The influence of apparel wa limited to perception of faculty extroverion in that thoe caually dreed faculty were viewed a more extroverted than thoe faculty formally dreed. That i, a trategic choice of apparel did not improve tudent perception of non-immediate faculty or that caual apparel negatively impacted perception of immediate faculty 9. In 977, Roach publihed the reult of a tudy examining the impact of faculty apparel in the claroom. Roach reult found poitive, tatitically ignificant correlation between intructor apparel and tudent perception in that faculty dreed in a highly profeional fahion (in the opinion of the tudent) were judged more favorably than either thoe dreed in a moderately profeional fahion or thoe judged to be dreed in a low profeional fahion 0. In their 999 article, Gorham, Cohen and Morri noted that the dicrepancy between their reult and thoe of Roach might be due to the lack of control of the apparel variable. Wherea Roach allowed tudent determination of the categorization of faculty apparel, in their previou paper they manipulated the tyle of faculty apparel. Gorham, Cohen and Morri deigned their 999 tudy to examine the impact of apparel and/or immediacy over a wider range of faculty at two point in time, the firt cla meeting and midterm. Citing the work of Hoult, the author peculated that the effect of apparel and/or immediacy would be minimized a tudent accumulate additional obervation on which they will bae their perception of faculty. The reult of thi tudy find that there i little aociation between perception and apparel and the author conclude that the conventional widom of encouraging profeional dre i of little value. None of the literature reviewed meaured the differential impact on tudent learning. Rather, what wa meaured wa the differential impact on tudent impreion and according to Gorham, Cohen and Morri, profeional dre make little difference. Neverthele, to date it ha not been determined whether or not faculty apparel impact tudent learning. Further, many (particularly adminitrator) believe that there i a link between faculty apparel and meaure of faculty performance. For faculty member, the meaurement of the impact of uch 8 Again, for the purpoe of thi reearch, it i appropriate to note that the time period ued a the bai for determination wa one lecture period. 9 Morri, T. L., Gorham, J, Cohen, S.H., & Huffman, D. (996). Fahion in the claroom: Effect of attire on tudent perception of intructor in college clae. Communication Education, 45, Effect of graduate teaching aitant attire on tudent learning, mibehavior, and rating of intruction, K David Roach. Communication Quarterly Univerity Park: Summer 997. Vol. 45, I. 3, p. 5-4 (7 pp.) Fahion in the claroom III: Effect of intructor attire and immediacy in natural claroom interaction, Joan Gorham, Stanley H Cohen, Tracy L Morri. Communication Quarterly Univerity Park:Summer 999. Vol. 47, I. 3, p (9 pp.) Hoult, T.F (954). Experimental meaurement of clothing a a factor in ome ocial rating of elected American men. American Sociological Review, 9,

3 College Teaching Method & Style Journal January 008 Volume 4, Number behavior ha all too often been proxied through the ue of tudent aement meaure. A a reult, faculty aement i a fact of life on mot college campue. Arguably, the intent of uch program i to improve intruction in the claroom through faculty development. Thu, on mot college campue, a component of faculty development i an aement regime. The majority of aement program include a a component ome form of tudent aement of the faculty member teaching the cla. Thee aement are, for the mot part, given ignificant weight in annual aement depite their limitation. The literature on tudent aement i replete with tudie examining the impact of variou factor on tudent aement. The relationhip between tudent aement of faculty and tudent learning ha alo been examined 3,4. Neverthele, an opportunity preent itelf to concurrently tet the impact of faculty apparel on tudent perception a meaured by tudent evaluation in thi reearch project. However, given the time contraint, reult of tudent aement of faculty for the fall 006 Semeter will not be available before the cheduled preentation of thi paper. Thu the tet of the impact of faculty apparel on tudent aement of faculty performance i deferred until the reult of the longer term tudy are written up. Therefore for the purpoe of thi tudy, the teting hypothee (H and HA) are propoed: H: Faculty apparel make a ignificant difference in tudent learning outcome. HA: Faculty apparel doe not make a ignificant difference in tudent learning outcome. The tet wa conducted a follow. Four clae offered during the fall 006 emeter in the College of Buine Adminitration at Savannah State Univerity will be ued. The clae conited of two ection of two coure, both of which are required ubject in the BBA program. Specifically, the coure ued were Buine Finance (Finc 355, ection and ) and Peronal Finance (Finc 3000, ection and ). To control for differential profeorial immediacy, the ame faculty member will be ued to teach each coure. The only difference for the two clae will be that one will be taught by the faculty member in profeional dre and the other will be taught by the ame faculty member dreed caually. The ame lecture and material will be ued in both ection of each coure. Further, each coure will employ CPS by eintruction to capture daily aement of tudent learning 5. To control for difference between traditional and non-traditional tudent, each ection that contained mainly traditional tudent wa paired with a ection of the ame coure that contained mainly nontraditional tudent. Thu, a ection of each cla offered during the day wa paired with a ection of the ame cla offered in the evening. Given the four coure available for tudy: Peronal Finance Section (Finc ) (day) Peronal Finance Section (Finc ) (evening) Buine Finance (Finc 355.0) (day) Buine Finance (Finc 355.0) (evening) Faculty apparel - profeional Faculty apparel - caual Faculty apparel - caual Faculty apparel - profeional Further, in thi reearch project, the categorization of faculty apparel i trictly controlled. Retailer, Jo. A. Bank, agreed to ponor thi reearch by providing and coordinating the faculty apparel uing their bet 3 It i not the purpoe of thi paper to include a dicuion of the validity of tudent aement of faculty nor i it it purpoe to reargue the appropriatene of the incluion of uch aement in meaure of the job performance of faculty. Intead, thi paper accept the notion: () that tudent aement of faculty exit () there i a preumed relationhip between tudent aement and tudent learning (3) that tudent aement i of ignificance in the career path of faculty (promotion and tenure deciion). 4 Student Evaluation of College Intructor: An Overview by Patricia A. Gordon, Valdota State Univerity. A paper ubmitted a partial requirement for PSY 70: Condition of Learning taught by Dr. William G. Huitt. 5 CPS i the acronym for the Claroom Performance Sytem, a product of eintruction.com. Each tudent ha, a part of their required coure material, an infrared tranmitter (in tudenteee thee are commonly called clicker ). Each tranmitter i uniquely keyed o that the tudent repone to in-cla querie, in-cla exam and even attendance can be monitored and recorded. 3

4 College Teaching Method & Style Journal January 008 Volume 4, Number interpretation of the currently accepted definition of profeional dre and caual dre baed on their ale trend. 6 DATA In the Peronal Finance cla for the fall 006 Semeter, there were twenty five (5) tudent in ection one and twenty one () tudent in ection two. Both ection had a total of twenty four (4) recorded obervation. The Buine Finance cla for the fall 006 Semeter had enrollment of twenty even (7) in ection one and twelve () in ection two. Both ection of Buine Finance had a total of twenty two () recorded obervation. The obervation for both Peronal Finance and Buine Finance were with one exception cored event. Some event were pre-tet over aigned material, ome event were inter-temporal aement quetion deigned to acertain whether or not tudent comprehended material jut covered in cla and ome of the event were formal aement (exam). The ingle exception wa the ue of attendance a a dependent variable. The teting methodology employed wa a tatitical tet to determine if the et of core for ection one and two on any given graded obervation were drawn from different population. That i, a faculty apparel i the variable in quetion, are the core from the ection where the faculty member i profeionally dreed ignificantly different enough from thoe where the faculty member i caually dreed o a to imply that the population are different. Additionally, the attendance record were maintained and a determination of the amene of population wa made baed on an attendance variable. To tet for ignificant difference, a t-tet for difference between independent ample mean wa ued 7. 6 The benefit of Jo. A. Bank upport are multiple. The mot obviou i economic a the cot involved in outfitting the faculty member in currently accepted profeional dre i not inconequential. Equally important i the matter of actualizing the concept of profeional dre to neutralize the tate, preference and habit of the 50 omething reearcher. 7 The etimated tandard error wa found by uing X X n n Given that in the cae of the Buine Finance Clae, the ample ize were unequal, a weighted average (a pooled etimate) wa employed: ( n ) ( n ) p Step : pooled variance etimate: ( n n ) Step : tandard error: X X p n n p The Statitical Hypothee i a two-tailed tet: H0: = H: Thu the mean difference will be zero. H0: - = 0 H: - 0 The deciion rule ued wa (et ): (a) =.05 (b) two-tailed tet (c) df (Finc3000) = (n ) + (n ) = (5 ) + ( - ) = 44, o the critical value i The df(finc355) = (n ) + (n ) = (7 ) + ( - ) = 37, o the critical value i.069 The computation of the oberved t i found by firt computing the pooled variance: 4

5 College Teaching Method & Style Journal January 008 Volume 4, Number RESULTS 8 Table contain the tatitic for the mean difference tet for the Peronal Finance coure (Finc 3000). An inpection of the table reveal that of the twenty four (4) obervation, the mean difference wa tatitically different in eight (8) of the twenty four (4) cae. That i in the twenty three (3) meaured event (recall that attendance wa one of the twenty four (4) obervation) given that the aumption of amene in term of lecture, tudent, all ele ave the apparel of the faculty member, there wa a ignificant meaureable difference in tudent performance in eight (8) of the twenty three (3) trial. Interetingly, the meaurable difference wa poitive in five (5) of the eight (8) cae and negative in the remaining three (3) cae. Where profeorial apparel wa profeional, a poitive difference occur when the performance of the cla wa uperior to that of the cla where the profeorial apparel wa caual. Obviouly, the revere of thi would create a negative difference. Overall, thirteen (3) of the (4) difference were negative (54%). Thi outcome i little more than what one might expect from the to of a fair coin, that i chance. p ( n ) ( n ) ( n n ) Next we compute the tandard error: p p X X n n The computation of the t i found by: ( X X ) ( ) t x x The neceary aumption for t-tet with independent ample:. The population from which the ample were elected are normally ditributed thi aumption can be violated with few conequence if ample are large.. The population from which the ample were elected have equal variance that i there i an aumption of the Homogeneity of variance If the two ample ize are equal or are cloe to equal, one ample variance can be up to 4 time the amount of the other with no caue for concern If the ample ize are quite diparate, then the difference between the variance hould be very cloe to zero or thi aumption will be violated. Latly, if one ample variance i more than 4 time the ize of the other, the aumption i likely violated (regardle of ample ize) Thi note wa adapted from Fundamental Statitic for the Behavioral Science, 5th Edition by David C. Howell ISBN- 0: , Microoft Excel wa ued to generate the reult. 5

6 College Teaching Method & Style Journal January 008 Volume 4, Number Table Peronal Finance (Finance 3000) Probabilitie That Sample Mean Are From The Same Population Obervation t Stat t Critical two-tail P(T<=t) The attendance variable, repreented in obervation 4 i conitent with the majority of outcome from the other obervation, in that there i a negative difference that i not ignificant at the 5% level. Chart in the Appendix paint a lightly different picture but in thi cae, what i diplayed i the probability that the ample were drawn from the ame population, thu a ignificant negative difference and an equal but ignificantly poitive difference would plot identically. Table ummarize the tatitic for the mean difference tet for the Buine Finance coure (Finc 355). An inpection of the table reveal that of the twenty two () obervation, the mean difference wa tatitically different in only two () of the twenty two () cae. That i in the twenty one () meaured event (recall that attendance wa one of the twenty two meaurement); there wa a ignificant difference in fewer than ten percent of the trial. Further, in contrat to what wa found in the Peronal Finance cla, a negative difference in thi cla indicate that the performance of the cla where the profeorial attire wa profeional exceeded that of the cla where the profeorial attire wa caual. The performance differential wa negative, that i, the cla where profeional attire wa preent performed at a higher level in nine (9) of the twenty one () meaured event (43%). Thi i cloe to the percentage oberved in the Peronal Finance Cla (46%) for the preence of profeional attire. 6

7 College Teaching Method & Style Journal January 008 Volume 4, Number Table Buine Finance (Finance 355) Ditribution of Probabilitie that Mean are from Different Population Obervation t Stat t Critical two-tail P(T<=t) The attendance obervation wa poitive (caual attire had higher attendance) but the difference wa inignificant a wa the cae with the Peronal Finance cla. Chart, like Chart, plot ignificant difference (both poitive and negative) in the ame fahion. The fact that only three of the meaurement would be ignificant at the ten percent level (in contrat to eight in Chart for Peronal Finance) i intereting but the ditribution contain only two () outcome indicating that caual attire make a difference veru one () indicating a preference for profeional attire on the part of the tudent. Interpretation of Reult, Concluion, Limitation and Future Reearch: The original purpoe wa to tet whether or not profeional attire made a ignificant difference in learning outcome. Baed on the time erie analyi of meaured outcome, imply put, there i not a ignificant difference in performance at any reaonable level of ignificance. Actually, there i faint upport for the contention that caual attire may be preferable. Anecdotal evidence eem conitent with the notion that tudent are more comfortable (that i they relate more eaily to the intructor better intructor immediacy) to the intructor ued in thi tet when he wa attired caually. Admittedly, there are certain advantage for profeional attire. However, the uggetion that it make a difference in tudent learning outcome wa not upported by thi reearch. A wa tated initially, thee are preliminary reult from a two emeter tudy. Further, tudent aement of faculty data wa not available in time to be included in thi paper o the final outcome i a yet unknown, but one might well expect it to be little different than the reult reported here. The faculty member participating in thi tudy wa a enior faculty member who had been part of the core of teaching faculty at Savannah State Univerity for ten year. Thu, he wa reaonably well known a a enior member of the faculty of the College of Buine Adminitration. It i typical to aociate or make the aumption that maturity implie creditability. Given the maturity of the faculty member in quetion and the fact that hi reputation and hi projected degree of immediacy wa well known to tudent and did indeed precede him in the 7

8 College Teaching Method & Style Journal January 008 Volume 4, Number cla, there i a reaonable upicion of a biaed outcome. To what extent the reult were influenced by thi i unknown but one direction for additional reearch would be to tet whether or not thee reult are influenced by thi. To tet thi, one might repeat the experiment uing a newly minted faculty member whoe creditability or reputation and whoe degree immediacy i unknown to tudent. Baed on the literature, there i upport for the notion that profeional attire might well infer ome degree of creditability to the faculty member but whether thi would tranlate into meaureable difference in tudent learning outcome i unknown. The gender of the faculty member participating in the tudy wa male. Doe gender in addition to maturity, tenure and immediacy play a role? The lat iue that need to be conidered i the degree of comfortablene exitent on the part of the faculty member. If one i not accutomed to dreing profeionally, then thi dicomfort may well indeed impact the way in which the faculty member behave, thu impacting the outcome. There are alway quetion that remain and in thi cae there are numerou unanwered quetion. Additionally, there are many potentially confounding iue that remain to be addreed. Thee iue and quetion notwithtanding; baed on the reult a reported here, when the quetion i aked, doe faculty apparel make a ignificant meaureable difference in tudent learning outcome? The anwer at thi point, i no. BIBLIOGRAPHY. Chowdhary, U Intructor attire a a biaing factor in tudent rating of an intructor. Clothing and Textile Reearch Journal, 6(), 7-.. Gordon, Patricia. Student Evaluation of College Intructor: An Overview, Valdota State Univerity. A paper ubmitted a partial requirement for PSY 70: Condition of Learning taught by Dr. William G. Huitt. 3. Gorham, J., Cohen, S. H., & Morri, T. L. (997). Fahion in the claroom II: Intructor immediacy and attire. Communication Reearch Report, 4, Gorham, J., Cohen, S.H., Morri, T.L. (Summer 999). Fahion in the claroom III: Effect of intructor attire and immediacy in natural claroom interaction Communication Quarterly Univerity Park: Summer 999. Vol. 47, I. 3, p (9 pp.) 5. Hoult, T.F (954). Experimental meaurement of clothing a a factor in ome ocial rating of elected American men. American Sociological Review, 9, Howell, David C. Fundamental Statitic for the Behavioral Science, 5th Edition, Thomon, ISBN- 0: , Malloy, J John T. Molloy New Dre for Succe. New York, NY: Warner. 8. Montell, Gabriela (003). Do Good Look Equal Good Evaluation?.The Chronicle of Higher Education, Wedneday, October 5, Morri, T. L., Gorham, J, Cohen, S.H., & Huffman, D. (996). Fahion in the claroom: Effect of attire on tudent perception of intructor in college clae. Communication Education, 45, Raicot, J. (983). Jury election, body language, and the viual trial. Minneapoli: AB Publication. Raicot, J. (986). Silent ale. Minneapoli: AB Publication.. Roach, K. David, (Summer 997). Effect of graduate teaching aitant attire on tudent learning, mibehavior, and rating of intruction. Communication Quarterly Univerity Park: Summer 997. Vol. 45, I. 3, p. 5-4 (7 pp.). Saiki, Diana (006). Communication Effectively: Teaching Leon About Dre for the Workplace. Journal of Family and Conumer Science Education, Vol. 4, No., Spring/Summer Workman, J. E. (984). Effect of appropriate and inappropriate attire on attribution of peronal dipoition. Clothing and Textile Reearch Journal, 3(),

9 College Teaching Method & Style Journal January 008 Volume 4, Number Chart Probability That Sample Were Drawn From the Same Population Finance

10 College Teaching Method & Style Journal January 008 Volume 4, Number Chart Probability That Sample Were Drawn From The Same Population Finance % Significance Level

11 College Teaching Method & Style Journal January 008 Volume 4, Number