1. Looking Good, Teaching Well? Linking Liking, Looks, and Learning Regan A. R. Gurung, Kristin M. Grudzielanek, and Christina J. Tosh Attractiveness is a powerful social tool, but it is associated with teaching effectiveness? Recent research has begun to answer this question (Buskist, Silkorski, Buckley, & Saville 2002; Epting, Zinn, Buskist, & Buskist, 2004). In this vein we assessed how factors such as dress, attractiveness, approachability, and liking influence student learning. The professor’s personal qualities such as appearance (attractiveness, gender, age, formal vs. informal dress), approachableness (easy to talk to), and likeability may influence the students’ overall evaluation of the course and student outcomes. The two aspects of a professor’s personal qualities that have been shown to influence student evaluations of a course are the professor’s attractiveness and gender (Buck & Tiene 1989; Naumann 1989; Romano & Bordieri 1989). Romano and Bordieri found that attractive professors were “judged to be better teachers, more likely to be approached, more likely to be recommended to other students, and less likely to be blamed if a student received a failing course grade”(1989). Female professors were also more preferred than male professors. Not all studies agree (Buck & Tiene, 1989). Is there a link? Is attractiveness just a proxy for other factors? There has also been extensive research on what is the most successful in the college classroom experience. The classroom experience consists of format (i.e. lecture, discussion, in-class group work, demonstrations, and multimedia), assignments in the classroom (i.e. tests, pop quiz’s, papers, in- class activates, group projects, individual projects, D2L, and others), perceived difficulty level, satisfaction with the course, class size, and the use of power point. Research has found that the most successful format for teaching should be a combination of things (Buskist, Silkorski, Buckley, & Saville 2002). We hypothesized that many different aspects of a college professor’s personal qualities combined with the classroom experience can greatly influence student outcomes. Based on previous research, we believe that student’s view of the professor’s personal qualities (appearance, approachableness, and how likable is the professor) will be positively correlated to classroom experience and student outcomes. We also hypothesized that a professor’s appearance will influence how the student’s view that professor’s approachableness, how much they like that professor, and student outcomes. The participants in this study included 948 students from a mid sized, Midwestern university (80% female). All university students were invited to participate in the study through a campus wide e-mail. The e-mail provided a short description of the study and why the information we would receive from it was important. It included a link to a survey for students who decided to respond. MethodIntroduction Results & Discussion Does the appearance of an instructor influence student liking of the class and learning? We tested this question with 948 undergraduate students. Regression analysis showed that good looking, well dressed, likeable, approachable teachers had students who learned more and liked the class better. Abstract Figure 1: Correlations Between Learning and Main Predictors Liking Difficulty Formal Dress Learning Course Structure Attractiveness Figure 2: Predicting Learning Figure 1: Correational analyses showed that learning was significantly related to attractiveness, formal dress, approachability, likeability, attendance, participation, difficulty, and enjoyment. Figure 2: To predict learning from the other key variables we conducted a multiple regression analysis which demonstrated that how much students learn is contingent upon GPA (3% of variance), gender of the instructor (2%), liking of the professor (50%), difficulty of the class (1%), and student’s attendance (2%). Figure 3: To predict liking we conducted a second multiple regression analysis which demonstrated that how much students like their instructor is contingent upon the instructors formal dress (1% of variance), difficulty of the course (3%), student’s attendance (2%), student’s participation (4%), instructor approachability (6%), attractiveness of the instructor (19%), instructor’s age (3%), and student’s GPA and instructor’s sex (3%). Figure 3: Predicting Liking Age: 30-39 (50%) and 40-49 (38%) Gender: no significant difference Class size: 0-25 (41%) and 25-50 (42%) Attractiveness: mean = 2.01 {7 = very important} Formal Dress: mean = 2.59 {7 = very important} Difficulty: mean = 4.21 {7 = very hard} 50% Lecture 23% Discussion 13% In-class group work 14% Demonstrations 15% Multimedia Student Preferences: Analyses of variance (ANOVA) showed that female professors were rated as more attractive and likeable (64% of professors rated were male). Male professors were rated as more formally dressed. ANOVAs also showed female professors had higher attractiveness and likeability ratings. Findings support the strong associations between attractiveness and student liking for a course. In addition we draw attention to the importance of how instructors dress and provide insight into the many different factors associated with student liking. As can be seen there is a strong association between liking and learning that is hard to disentangle. One possible way to understand this link may be to examine class assessment scores (rather than using self-report grades as we have). Consistent with the social psychological powers of attractiveness, our results suggest that even in the classroom, attractiveness is a powerful factor. APS2005: For a copy or additional details email: gurungr@uwgb.edu