Influence of Gender and Age on Science and Non-Science Students' Evaluation of Teaching Effectiveness of University Lecturers

The study focused on university students’ evaluation of the teaching effectiveness of their lecturers with a view to providing diagnostic feedback to lecturers about the effectiveness of their teaching. A descriptive survey research design was employed in carrying out the study. Moreover, a stratified random sampling technique was used to select fifty second year students from each of the Faculties of Science and Arts of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria. A total of 100 students were eventually asked to evaluate the best lecturer among those teaching them during the semester by rating such lecturer using valid and reliable instrument named University Students’ Evaluation of Teaching Effectiveness Scale (USETES). The students rated the lecturers on a five-point scale of very poor, poor, moderate, good and very good. The instrument was made up of forty-six items that were divided into sections of students’ interest, classroom organization, and fairness to students, preparation, giving of assignments, assessment/appearance and commitment. Percentages, frequency count and t-test were used to analyze the data. The study revealed that most of the students rated their lecturers above average with respect to sympathy, friendliness, good relationship with students, readiness to assist students, respect for the view of students, good interaction with students and good sense of judgment. However, most students rated the lecturers low on traits such as supervision of projects, regular class attendance and use of instructional materials. The study further found out that there were no significant influence of sex and age of the students on their evaluation of their lecturers’ teaching effectiveness in some traits while significant influence of sex and age were recorded in other traits. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n14p491