Reference table
Forms of address and how students see instructors
What research says about titles, first names and gender in student perceptions
A one-page summary of five studies on what students call their instructors and what follows from it. Titles raise perceived status, but women who use them can be seen as less accessible, and first names trade authority for warmth. Quality officers can use it when reading approachability items in course evaluations or writing guidance for staff. Koji's course evaluation interviews ask students what actually happened, so a low approachability score comes with a reason.
What's in this reference table
| Study | Design | Main finding |
|---|---|---|
| Takiff, Sanchez and Stewart 2001 | 243-student survey, then a transcript experiment | Titles raised status for all, but women addressed by title seemed less accessible |
| Wright 2013 | 70 students rated course descriptions | Courses listed under Mrs or Miss were judged more negatively |
| Farris and Martinson 2022 | 416 students watched first-day videos | First-name women seen as more caring and less assertive than first-name men |
| Foster 2023 | One instructor's 16 offerings, plus a vignette experiment | Higher ratings when she used her first name, with effects varying by race |
| Files et al. 2017 | 321 grand rounds speaker introductions | Men introducing women used a professional title 49.2% of the time |
Use this image
Free to use in your docs, decks and posts under CC BY 4.0, as long as you credit Koji with a link to this page. To embed it, paste this into your page:
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<a href="https://www.koji.so/visuals/forms-of-address-instructor-perception-studies"><img src="https://www.koji.so/visuals/forms-of-address-instructor-perception-studies/forms-of-address-instructor-perception-studies.png" alt="Table comparing five studies on forms of address and how students and colleagues perceive instructors, with each study's design and main finding." width="1200" height="873" /></a>
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.koji.so/visuals/forms-of-address-instructor-perception-studies">Forms of address and how students see instructors</a>, Koji</p>
