Research in Higher Education Journal The Male Professor’s Attire, Page 1 The Male Professor’s Attire and Student Perceptions of Instructional Quality

This paper reports the results of a study conducted by the authors designed to address the question of whether the attire of male professors impacts the perceptions of male and female students differently as to the quality of instruction and their overall satisfaction with the academic program. Specifically, male and female students were surveyed using two different versions of a questionnaire which depicted a male model wearing casual, business casual, and professional clothing. Overall, in most cases the male instructor who was dressed more professionally was held in higher esteem by students of both genders. However, opposite results were found with respect to the male instructor’s ability to relate course information to the real world as well as his willingness to answer questions and listen to student opinions. Further, female students did rate the instructor more positively in all cases, although in some cases the difference was not statistically significant