An Analysis of Teacher and Student Leadership and Gender Differentiation Within Academic Divisions at Three Virginia and Tennessee Liberal Arts Colleges

This quantitative study investigated a range of leadership behaviors by teachers (teacher characteristics) and students (student characteristics) inside their higher education classrooms and various aspects of those environments (classroom characteristics). The behaviors and environmental aspects examined are those determined by research findings to foster and enhance participant growth and development. Cluster sampling was used for this study of 25 classes representing 5 divisions of the curriculum at 3 institutions. The instruments were administered to 277 students and 25 teachers during the spring of 1999. The null hypotheses for main effects of teacher, student, and classroom characteristics were tested on the two instruments\u27 items at the .05 level of significance using a Univariate ANOVA. According to student responses, overall, a main effect of teacher gender was found on teachers\u27 characteristics and approaches to student learning. A main effect of teacher gender was also found on students\u27 characteristics and overall orientations to learning. According to teacher responses, a main effect of teaching style was found for both male students and female students, on teachers\u27 approaches to student learning, and on students\u27 characteristics and overall orientations to learning. A main effect of teacher gender was found for both male students and female students on students\u27 characteristics and overall orientations to learning. A main effect of teacher gender and an interaction of teacher gender and teaching style was found for male students on students\u27 characteristics and overall orientations to learning