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Summary Notes of "That's Not Fair, Understanding Students' Ideas
of Classroom Fairness," The Teaching Professor, Vol. 14, No. 4,
April 2000, p. 1 and p. 6. [Ref. Houston, M. B., and Bettencourt,
L. A., "But that's not fair! An exploratory study of students' perceptions
of instructor fairness," Journal of Marketing Education, 21 (2),
August 1999, pp. 84-96.]
Summarized by J. T. P. Yao, 10/8/00
"… Unfortunately, students don't always see faculty actions
as being fair. When that happens, previous research has documented
that student motivation and learning is adversely affected. …
Using critical incident technique, researchers surveyed 149 students
in three sections of a principles of marketing course and one section
of a consumer behavior at a southwestern, metropolitan university.
… Students were asked to identify and describe one incident
of each focusing exactly on what the teacher did that made the student
think it was or was not fair. …"
"… The five main categories … are listed below along with
the number of reported incidents that were fair and unfair in each
category ….
1. Professor conduct in interpersonal relations: … 16 fair
incidents … and 25 unfair incidents …
2. Professor exhibits flexibility: … 36 fair incidents …
and 14 unfair incidents …
3. Implementation of course grades and policies: … 47 fair
incidents … and 24 unfair incidents …
4. Interactions with professor regarding grades: … 19 fair
incidents … and 40 unfair incidents …
5. Course and exam content: … 21 fair incidents … and
34 unfair incidents …"
"… Interestingly though, a number of incidents do not seem
inherently unfair. For example, it is not unfair to lower course
grades because of poor attendance. Students reported that it was,
especially students who did well without coming to the course. The
researchers point out that in situations like this, policies must
be explained and justified. The reasons and rationales behind them
may not be obvious to students."
[Readers who are interested in this article are encouraged to read
the original paper in its entirety. Other summary notes on faculty
reward systems are available on the Internet at http://lohman.tamu.edu
under the heading "Summaries of Papers ..."]
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