Dr Fox effect

The Dr. Fox effect is a correlation observed between teacher expressiveness, content coverage, student evaluation and student achievement. The phenomenon was named after the pseudonymous Dr. Myron L. Fox, the actor who was used to conduct the lectures in the first study of this phenomenon. [Donald H. Naftulin, John E. Ware, Jr., and Frank A. Donnelly, [http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r30034/PSY4180/Pages/Naftulin.html "The Doctor Fox Lecture: A Paradigm of Educational Seduction"] , "Journal of Medical Education" 48 (1973): 630-635. Retrieved 2008-06-22.]

In the observation, two equivalent groups of students are given lectures varying in content coverage. After the lecture, students are required to evaluate the teacher on effectiveness. A test is also taken to measure the student achievement.

It is observed that student achievement is higher for higher content-coverage. However students are observed to rate high content-coverage lectures as better than low-coverage lectures only under conditions of low expressiveness. Under conditions of high expressiveness, no correlation is observed.

This lack of correspondence between content-coverage and ratings under conditions of high expressiveness is known as the Dr Fox Effect. [cite web | title = The Dr. Fox effect: a study of lecturer effectiveness and ratings of instruction. | url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&uid=1120118&cmd=showdetailview&indexed=google | accessdate = 2008-12-25 ]

In a recent critique of student evaluations of teaching, professor of law Deborah Merritt summarized the Dr. Fox Effect as it was observed in the first experiments: "The experimenters created a meaningless lecture on 'Mathematical Game Theory as Applied to Physician Education,' and coached Fox to deliver it 'with anexcessive use of double talk, neologisms, non sequiturs, andcontradictory statements.' At the same time, the researchersencouraged Fox to adopt a lively demeanor, convey warmthtoward his audience, and intersperse his nonsensical commentswith humor. ... Fox fooled not just one, but three separate audiences ofprofessional and graduate students. Despite the emptiness ofhis lecture, fifty-five psychiatrists, psychologists, educators,graduate students, and other professionals produced evaluationsof Dr. Fox that were overwhelmingly positive. ... The disturbingfeature of the Dr. Fox study, as the experimenters noted, is that Fox’s nonverbal behaviors so completely masked a meaningless,jargon-filled, and confused presentation." [ [http://www.stjohns.edu/media/3/15809021162c4c7abc99c9b0134c8049.pdf "Bias, the Brain, and Student Evaluations of Teaching"] , "St. John's Law Review" 82 (2008):235-287, retrieved 2008-06-22.]

ee also

* Forer effect

References