Students Are Almost as Effective as Professors in University Teaching

Jan Feld, Nicolas Salamanca and Ulf Zölitz§
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Ulf Zölitz§: Behavior and Inequality Research Institute (briq); IZA Institute of Labor Economics; and Department of Economics, Maastricht University
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Ulf Zölitz

Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series from Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne

Abstract: Many universities around the world rely on student instructors—current bachelor’s and master’s degree students—for tutorial teaching, yet we know nothing about their effectiveness. In a setting with random assignment of instructors to students, we show that student instructors are almost as effective as senior instructors at improving their students’ short- and longer-run academic achievement and labor market outcomes. We find little heterogeneity across different course types, student characteristics, or instructors’ personal academic quality. Our results suggest that the use of student instructors can serve as an effective tool for universities to reduce their costs with negligible negative effects on students.

Keywords: Student instructors; university; teacher performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I24 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 59pp
Date: 2017-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-sog
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https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/__data/a ... 488374/wp2017n23.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Students are almost as effective as professors in university teaching (2019)
Working Paper: Students Are Almost as Effective as Professors in University Teaching (2019)
Working Paper: Students are Almost as Effective as Professors in University Teaching (2019)
Working Paper: Students are Almost as Effective as Professors in University Teaching (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2017n23

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