Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this replication study is to determine to what extent the degree of professional dress impacts teaching effectiveness as perceived by high school teachers. A secondary purpose is to determine if there is a difference in self-perception of the impact of professional dress on teaching effectiveness based on gender or years of teaching experience. Methodology. The research subjects comprising the present study included 172 high school teachers from eight high schools in four school districts located in southern California. The participants responded to a paper survey instrument assessing their perception of the degree of professional dress and its impact on teaching effectiveness. Findings. The quantitative data from this cohort indicated that: 1) nearly 50 % of high school teachers believed that semi formal dress was most preferred across all genders or years of teaching experience; 2) teachers believed that professional dress had a positive influence on all of the 12 factors of teaching effectiveness examined here; 3) no statistically significant gender difference was found for the perceived impact of the degree of professional dress and on teaching effectiveness. The one exception to this was the factor relating to the ability of dress to calm a student who is disruptive or noisy; 4) the effects of the number of years of teaching experience were similar across all years of teaching experience. Conclusions. These results support the conclusion that the degree of professional dress has a significant impact on teaching effectiveness as perceived by teachers; this is irrespective of teacher gender or years of teaching experience. Recommendations. The exploration of how the degree of professional dress and impacts teaching effectiveness as perceived by teachers should be expanded beyond the southern California region, where the expanded geographical areas could include northern California or central California. Relationships between professional dress and teaching effectiveness as perceived by teachers should further be examined in other school grade levels. Leaders of school districts or schools should promote a policy that teachers dress appropriately and professionally for work in the classroom, and, based on the present results, semi formal dress is hereby recommended as the most professional and appropriate for this purpose.