Tweed and a bow tie : what makes a professor?

The current investigation utilizes past research in schema theory and implicit leadership theory to define the expectations students have for their professors. Open-ended and fixed-response measures were used to examine the commonly reported and highest rated qualities, traits, and behaviors students have for the leaders of the classroom— their professors. These responses yielded a complex implicit professor theory that suggested seven basic conceptions of professors: the positive teacher (teaches well, not boring, and easy to understand), the negative teacher (insensitive, manipulative, and egotistical), but also the dynamic professor, the student-oriented professor, the androgynous professor, the knowledgeable professor, and the charismatic professor.