Absenteeism and performance in a quantitative module A quantile regression analysis

Abstract

Purpose – There is growing evidence that learning is faster, measurably better and more productive in a classroom setting when a student attends classes regularly. Each student brings in his/her experience, skills, and unique learning styles to a class – thus a classroom environment can potentially create positive externalities through which a student can gain substantially from various strengths of his/her peers. However, students do remain absent from their classes for a variety of reasons. One of the measurable effects of regular non-attendance in a university class, where students from various cultures and regions interact, is the academic performance. The purpose of this paper is to determine if there is any potential causal link between absenteeism (attendance) and academic performance. Design/methodology/approach – Data were culled from the records of three batches of students in a British university campus in the Middle East. Quantile regression methods were used to establish the causal relationship between absenteeism and academic performance. Findings – A quantile regression analysis reveals that absenteeism has negative impact on academic performance. This also suggests that low performers are worse affected by absenteeism as compared to the high performers. Research limitations/implications – Inclusion of some other factors, such as study habits, additional hours spent on quantitative modules, student’s ethnicity background, particularly in the context of United Arab Emirates, could have emboldened the robustness of the study. Non-availability or paucity of this information, to some degree, has limited the conclusions of this study. Originality/value – Proponents of mandatory attendance argue that there is a positive correlation between attendance and performance. But, one very important issue which gets overlooked is who actually benefits more by attending classes – are the shirkers who have a poor attendance record or the ones who are more sincere, more regular, and active participants in a class? This study uses quantile regression analysis to address this issue.

Pengembangan Modul Berbasis Penemuan Terbimbing Pada Mata Kuliah Geometri Transformasi

“…Modul sangat bermanfaat bagi mahasiswa dengan pencapaian kinerja yang rendah, modul disusun dengan menerapkan pola langkah dan strategi pengajaran agar kinerja mahasiswa rendah dapat meningkat lebih baik untuk berkinerja tinggi. Partisipasi di kelas memiliki dampak positif terhadap kinerja, partisipasi yang berbeda antar mahasiswa memberikan dampak pada kinerja yang berbeda antar mahasiswa, dosen diharapkan memotivasi mahasiswa untuk meningkatkan kehadiran dalam kelas, menyusun modul meningkatkan keterlibatan siswa sehingga mahasiswa lebih proaktif dan antusian dalam kelas serta prestasi akademik meningkat (Pani and Kishore 2016) Modul transformasi geometri sangat dibutuhkan mahasiswa dalam mempelajari geseran, setengah putaran, pencerminan, putaran, pencerminan geser, dan komposisi dua transformasi, dengan adanya modul, diharapkan motivasi mahasiswa untuk belajar mandiri akan meningkat, dan kemampuan berfikir mahasiswa akan semakin baik. (Kirby 2007, Bridge, Hegarty et al 2010, Tiernan 2016) menyebutkan bahwa dampak dari modul adalah meningkatkan mahasiswa untuk berfikir dan bertindak secara kreatif dan inovatif dalam segala hal, modul kewirausahaan disusun dengan pendekatan berbeda, teori, studi kasus, diskusi, aktivitas berbasis pengalaman, dan mahasiswa diberikan tugas dengan tujuan untuk meningkatkan kemampuan mahasiswa calon pendidik dalam berfikir kreatif, mampu memecahkan masalah, dan mempresentasikan gagasan baru.…”

Examining the linkage between class attendance at university and academic performance in an International Branch Campus setting

“…3. Previous performance of students: Previous performance was based on the average overall marks scored in all courses in the previous year (Pani and Kishore, 2016). For level-two and level-three students, previous performance reflected overall performance in the first year and second-year courses respectively; for level-one students, we compiled the previous year's performance data from their high school qualifications.…”

“…All the studies showed that attendance positively impacted student performance. We follow techniques from Caviglia-Harris (2006) and Pani and Kishore (2016) in our study. The former recognises the possible endogeneity of attendance, which we also do in our exercises; the latter use quantile regression to evaluate the performance of students over the entire range of distribution.…”

Why don’t they attend? Factors that influence the attendance of HE students of education

“…Attendance in HE has received attention in the literature particularly in relation to the impact of attendance at class on academic performance. Most of the studies across disciplines and countries point to some form of relationship between student attendance and achievements (Pani and Kishore 2016;Louis et al 2016;Arulampalam, Naylor, and Smith 2012;Burd and Hodgson 2006;Newman-Ford et al 2008). Nonetheless, critical voices claim that attendance is related to performance in complex ways that need to be unpacked and explored in more depth.…”