“I Did Not Miss Any, Only When I Had a Valid Reason”

Abstract

ArticleStudent attendance is a curious issue. On the one hand there is a clear message in the pedagogical literature that for learning to take place the most important student behavior is attending class (Howard 2005;Prince 2004). Chickering and Gamson (1987:2) argue that regular contact between students and their teachers is "the most important factor in student motivation and involvement" and also characterize good learning as a "collaborative and social" process, rather than something that individual students achieve on their own. However, despite this consensus about the importance of attendance, evidence suggests an international trend toward declining undergraduate attendance (see e.g., Crede, Roch, and Kieszczynka 2010; Gump 2004). Irish universities have not been exempt from this trend, and it is particularly an issue in programs with large undergraduate classes AbstractIn this study we explore how absence from sociology classes is understood by undergraduate students at University College Dublin. The authors use Scott and Lyman's (1968) concept of accounts to explore absence sociologically. Drawing on data generated via focus groups, an open-ended questionnaire, and an online survey with students, we outline the different excuses and justifications for missing classes used by students and present their understanding of attendance at classes as an optional feature of student life. Individual students' attendance differed across courses, throwing doubt on the usefulness of individual-level frameworks for understanding attendance. We argue that decisions to attend are influenced by a variety of contextual issues, including knowledge of legitimate accounts for the setting, pedagogic approaches in use, and students' perceptions of the usefulness of classes. We conclude that to counter the trend of declining attendance and enhance student learning, it is important to better understand how both local norms, values, curriculum design, and assessment practices combine to facilitate students' absences. Focusing on accounts allows us to better understand student absence rather than accepting this as an inevitable feature of contemporary student behavior about which nothing much can be done. Keywordssociology of the classroom, student engagement, classroom participation by guest on June 5, 2016 tso.sagepub.com Downloaded from AUTHOR BIOgRAPHIESSara O'Sullivan is a senior lecturer in the School of Sociology, University College Dublin. Her research interests include the scholarship of teaching and learning, gender in Irish society, and sociology of higher education. She teaches courses in qualitative research, sociology of education, and sociology of gender.Léan McMahon is project manager of the National Clinical Programme for Quality Improvement in Maternity Services (Health Services Executive, Ireland) and is a research affiliate at the ESRI. Her research interests include health, education, volunteering, and quantitative research.

Impact of absenteeism on academic performance under compulsory attendance policies in first to fifth year university students

“…The first point is to avoid the reliance on one-time cross-sectional assessments, based on a single module, subject or programme of study (Azab et al, 2016;Bati et al, 2013;Massingham & Herrington, 2006), isolating a minimum unit of time from a broader context and not taking into account the development of the complete course. The second point is that with a total 694 students and records on 4,043 subjects we overcome the use of small student samples (Cortright et al, 2011;Kelly, 2012;2016;O'Sullivan et al, 2015;) which may generate a bias of sample size, conditioning in some cases the generalization of the results. Third, using recorded behavioural data, instead of self-reported data to measure attendance, avoids the discrepancies between self-reported data and actual data in the assessment of absenteeism and performance (Barrett et al, 2007;Kelly, 2012) and the serious threat regarding validity, memory bias and social desirability (Porter, 2011;Standish & Umbach, 2019), although this limitation has been overcome in previous studies using electronic attendance measures (Newman-Ford et al, 2008).…”

Responding to Wobbly Classrooms through Scaffolded, Peer-Led, Small-Group Presentations of Personal Learning Goals: The Beyond the Book Tool

“…For example, at one BtB session in which I administered a SET, all 36 of the registered students were present, an unusual occurrence before I used BtB. It may be that because BtB shares with other pedagogies a local norming effect, it may overcome traditional barriers to attendance (O'Sullivan et al 2015).…”