Students' Motivations for Class Attendance

Abstract

Many faculty members, from a variety of disciplines and universities, complain about students' class attendance. Lack of class attendance can have a multitude of consequences, for both the faculty members and students. Faculty members may find themselves repeating information, directions, or explanations numerous times and in a variety of delivery formats. As a result, faculty members may require students who miss information presented in class to get that information from classmates. College students, after all, are young adults who are capable of making informed decisions and accepting the consequences of those decisions. A colleague from a nearby college of medicine recently said, "students don't go to class, but faculty don't care." Certainly, this view may be extreme, but it does express an ongoing problem in academia.The consequences of students not attending class are documented. There is a body of evidence that supports the positive correlation between class attendance and academic performance within college classes across disciplines and on national licensure examinations. 1-9 While these results cannot be interpreted as evidence of a cause and effect relationship, the evidence does suggest a relationship between class attendance and academic performance. Given this evidence, regardless of their personal attitudes toward class attendance, educators should support class attendance and develop effective teaching methodologies that enhance class attendance.Either from their experience or intuition, students also know there is a positive relationship between class attendance and performance. In a cursory review of student-authored articles on college tips to new students, the following comments were found: "Success in college is about getting your butt up and going to class and getting your work done," 10 "class attendance is crucial," 11 and "you may find it tempting to sleep-in and skip class. However, you will quickly find that success in the classroom is linked to class attendance." 12 While these statements are aimed toward undergraduate students, these tips on college success likely hold true for professional or graduate students. In a recent survey of over 200 undergraduate students at George Mason University, only 8% reported that receiving class notes after a missed class was as useful in learning course content as Objective. The objective of this study was to describe and categorize students' motivations for attending class or choosing not to attend class. Methods. Trained student facilitators conducted 5 focus groups. Nine first-year and 24 second-year pharmacy students participated in the focus groups, which were tape recorded and transcribed. A content analysis was conducted using the transcripts. Two coders coded the transcripts and percent agreement was used to assess inter-coder reliability. Frequencies were reported. Results. Eighteen variables emerged from the data. The percent agreement for each variable ranged from 0.83 to 1.00. The variables cited most frequently as motivators for class...

Reasons of Absenteeism among Undergraduate Medical Students: A Review

“…Student must be physically present and mentally receptive for learning to occur. 46 Students who choose to skip lecture-based teachings and rely solely on other modes of learning with the class subject are less likely to retain relevant knowledge related to the subject as compared to those who attend the class; subsequently those who absent perform poorly on the examinations. 11 One study showed that 80% of medical students chose to attend specific lectures dependent on the lecture topic itself, while another found that 69% of students cite interest in the topic as a key reason for attendance.…”

“…46 The lecture-based teachings are capable to enhance skills related to cognitive, affective and psychomotor. 47 Historically, reports suggested that attendance is better at lectures compared to small group teaching.…”

The Relation between Success and Absenteeism at Esogu English Preparatory School

“…It is important in higher education as this does not only affect the absent student and his/her academic success, but it can also affect the lecturers, other present students and thus the whole learning environment at school (Salisa and others, 2009). School is a social organization and interaction among students and their instructors is very important because the school lets them socialize professionally by observing the others, especially faculty members and recognizing them as role models (Fjortoft, 2005;Hammer and others, 2003). It is stressed that those who miss the class frequently are the ones who do not realize that the classroom or school is a community that they belong to and must be a part of and that when they do not attend classes, their learning level decreases and it becomes difficult to reach desired academic goals (Cronon, 1998;Brown, 2002).…”

Faculty Role in Classroom Engagement and Attendance

“…Part of the responsibility of being a faculty member is to identify what motivates students and to adapt teaching styles so that they are conducive to effective learning. In a study of pharmacy students by Fjortoft,9 motivators to attend live class lectures included the lack of a conclusive handout, the expectation that new information would be presented in class that was not included in the handout, and faculty application of information to solve real problems. In the same study, negative variables that contributed to poor classroom attendance included the class being either before or after an examination in another course, faculty members who do not supplement their provided notes, personal logistics, and extended breaks of 2 hours or more between classes.…”