There's an interesting article on student attendance at lectures in the latest issue of BAMBED (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education): Engagement of students with lectures in biochemistry and pharmacology.
The authors surveyed students to find out why they skipped classes at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. The answers they give are not surprising, especially for the 8AM biochemistry lecture. However, the really interesting finding is that there's hardly any correlation between the number of lectures attended and a student's final grade in the course. The slight difference could easily be due to motivation and not ability to master the material.
This is a common finding in studies like this and the paper provides several references to the pedagogical literature. (In fairness, there are some studies that show a more significant correlation—students who skip classes get a much lower grade than those who attend.)
Here's my take on the issue of skipping lectures. If the lecture doesn't provide any value in terms of your final grade then why waste time going to class? Why bother giving the lecture?
I'd like to see a study comparing attendance in a course that has adopted student-centered learning where the class time is devoted to explaining difficult concepts and helping students think critically. The exams and assignments would have to measure whether students have mastered the concepts and learned how to think critically about the subject. In an ideal course, a student shouldn't be able to pass if they've skipped most of the lectures. What would attendance look like in such a course?
If students are skipping your lectures and still getting good grades then it's time to change your course. If you can't, or won't, do that then just cancel the lectures. You could record them and put them online if it makes you feel better. Your students are clearly not getting anything of value from sitting in the classroom.
Blog Archive
Popular Posts
-
Biology concepts – hydrogenosome, FeS cluster protein, loricifera, erythrocyte More than one way to skin a cat seems to be a newer versi...
-
As someone interested in linguistic recursion, I gotta join in... the below blog post has been getting a fair amount of attention around the...
-
My next door neighbor used to be the chair of the Immunology Department but Immunology recently moved to another floor of this building. The...
-
Lab Times is a magazine that reports on news for life scientists in Europe. Their current issue (Sept. 14, 2011) has an "analysis&qu...
-
Kevin O'Leary is one of those people who think that the world revolves around entrepreneurs and making money. He's well known in ...
-
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1905 "for his investigations and discoveries in relation to tuberculosis" Robert Koch ...
-
Halloween is a time when fear is invited. The rush of adrenaline in a controlled environment is life- affirming. Not much else to comment on...
-
Biology concepts – compartmentalization , organelle function , cellular biochemistry This chart represents a portion of the cellular reactio...
-
Biology concepts – gravitropism, plastid, chloroplast, chromoplast, amyloplast, leucoplast, malaria parasite Believe it or not, the way plan...
-
Biology concepts – pollination , single pollinator , co-evolution , co-divergence What’s bugging her, it’s supposed to be a party! Imagine t...