Most universities experience a problem of absent students in lectures. Encouraging them to go to lectures may include mark attendance, or have in-class quizzes that cannot be accessed outside the classroom, or which way?
How to attract the attention of students? Often it happens that a teacher, despite being very well prepared and with a wealth of study, knowledge and skills of great importance, is unable to transmit and communicate to the student. The problem then is not the preparation of the teacher, but his way of teaching, which fails to attract the attention of students. In this way, the student is not encouraged to pay attention and learn in the classroom, but he tends to get distracted and this complicates self-study at home.
It is important to instill into the student that the teacher has confidence and mastery of what is going to explain, but also self-esteem of his abilities, knowledge and skills. At the same time, the teacher must not feel the "weight" of their knowledge and must not inculcate into the student the belief or perception that the "cultural gap" is is not unbridgeable. So try to explain the concepts in simple terms and with a logical, avoiding foreign exchange of speeches.
It is essential for teachers to deviate from the traditional mode of teaching to modern methods. Rather teachers are required to make their presentations more interesting, motivating, appreciative, friendly, etc.
Friends, this is what my students said, concerning lectures that are well worth attending.
- Listening to one-way lectures is so boring, but interactive lectures are more interesting. It also shows that the teacher is really concerned I understand.
- Modern educational interactive technology makes learning more fun
- Some teaching strategies make it easier to recall facts when there's a lot to understand and recall
- Role play, simulation and case studies make lectures more easy to understand. (I have been keying in the info into SPSS.)
Data The Calvin Cycle (video recording)
How to attract the attention of students? Often it happens that a teacher, despite being very well prepared and with a wealth of study, knowledge and skills of great importance, is unable to transmit and communicate to the student. The problem then is not the preparation of the teacher, but his way of teaching, which fails to attract the attention of students. In this way, the student is not encouraged to pay attention and learn in the classroom, but he tends to get distracted and this complicates self-study at home.
It is important to instill into the student that the teacher has confidence and mastery of what is going to explain, but also self-esteem of his abilities, knowledge and skills. At the same time, the teacher must not feel the "weight" of their knowledge and must not inculcate into the student the belief or perception that the "cultural gap" is is not unbridgeable. So try to explain the concepts in simple terms and with a logical, avoiding foreign exchange of speeches.
Some minimum attendance should be made mandatory for appearing in the exams and lectures should be made interactive by involving the students, as one-way lecture can't be interesting and rather boring, as rightly pointed out by @Miranda. Also allocate last 10-15 minutes of each lecture for question-answer session, give some marks in each lecture and add them in the final semester scores, however, it is difficult when student numbers are high.
We need to do the following:
1.Making lectures more useful and interesting from the students' point of view. We need to teach through such methods that they identify with better.
2. The methodology can include carefully devised exercises that they find appealing. Of course, the new methodology should not dilute rigour.
3. They should be involved in the learning process.
4. The assessment methodology should be such that it does not leave much choice to them except attending the classes.
We have to observe our students/clients. Any professional who has difficulties to attract his audience needs to understand that something needs to be changed in his way of working. Teachers are the only professionals who have the right to offer a little interesting work and still penalize his audience for not be willing to follow what he is trying to offer (Lauro de Oliveira Lima). A singer who decides to sing what people are not willing to lilsten to will be left alone. So, he should change his repertoire or else he will not be paid to sing anymore. Teachers should think of their work on the same way.
Is there a problem with lectures? Probably not. A teacher may easily be fooled lecturing, thinking he is bringing a whole new thing to the students or he is just too tired to do something better and starts speaking, reading from a textbook, talking about other subjects which are not really related to what his main goal was at the beginning of the class. Students are smart and will do something better. There are lecturers today that are able to bring thousands of people to listen to them. See what the religious preachers are doing on big gatherings, on tv. We have to learn from them. The question is not to forget lecturing. We have to improve our work, we need to add things to our talking and then we may be lead to a new reality or quality and the students will recognize our efforts. As I usually say, small changes, allow us to commit small mistakes. Big changes....And we should not be talking about changes, but about improvements.
I think teaching is skill as well as talent so the teachers are put some efforts to make their lectures interesting, attractive and motivating and of course up to date,
Some minimum attendance should be made mandatory for appearing in the exams and lectures should be made interactive by involving the students, as one-way lecture can't be interesting and rather boring, as rightly pointed out by @Miranda. Also allocate last 10-15 minutes of each lecture for question-answer session, give some marks in each lecture and add them in the final semester scores, however, it is difficult when student numbers are high.
It depends on the courses we teach. When I teach "Management Subjects", I make the class very lively and interactive. Most of the classes got excellent attendance (Information Technology students). When I offered to give a lecture on "Poincare's Conjecture" on a Friday Seminar Series, students asked me " Is it a Management lecture?" I told them that they will learn about some classical results on Differential Geometry and its perspectives in Control Engineering. I leave it as anyone's guess how good was the attendance for my lecture. (PS: The lecture got cancelled).
Best wishes, Sundar
How to make Your Classes More Participatory:
1. Get off to a fast start:
Pose a question or a problem. Then brainstorm, eliciting a variety of responses from your students, or ask the students to write down possible answers or discuss possibilities in a small group.
2. Invite students to challenge an idea or perspective that you present.
3. If a student asks a question, see if someone else in the class will offer an answer.
4. Insert “pregnant pauses” into your class.
You might, for example, provide students with a sample examination question based on the material you have been discussing, then ask the students how they would answer the question.
5. Vary your approach
In addition to lecture and discussion, consider including debates or role playing activities or case studies in your class.
6. Use discussion “triggers”
A visual image, a simulation, a film clip, an audio excerpt, or a quotation is an effective way to stimulate discussion.
7. Let your students provide closure
Ask the students to summarize the main points made during the session, either orally or in writing
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/tat/quick/active.pdf
University students are matured enough to understand their academic necessity of attending the classes, where they would find the lectures more informative, application oriented, mentally rejuvenating. The students generally absent themselves from classes which they find boring and not adding value to them. I feel, it is for the teachers to make the classes informative, interesting and interactive so as to ensure higher participation and better attendance.
This is a big problem in the universities, and especially after the use of e-learning, which encourage students not to attend lectures inside the halls. For this you must use the method of interaction with students in lectures and ask intellectual questions and asked to answer them later via email. In addition to attendance mark.
By making the lectures intellectually interesting and worthwhile, dear Mahfuz!
The best way is to make the students interested and enjoy receiving knowledge. otherwise, even if they attended the lecture, it would be a physical attendance only.
I do not think that the lecturers are to blame for the absence of the students. We have excellent lecturers in our university but the problem exists & the university students are > 18 years old so they shoulder the responsibility for their actions. In this semester, I teach general chemistry (I) to 2 sections: Medicine students (whose attendance is nearly 100% most of the time) & biotechnology students (whose attendance is nearly 66% mostly). The textbook is the same as well as the lecturer's style but the first section is keen on learning while the second section is careless.
I made maximum efforts to have full attendance & I told them that they will fail but to no avail. I think that the member of the family, who finances the student's presence in the university, is the strongest authority to bring the student to lectures & this worked in the past when I got acquainted with few fathers of my students telling them what their sons are actually doing.
I think it is not only the problem of inefficient and effective teaching. There are many reasons that make students aren't willing of attending lectures. Many of them are working to keep up with tuition expenses. Others aren't willing of acquiring knowledge, skills, and disposition but certificate. They encounter obstacle hiring them in the market and don't care of mastering the outcomes as far those graduates who have connection get best jobs and salaries in various places while they are on the waiting list forever. Students these day frustrated from modern society and its demands. Students are somehow depress from the system in which they pay more and get less. Classrooms are crowded and labs lack of proper tools and not sufficient for their expectation. In addition, instructors pedagogy are defect and lack of innovation. Many students get board in the one tone lecture or dictation. However, to be fair many instructors are excellent in delivering their lectures and enticing students to stand on their toes, but you still have high percentages of absents. It is a very good question but hard to pinpoint good answer. It needs research.
Dear Prof. Nizar,
I completely agree with you that discipline can have an effect on the students attendance. It is a fact that who finances the student's presence in the university, is the strongest authority to bring the student to lectures.
In my opinion, these are some of the reasons why students are not present in the classes:
1- The way of teaching is inappropriate. The professor all the time should be challenging the knowledge of the students on the matter. The students must feel that the professor is challenging its knowledge and for this reason he/she should try to do the same with the professor.
2- The professor during its lectures should avoid, as much as possible, to use notes or papers to give the lecture. If he/she uses modern teaching techniques and equipment, then he/she should know very well how to use them with the purpose of motivating students.
3- During a lecture, the professor should identify the best moment to launch an important question to be answered by the students in order to allow their participation in the class. The professor should be at the same time flexible and strict depending of the situation that he/she is facing.
4- Find a good practical exercise that force students pay attention to what you are saying because has a practical implication in their lives and encourage them to dedicate time and effort to solve it.
5- Avoid giving the lectures with the same tone of voice all the time and the professor should find the precise moments when he/she has to change the tone of their voice and launch a challenge question to force the students to think and to pay attention to what you are saying.
6- The professor should demonstrate very clearly that he/she dominate in depth the content of the lecture during the presentation using examples that encourage students to pay attention to what you are saying and to study it later on.
7- During the lecture the professor should create the necessary atmosphere in the class in order to encourage the students to pay attention to the lecture during the class.
8- Respect the time the professor has to give the lecture. Be punctual in the beginning of the class and finish the lecture some minutes before the end of the class for a recapitulation of the main topics included in the lecture given and for any additional question that the students may have.
9- Take drastic measures to any student that behave in the class in an appropriate manner impeding the correct development of the lecture.
10- Do not give a lecture that the students can find it later on in a book and use several books as reference during the preparation of the lectures.
11- Be strict in the notes given to the students for the practical work done or during the tests.
12- Use appropriate clothes in order to inspire the indispensable respect from all present in the class.
Before answering this question, we must know why the students do not want to attend classes?
These reasons may be specific to several factors including Institution, regulations regarding attendance, compliance with these regulations, student, teacher, subject content, necessity (or otherwise) of attending the classes, involvement in multiple activities, teaching schedule, clashes in time slots, occasional personal reasons and the like.
While the teachers often may not feel concerned about the attendance, those intending to have full attendance (physical as well as mental) need to identify the reasons and then work out suitable remedies to each of those.
Here are some of the reasons that I have come across as a Student, as a Teacher, as a Warden as well as a Faculty Adviser:
- Our Institute is wholly residential. [each student (a total of over 10,000) has to reside in one of the Institute Hostels, each Hostel accommodating several hundreds of students. Hostel mess starts at 7.00 AM. Classes start at 7.30 AM. A number of students miss the first hour class because of late sleeping/ waking and/or getting delayed in long breakfast queues.
- Preparing for many competitive exams.
- Participation in multifarious activities (sports/cultural/social etc)
- Students' addition to unproductive/untoward hobbies. Parents of one of the students had to visit the student in connection with non-attendance of their son in all the classes. The student revealed that he was addicted to video games and was indulging in it just as a chain-smoker. Possible remedies including persuasion, support, counselling etc. were tried.
There are many similar reasons under each of the heads listed above. These are to be appropriately addressed.
Effective lectures
Lectures continue to be one of the most commonly used teaching methods in higher education. So are lectures an effective means of encouraging students' learning? The most commonly stated purposes of lectures are to:
Lecturing the traditional way, if well planned and presented, are as effective as other methods for conveying information. However, there is little point in simply conveying information, however well it is presented, without stimulating students' motivation to learn and giving them opportunities to develop understanding. Methods which actively involve students are more effective than lectures for encouraging them to take deep approaches which are likely to result in developing understanding, encouraging critical thought, challenging opinions or changing conceptions.
This does not mean that all lectures should be abolished. Many teachers enjoy lecturing, and many students enjoy good lectures. If you choose to lecture, you can do so in a way which maximises the chances of students developing understanding. Lectures can be used to give broad contextual information, to highlight the important or interesting aspects of a topic, to demonstrate problem solving techniques, or to show the relative strengths of two sides of an academic controversy. They should not, however, be used to transmit information that the students can acquire (perhaps more effectively) from reading their textbook. Lectures which are based around a set text should be used to clarify, expand, or explain the content of the text rather than merely to repeat it. It should also not be assumed that transmission by the lecturer implies reception and learning by students. Students learn more effectively when lectures include activities which engage their thoughts and motivation.
http://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/teaching-and-learning/learning-and-teaching/managing-and-enhancing-teaching-1
Interesting Question..
This is a Common Problem across the world which reqires a solid Answer..
I agree with @ all above opinion..
Allocating marks to attendance may be a good preventive measure but is no real indicator of actual motivation. Having more proactive measures might help. Tweaking the traditional lectures to make them more hands-on, engaging, and interactive, with more active participation, application, and evaluation rather than passive reception can act as more natural and sustainable sources of student-motivation.
Friends, I forgot one very important thing. Here, we have few problems concerning students' attendances, for lectures, tutorials or practicals. Students sign a form when they enter college and we have the education ACT (AKTA 174) that takes action on them. Students can be expelled if needed; but in the 5 years here, I didn't hear of any student being expelled. See the link, but it's in our national language.
http://www.agc.gov.my/Akta/Vol.%204/Akta_174.pdf
In my view, the best Professor I had the privilege of undertaking a course is my PhD guide, and mentor, Late Prof. Chris Byrnes (Wash. U., USA). He was liked by all graduate students and also all colleagues. I always believe that teaching-learning process is a two-way street. Professors should be very interested in teaching new materials and latest developments in the field, and likewise, students should show a keen interest in learning new things from the lectures as well as learning things on their own. As Dr. Byrnes used to teach at a very high level (in control engineering), we needed to prepare well before each of his classes and come well-prepared. Dr. Byrnes gave us assignments almost at the end of each lecture,and it helped us to take an active part in it. At the end of his courses, we developed knowledge well enough to write a research paper in the field! (In fact, some of the assignments we used to solve are research problems from his journal papers, but we realized it much later only).
For undergraduate courses, it is hard to expect 100% attendance for all classes at any University. For advanced graduate level courses, with PhD students / MS students as class strength, especially for core courses, class attendance will be usually very good. Dr. Byrnes lectures usually had nearly 100% attendance from all his students. Such respect he had on his graduate students!.
Best wishes, Sundar
By making the lecture more attractive. This can be done with many ways, but in our modern era the new technologies are the promised way.
Hello Everyone,
a lot has been said already, so if nothing objective stops students from coming into classes (like ridicoulus schedule or poor clasroom conditions), so maybe the following will help:
- more clarity and simplicity in talking to students
- less distance,
- more humour
- more variety in a way we present,
- more hints how to apply theory into practise
Dear Prof. Mahfouz,
Thank you for launching this important discussion. I think, as educators, we hold a great responsibility for making lectures as attractive to students as possible. The difficult task is how to convert the lecture from a static material to a more dynamic or living material. Advances in educational technology tools facilitate the mission to a great extent. It remains whether educators deploy these tools in presenting their lectures to students. Involving students is also important through giving students short sentences upon which they can build their own discussions that eventually serve the whole lecture. I remember that one of our discussions in ResearchGate was about the significance of formulating learning objectives, which should be an essential element while preparing lectures. Feeding the lecture with questions can augment lectures by drawing students' attention. Interactivity, recalling previous experiences or connecting the content with a previous one, student involvement, etc. are inevitable if we want to encourage student attendance.
Kind regards,
Rashad
I think it should not be very difficult to ensure full attendance. Every student may be informed at the time of admission (or even through an information brochure supplied along with the application form for admission) that full attendance is a must (may be with a little allowance, not exceeding 5-10%, for unavoidable circumstances.) . It may be mandatory for them to make an undertaking to this effect at the time of admission. Students feeling it difficult to comply may not take the admission. Thereafter, there must be a provision to expel the defaulters, with no condition whatsoever, at the very first instance. This way , only those students who are seriously interested to undertake this particular Degree course will only get admitted. What is the fun in dragging the students, not interested, all through the course?
Start each lesson with something short and interesting, inviting the students to have an open interaction. This concept of having something at the beginning of each lecture to settle and engage the students does motivate the students to attend the class..
Dear Mahfuz, University students are all adult and can differentiate between good and bad. For poor attendance, the students should not be blamed only because the same students attend the classes of one teacher with full enthusiasm and quite shy in attending the classes of other one. ….Why? Hence the responsibility also goes to the teachers as well. The teachers should make the lectures more interactive by involving the students. Also they should make themselves up-to-date, so that students expect to get something new in classroom, which they can’t get easily from text books or other sources.
Often the students not interested in attending the classes have a feeling that they can easily prepare the subject contents through internet/self study etc and the classes can be ignored (this, of course, patronized essentially by a slack administration not enforcing the regulations regarding minimum requisite attendance with a firm determination). Devising a number of syllabus based interactive exercises involving participation of each student which can be enjoyed by the entire class, may encourage the students to be particular in attending the classes. Organizing such interesting exercises occasionally on unannounced basis may help drawing students' attention to the classes.
Yes, dear Shanker. I agree with you that devising a number of syllabus based interactive exercises involving participation of each student which can be enjoyed by the entire class, may encourage the students to be particular in attending the classes. Your comments are highly appreciated.
Feedback from students is becoming more important in universities today. But often teachers with tenure do not take it seriously enough. One can read important points to restructure one's way of teaching in the feedback, and thus deliver expectations of the students. It is not good to proceed with the presumption that students basically are shirkers.
Many universities implement a mandatory attendance policy by setting regulations for a student to be eligible for appearing for the university examinations . In our university, students must attend more than 80% (3 week absence in a 16-week term) of given lectures, otherwise they are given a zero mark for the course. However, the professors generally do not implement.
I am not sure that forcing students to attend classes is really effective. The students who attend classes by force , have a very low level of concentration and distract other students as well.
We have to find other ways such as:
- Giving participation points via quizzes and discussion questions
- Providing good practical and real life examples and exercises whenever possible
Adding two points...likely they maybe already embedded in other comments, still re-iterating on their significance.
a) Use of technology to create interactive environment: looking beyond presentations to much interactive processes like storytelling , games, role-playing, 3D-4D attributed visual displays, problem solving approach using real case studies ---- these require gradual transition and not complete substitution to the existing structures and processes
b) Particularly in the science sector- switching to a scientific wholism approach for balance between synthesis and analysis modules ( in most cases, analysis modules dominate)
Yes dear Behrouz. All universities in Jordan implement a mandatory attendance policy by setting regulations that students must attend more than 85% of given lectures, otherwise they are prevented from attending the final exam of the course.
Students attend to lectures which are interesting and that which has some fun
To make it intersecting and Active; a Lecturing should be supported with tools such as PowerPoint presentation.
PowerPoint is easy for professors to update, saving them time and energy. It's neat and clean, and it allows for "portability" of materials. It also provides a platform for incorporating a variety of different kinds of multi-media file-types: images, video, audio, and animations.
http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/tutorials/powerpoint/lecturing/
If they don't find it interesting then it will be difficult to encourage them to attend the classes. Only great minds can offer good lecture. Students have to be introduced with the "excellence" . It is not easy to deliver it today. Young people also enjoy interactive process, they like to be active participants! Not just observers!
You can always do survey and ask them what they really want when it comes to study process at the Uni.
Dear all, it's not enough to have the students just to attend lectures. They have to read up before the lecture, to be able to form constructivism links easily; otherwise students will complain that they do not understand. If they refuse to do the pre-reading how can a lecture be meaningful, the beauty of knowledge isn't even appreciated! I used to have 10 % or more students who were willing to read up, but this semester, the number has dropped!
http://www.exploratorium.edu/ifi/resources/research/constructivistlearning.html
I believe that attendance should not be compulsory for students, especially at the postgraduate level. That is what is done in the University of Delhi, where I taught earlier. But the assessment system can be such that they may find it difficult to do without attendance. Some students are extremely brilliant; they can do even better than those who attend classes. But if there are marks for class participation, projects, etc. then students have to be present even as some subjectivity creeps in while assigning class participation marks, but that is a good way of attracting them to the class.
Should class attendance be mandatory? Students, professors say no
Sam Artley, a senior studying social relations and policy at Michigan State University, said she does not agree with mandatory attendance policies except in the case of lab work because it is usually completed in class with very little work outside of the classroom.
Artley noted that many professors say regular attendance is necessary to do well in a course and agrees that attendance and course performance are positively correlated.
“That being said, there would be no need for mandatory attendance as students seeking high grades will quickly learn that they need to attend the course regularly,” she said. “Inflating grades with 10-20 percent of your score coming from attendance is a poor judgment of an individual’s competency in the course.”
Professor Kelli Marshall teaches media and film classes at DePaul University and does not implement a mandatory attendance policy. Instead, she gives her students the opportunity to earn participation points via weekly quizzes and discussion questions.
“Since most students want to earn their participation points, they generally come to class, even though attendance is not mandatory,” Marshall said.
http://college.usatoday.com/2012/03/25/should-class-attendance-be-mandatory-students-professors-say-no/
A good student shall have aptitude to learn. It shall come from his/her heart or mind.
An average student needs encouragement. Supporting text books, course materials and lab manuals should be distributed to students. The labs should be introduced in a good manner. More information, other than the syllabus may be provided in the form of industrial visits, industrial training and conferences. Guest lectures to cover different topics like TQM, QC, Safety and R&D may be organized.
To support poor students, Senior Professors can explain the importance of attendance. Due weight may be given for attendance in terms of internal assessment / term work marks. Values of life should be explained to the young students, in their own language.
Alcohol and drugs should be avoided in the institute and hostel campuses. Support from the police and law shall be useful.
Regards,
Dr.S.Ravindran`
Dear Dr. Ravindran S.
I am with you that a good student should have aptitude to learn. That is a good student. What about the rest?
Strategy to encourage university students to attend lectures includes five steps :
1. Finding out who your participants are
2. Meeting participants expectations
3. Taping your students skill and knowledge
4.allowing students to set agenda and direct the conservation
5. Preventing dropouts caused by low quality class session
At the end you should undertake adjusting to differing expectations.
Dear All and Roland, to answer Roland's good question about what can we do in the face of 'Home dynamics such as impoverished living conditions, frequent home re-locations, lack of child supervision, and other family issues are often related to non-attendance'; the colleges need to provide such students (if not all students) with accommodation.
This is what is done here. Many students from the villages stay in hostels; there are no colleges/ varsities near their village homes, and some of them need to fly and travel in a boat and walk several miles! Some don't go home until the year is over! (Students say "lecturer are good... hostel is also good..as it is a newly open college"; please excuse their poor English, thanks.)
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1772799/all
One of the most important characteristic of students is that they appreciate and sympathize with teacher who are trying.
I agree with the American professors Sam Artley of Michigan State University & Kelli Marshall of DePaul University that attendance should not be mandatory because university students ought to be treated as adults (i.e. they are responsible for their actions). Nevertheless, the system at our university obliges us all to record attendance for each lecture or lab session. The student is deprived from a theoretical course after 6 absences & is deprived from practical course after 2 absences. I abide by the regulation but I am not convinced that it is correct. If you,as instructor, seek the attendance of "careless" students, then you better contact their financiers.
Dear friends, Roland, Dr Nizar, I only have a tab at this moment. So I need to be very careful. Even though we want to treat our students as adults, not all of them have proven that they are self directed. And when they fail, we feel really bad. Our institutions want them to pass! But on the questionnaire, their response is 'sometimes or rarely' to 'I put in effort to learn'. So I can see that compulsory lectures are here to stay, (from mobile).
An average student needs encouragement. Supporting text books, course materials and lab manuals should be distributed to students. The labs should be introduced in a good manner. More information, other than the syllabus may be provided in the form of industrial visits, industrial training and conferences. Guest lectures to cover different topics like TQM, QC, Safety and R&D may be organized.
To support poor students, Senior Professors can explain the importance of attendance. Due weight may be given for attendance in terms of internal assessment / term work marks. Values of life should be explained to the young students, in their own language.
Alcohol and drugs should be avoided in the institute and hostel campuses. Support from the police and law shall be useful.
Regards,
Dr.S.Ravindran`
Did it happen that any student does not attend the lectures and at the same time, s/he passes the exam with good or very good grade.
"Did it happen that any student does not attend the lectures and at the same time, s/he passes the exam with good or very good grade".
In the top institutes, all students shall have more than 95% attendance.
In Anna University and its affiliated institutes, minimum of 75% is expected. If a students meets with an unexpected event (falls sick, some unexpected event at home, meets with an accent etc.) as a special case 10% allowance is given. If a student has lower attendance, officially, he/she should not be allowed in the current semester exams. Such students are asked to repeat the semester work.
In normal practice, regular and good students will not get into any problems. In most of the institutes, counselling cells will take care of the irregular students.
Dr.S.Ravindran
Dear Prof Mahfuz, I read somewhere that Bill Gates passed well without attending lectures. But I think even he attended some. Anyway my students aren't like that. If lectures could be more interactive and interesting, it would be enough for most students. Unfortunately, many lecturers prefer one way lectures and do not care if students understand. (From mobile.)
To answer the question of dear Professor Mahfuz Judeh : In my 30 years career at my present university, I have never seen a student "who is addicted to absence" ,taking a chemistry course with me, getting good or very good grades. They either failed or got a grade below 65/100 "in a miraculous way!!".
Getting feedback from the students to identify the reasons for their reluctance and trying to improvise the lectures to match their expectations in case it is needed.
Dear Roland, Dr Nizar and friends, my institution want students to pass, but I ask my students please don't just look for extrinsic things like grades. I ask them to focus on interest, curiosity and passion to be a lifelong learner. I hope that they will become marketable graduates who can contribute to their profession; and in their jobs look for intrinsic things (to develop and excel and contribute to society); much more than just a salary. But it's true that natural curiosity of students is less evident nowadays. I attach my related thread here, thanks.
https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_has_happened_to_the_natural_curiosity_of_students
Encouraging students to attend lectures is the first step of the analogy "taking the horse to water", once the lecture is interesting the second phrase " of making the horse drink water " is a voluntary one. Today the world has changed, in 1980's I used to run from Block to Block to identify where the lecture is scheduled (common subjects of different disciplines will be clubbed together for the lecture session and Guest Lectures) .
Roland and friends, we still live, but the society seems to focus on external things, and it's not easy to swim against the tide. Perhaps, the fact that we do it despite many odds show that there is a deep principle or spiritual life within our souls. I just do my best each day, and I'm the first person to acknowledge my weaknesses.
Dear Krishnan,
I agree with you that encouraging students to attend lectures is the first step of the analogy "taking the horse to water", once the lecture is interesting the second phrase " of making the horse drink water " is a voluntary one. Nicely said.
It is a very good statement by Roland Iosif Moraru " ... guide students in focusing on their strengths, and challenge students to work beyond what they think they can do ..."
Dr.S.Ravindran
@ Francesca
The drive (or thirst) for learning is more felt by students only when they see
Give all the students equal chance to express themselves and avoid discrimination. Encourage them in their assignments.
By having good teachers, making their knowledge understandable and sharing their enthusiasm.
It seems to me that we have all already made most important step.
We really enjoy to have more students attending lectures.
One of my professor used to say it would be extremely enjoying to work on University if there is not students:(
I think if the student feels that s/he understands the content or the subject of the lecture, s/he would attend it, and vise versa.
To encourage university students to attend your lectures, try to sell your self before you sell your knowledge. use different types of teaching, group discussions, business games, role playing...etc.
Dear Prof. Shafig,
Nicely said. What you said reflexes what happens in actual life. The interaction between teacher and student is very essential in teaching process.
By making the lectures more interesting for students who do attend
- Using practical cases to exemplify the issues we want to teach
- Asking questions throughout the lecture, so that the lecture becomes more of a conversation.
- Creating an atmosphere that encourages student participation by not criticizing student questions or comments or questions in front of the class.
- Doing a short quiz at the end of lectures
If students didn't have as many lectures they'd learn less
Whenever alternatives to lecturing are suggested to lecturers the most commonly voiced reply is that the method is actually very effective: that course objectives could not be achieved nearly as easily, if at all, by other methods. I'd like to examine this claim and to examine some of the consequences of its wide acceptance. I'll consider the following nine claims that lecturers make:
1 "Lectures should last an hour. If I can stay awake for an hour, so can they".
2 "Its the only way to make sure the ground is covered".
3 "Lectures are the best way to get facts across".
4 "Lectures are the best way to get students to think".
5 "Lectures are inspirational: they improve students' attitudes towards the subject, and students like them".
6 "Lecturers make sure that students have a proper set of notes".
7 "Students are incapable of, or unwilling to, work alone, so its good for them to have full timetables".
8 "The criticisms one can make of lecturing only apply to bad lecturing".
9 "The value of lectures can only be judged in the context of other teaching and learning activities which make up the course".
https://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsld/resources/20reasons.html
Prof. Krishnan Umachandran,
You must be one of the best teachers. It is the student who has to work hard and learn. In my thinking, we the teachers are taking more pains in educating the students.
Absenteeism from lectures and tutorials is a source of concern to teacher educators for several reasons, not least the commonly held belief that low attendance leads to low achievement. Existing research into the relationship between attendance and achievement is inconsistent and contradictory, although there is no shortage of studies that do, indeed, show positive correlations between attendance and achievement. Possibly the most well known study of this kind is, which posits a ‘70% rule’. that if a student does not attend at least 70% of sessions, they have a two in three chance of failing the unit. More recently, students who do not attend at least 70% of learning events have a one in three chance of failing. It is acknowledged, however, that the direction of causality may be questioned and the relationship between success and attendance may not be straight forward. Various student characteristics seem to mediate the impact of attendance or absence: for example, in one study the adverse effect of missing class was found to be greater for better-performing (second year economics) students than other students in the
same cohort.
http://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1571&context=ajte
It seems that professors also play a role in non-attendance!
A study at Lincoln University in 1992 (Fleming, 1992) found that the major reasons given by students for non-attendance at lectures were
- Competing assessment pressures (24% of reasons given),
- Poor lecturing (23%),
- Timing of the lecture (16%) and
- Poor quality of the lecture content (9%).
A 1995 replicating study at Lincoln University (Fleming, 1995) found that 40% of the reasons offered for non-attendance at lectures involved "the pressure of other learning tasks".
Fleming, N. (1992) Why don't they Attend?, Occassional Paper, Education Unit, Lincoln University.
Fleming, N. (1995) Attendance. Why don't They Attend? Part Two, Discussion Paper, Education Unit, Lincoln University.
https://metranet.londonmet.ac.uk/fms/MRSite/psd/hr/capd/Investigations/2/Inv_2_2_002%20Kottasz.pdf
Behrouz Ahmadi-Nedushan, Is it competing or completing assessment pressures?
Shifting to modern teaching methods can make the lectures more interesting. Motivation can also play an essential role.
Teaching well is an art rooted in practical, applied, behavioral sciences. I believe the way of teaching can encourage or discouage university students to attend lectures.
It is seems that both the student and the tutor play a role in this serious event.
It is somewhat inherent among the students once the previous batch passed the final exam in spite of absenteeism this will encourage the current batch to behave in the same way
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