Importance of attendance
It is crucial for the students to practice good attendance so that they have this positive habit as they enter the working field.
Perfect attendance means they are more focused and more professional
Hi Elidon,
Attendance has a high correlation with how well a student does in class.
Patricia Scales
This is important and it helps a student to have better time management. Time management is a key to any working field. At the same time if a student missed a class, they might have missed materials or examples covered in class that they will be tested on. I am sure that they are going to ask about what they missed in class, but for the other students who did attend class would have a slight advantage on the student who were absent.
I too have gone to school and work not feeling well. Unless I am unconscious, I will get to school; however, is it right for me to force my strict work ethic onto my students because of the way I was raised? I really believe that this is a generational issue. I had one student last term who barely passed my course because of excessive absenteeism. He was not happy but I told him I cannot give him an A just for signing up for the course.
Hi Denise,
I certainly understand your thought process here. There are times that are necessary for one to miss. You have some people that simply are notorious for having bad attendance. If they sneeze hard, they want to miss. I always tell my students there is a big difference between not feeling well and being sick. There are many days I go to school not feeling well, and I am sure you do the same, but when I am bed ridden I stay home.
Patricia
In my personal experience this depends on the person and the difficulty of the material for them. As a student who knew more than the class, I was once able to ace a course by attending only every other lesson -- which was necessitated by my student teaching overlapping with the time of the course.
And to what degree does student health impact this platitude? Are we promoting working even when sick, injured, and having responsibilities to our family members that require our personal attention?
I guess as someone who would always come to school because no place was more horrible than home, I am thinking that attendance is important, but that importance needs in the real world to not be an absolute; and if it is not going to be an absolute, then how do we qualify that importance in light of other factors?
Hi Dragush,
Attendance is vitally important to a student's success! You must attend class to get the information in order to grasp various concepts.
Patricia
From my experience I agree that a good attendance in class from the students has the positive effect in their knowledge, because during the class if somebody doesn't understand something, there is the chance to ask questions and clarify things from the lessons or if you are absent during the activities in the lab, you will not get the practical skills that other present students gain. Students that have a good or 100% attendance during the course have had the high marks in the tests and they have been hired after their placement.
Hi Dragush,
I agree totally. There is a high correlation between attendance and academics...come to shool-do well; absent-do poorly.
Patricia
From my experience I agree that a good attendance in class from the students has the positive effect in their knowledge, because during the class if somebody doesn't understand something, there is the chance to ask questions and clarify things from the lessons or if you are absent during the activities in the lab, you will not get the practical skills that other present students gain. Students that have a good or 100% attendance during the course have had the high marks in the tests and they have been hired after their placement.
I totally agree and if they do not work on good habits now it will be hard for them to succeed in the work force.
Hi Pamela,
Normally what you see is that if a student has poor attendance while in school, they will have poor attendance on the job.
Patricia
I totally agree with you Connie. The student should view school as if they are already employed by the school. When they don't show up for class this places a burden on the other students, especially in a service oriented curriculum.
I always talk about the importance and responsability of good attendance while attending class. I remind my students that it is ultimately their responsability to strive for good attandance as this is a direct reflection of their work habits. I ask them these two questions on the first day of class:
1. If you were not going to be at work, would you call in and let your employer know?
2. If you were going to be late to work, would you call in and let your employer know?
I follow these two questions with:
"Treat your time here in class as if it were your JOB, you are ultimately responsable for your own actions."
Hi Regena,
Students must attend if they are going to get what they need instructionally.
Patricia
I agree with Brian, good attendance is imperative to the vital access to materials in lecture that may be be missed otherwise.The desire of the student to succeed is crucial.
Hi Patricai,
Great analogy! We must train students the right way so that they will know fully what is expected of them in the workforce.
Patricia
I find that attendance is directly tied to course success. It also seems that when I have occasion to discuss matters of the student's life outside of class, those without the drive to put education first seem to have more general chaos in their personal life. They never seem to see the correlation.
I would agree with you Daniel that it is crucial for a student to be punctual for class. Just as with orientation with a new job, the expectations are spelled out in the office manual. With the Course syllabus the policy is in writing of the expectations of the student. This training formality sets the gears in motion for when the student is working. Training the student while in school that getting into this habit is unacceptable, then it will not be repeated when the student moves on to a job hopefully.
