Should Attendance be Mandatory or Optional?

 

            A missed school day is a lost opportunity for students to learn. It has been noticed in all classes that students who attend classes do better. A conducted research in LIU showed that 85% of the students who attend classes had a good understanding of things and thus achieved higher grades (Yassine, 2016).  Shimoof and Catrina (2001) found that students who assigned in at each class meeting attended more classes and scored higher grades of quizzes.

            As a second year education student, I have taken a statistical research course that mentions different topics that affect students’ performance at schools including the effects of students’ attendance on their performance. Also, I read several articles about this topic in addition to a paper done by Yassine (2016) about whether classroom attendance improve undergraduates’ academic achievements or not. This paper suggests that students attending classes are directly taught by their teachers. As a result, this provides them explicit instructions that help these students comprehend the material better. From all these reasons, I come to realize the need to make the attendance in schools and universities mandatory and not optional.

            Moreover, although some people believe that in a modern world attending classes should be optional in the presence of the internet that aids in teaching students without their need to attend classes, there are many reasons to encourage mandatory attendance such as the academic achievements, the difficulty in making friends and the loss of confidence of students who don’t attend classes.

            When learners are absent from school, there will be gaps in their knowledge that cause them problems and thus affect their academic performance (Davidson, Krik, Malcolm & Wilson). Also, Romer (1993) provides quantitative data that suggests a positive correlation between attendance and learning achievements. Attending a lesson one time and missing it one time will create some kind of disconnection in the material the students learn. Therefore, many times students who absent a lot would lose interest in the course and in the material simply because they failed to find any relationship between the materials they learn in every lesson.

            Furthermore, Schoenbrum (2007) argues that some students suggest that they can learn more from not going to class. They believe that instead of wasting time being bored and distracted in classes, they can sit down on their own, focus and learn the material. Surprisingly, a contradiction to this thought is highlighted in the surveys by the majority of a sample indicates that 97% between agree and strongly agree. The agreement is that attending classes brings good understanding of the subject learn at university.

Also, absentees have a hard time in making and keeping friends. That’s because their peers usually regard them with disrespect and disdain (Davidson et al.). They don’t meet them on regular bases so it would be difficult for them to form long lasting relationships with their classmates. The poor attenders also have bad relationships with their teachers because direct teaching results in warm affections between the students and the teachers through caring, advising and interacting with each other. Some teachers also consider missing classes a disrespectful act produced from the student.

In addition to that, poor attenders become frustrated, bad tempered, undisciplined and insecure (Davidson et al.). They lose their confidence and sense of belonging because of their insecurity situations. The non-belonging feeling affects the students’ psychological status and thus results in the loss in their self-esteem. This feeling results in the students’ underachievement and hate to school more and more. As a result, the students reject any advice given by their teachers or parents.

Some researchers argue that adult students can decide what is better for them and that if students are forced to do what they don’t want, their rights to make decisions will be violated (The Research Paper Factory). However, students are still students young they are or old. Education is essential and adults’ age is not an age of full consciousness and realization. An adult student still likes to stay up all night and sleep all morning same as a young one. Students also take their own decisions in many things such as food, clothes and the majors or courses they would like to take. Compulsory attendance doesn’t limit the students’ decision making because they choose to be educated so they should bear the rules of education till they graduate.

Moreover, many teachers claim that if schools let students choose to attend classes, the classroom environment would be better (The Research Paper Factory). The classroom atmosphere depends on the teacher’s personality and the usage of different and suitable ways to manage her class. In every class there are cooperative and lazy students. If they are not obliged to attend classes on regular bases by the school, their parents might oblige them to do that rather than to quit school.

In conclusion, although opinions differ about classroom attendance, many researches support a strong relation between classroom attendance and students’ performance. Also, many students know the good effects of attending classes. Moore found that more than 90% of students in introductory science classes know on the first day of classes that they have a better chance of receiving higher grades if they regularly attend class. Thus, both the students’ beliefs and the researches’ results prove that attendance has a big impact on the students’ achievements and personality. For these reasons, attendance in schools and universities should be mandatory not optional.

References:

Catrina & Shimooff (2001)      Attendance and Grades - UTSA Department Communication

                                                          communication.utsa.edu/leblanc/articles/art31

                               

Davidson J., Krik S., Malcolm H., Wilson V.  Absence from School: A study of Its Causes and       

                                                                              Effects in Seven LEAS   

                                                                     dera.ioe.ac.uk/8655/1/RR424.pdf  

              

Robert, L., L., Jr (2007)         Class Attendance: Is it Important?

 

The Research Paper Factory   Should Attendance be Mandatory or Optional for College Courses?

 

Yassine N. (2016)       Does Classroom Attendance Improve Undergraduates’ Academic     

                                     Achievements?