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Effect of Absenteeism on Student Performance in a Construction Science Course

Abstract

Student absenteeism is an important issue for educators at colleges and universities. The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of absenteeism on overall student performance in a construction science course taught by the author at a university in Bangladesh. Data was collected from a classroom situation. A General Linear Model technique was utilized to examine the relationship between absenteeism and the final student grade for the course. Other factors that may have an effect on overall student grade in a course, such as homework performance, quiz performance, and gender of a student, were also included in the model in order to find out whether absenteeism continued to have a significant effect on the dependent variable in the presence of the other variables. While the model explained 90 percent of the variance in final test performance, only absenteeism and quiz performance were found to have a statistically significant effect on the dependent variable. The study provides strong empirical evidence of the positive influence of class attendance on student performance.

Key words: Absenteeism, Bangladesh, Construction Science, Gender, Homework, Quiz, Student Performance

Introduction

“In college classrooms throughout the country, seats are empty. Although students have paid large amounts of money to enroll in courses that they must pass to graduate from college, many students do not attend class regularly” (Moore, 2005, p. 26)1. Student absenteeism is an important issue in institutes of higher learning here in the US. Class attendances, at least in practice, are optional in most schools. Although instructors have different outlook and policies toward attendance, most of them would like them to attend the classes to maintain a vibrant teaching-learning atmosphere.

The author encountered a similar situation at a university in Bangladesh while offering a course on materials and methods of construction in the spring semester of 2005. Students of construction science are required to take one or more courses dealing with building materials and methods of construction in their freshmen or sophomore year. Students completing these courses are supposed to be familiar with the inherent physical and structural properties of these materials and methods employed for construction. Even though most of the students were enthusiastic about the class, it was observed that some students did not attend all the class meetings. Since the university did not have a clear cut policy toward class attendance, no penalty was imposed for being absent from the class.

Lecture and class room discussion represented the primary means of teaching the course. Since the course was related specifically to the construction industry in Bangladesh, it

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Choudhury, I. (2007, June), Effect Of Absenteeism On Student Performance In A Construction Science Course Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--1765