Hi Rod: What a sad student culture! I feel badly for you and for the students!
I think your efforts might be better directed towards some administrative contact with interested students who would like to see better attendance, as it can enhance their own education to have classmates there willingly, rather than under punishment of law! Are there "real" reasons why the students feel they need an excuse to come to class or to not come to class, as the case may be? Annette Quoting "Hetzel, Rod" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Hi TIPSters: > > I'm in the process of developing syllabi for next semester and wanted to > raise once again the issue of attendance policies. In my previous > academic position I never had much difficulty with classroom attendance. > In fact, I never made attendance mandatory for students. I simply told > them that they were expected to be at all class sessions unless some > unforeseen emergency came up that prevented them from being in class. A > few students took advantage of this policy, but for the most part my > students came to class eager and ready to learn. Since taking my new > position, however, the issue of attendance has become quite bothersome. > The institutional culture here encourages faculty to have attendance > policies, so I developed one before my first semester. To my surprise, > I found that a large percentage of my students complained on a regular > basis about the attendance policies and tried all types of excuses to > avoid the consequences of missing classes. This became such a headache > that I was considering switching back to my previous attendance policy, > but I took a very informal poll and found out that the vast majority of > my students reported that they would not attend classes if a professor > had no attendance policy. They stated that they would only attend > classes on the days of exams. I've asked some other faculty about this > and they have reported the same phenomena. My guess is that student > complaints about attendance policies are also part of our institutional > culture. > > I've pasted a copy of my attendance policy below. I would like to > switch to a policy that doesn't deduct points for being absent. That > seems awfully parental to me and not something that optimally prepares > students for the adult world that awaits them after graduation. I'm > thinking of developing a policy that reinforces good behavior (attending > class) rather than punishes bad behavior (skipping class). Anyone have > any good ideas for doing this? I would be interested in reading your > attendance policies if you feel inclined to share. Looking forward to > your responses. > > Rod > > > > You are expected to be present and punctual to all class sessions. You > are allowed two unexcused absences in this course. For every unexcused > absence after your second unexcused absence, I will deduct 30 points > from your final course point total [NOTE TO TIPSTERS: THIS IS ROUGHLY > HALF OF A LETTER GRADE]. I will not deduct any points for excused > absences. The following situations are considered excused: (a) serious > illness or medical emergency; (b) death of an immediate family member; > (c) academic or athletic event that has been approved by the Office of > Academic Affairs; and (d) other family emergency that is accompanied by > a telephone call to me prior to the missed class. Written documentation > may be required in order for these situations to be considered for an > excused absence. Any anticipated absences that might qualify as excused > should be discussed with me prior to the absence. Attendance records > will be maintained on Blackboard and updated on a weekly basis. You > should check Blackboard frequently to confirm your attendance status for > the course. If you believe there has been an error in recording your > attendance, you will have one week to bring it to my attention and I > will be happy to make any appropriate changes. If you are absent to a > class session, please check with me as soon as possible to ensure that > you have not missed any important information. > > > ______________________________________________ > Roderick D. Hetzel, Ph.D. > Department of Psychology > LeTourneau University > Post Office Box 7001 > 2100 South Mobberly Avenue > Longview, Texas 75607-7001 > > Office: Education Center 218 > Phone: 903-233-3893 > Fax: 903-233-3851 > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Homepage: http://www.letu.edu/people/rodhetzel > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph. D. Department of Psychology University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
