Attendance: Are Penalties More Effective Than Rewards?

Abstract

Class attendence improves if students are given extrinsic rewards such as money for coming to class.In college classrooms throughout the country, seats are empty. Although students have paid large amounts of money to enroll in courses they must pass to graduate from college, many students do not attend regularly. For example, Friedman, Rodriguez, and McComb (2001) have claimed that 25% or more [of] students are absent from classes on any given day (p. 124), and Romer (1993) has reported about one-third of students are not in class (p. 167). Absenteeism highest in large, first-year courses, especially those in the natural sciences (Friedman et al.). As Romer has noted, A generation ago, both in principle and practice, attendance was not optional. Today, often in principle and almost always in practice, it is (p. 174).Although college instructors have variety of attitudes and policies regarding attendance (Moore, 2003), most instructors want students to come to because attendance usually associated with academic success (Brocato, 1989; Jones, 1984; Launius, 1997; Moore, 2003; Romer, 1993; White, 1992; Wiley, 1992). Absences can hurt the overall well-being of classes (White, p. 13) by creating a 'dead,' tiresome, unpleasant classroom environment makes [students who do attend class] feel uncomfortable (Brauer, 1994, p. 206).Class attendance improves if students are given extrinsic rewards such as money for coming to (Robertson, Johnson, & Bethe, 1980). However, many instructors insist course grades reflect knowledge and mastery of academic skills; they do not want to give extrinsic rewards or academic credit to students for merely showing up (Course title, 2002; Grades, 2002; Moore, 2003; Student attendance, 2002; The upper atmosphere, 2002). How can these instructors improve attendance? Which more effective for improving attendance, an emphasis on the benefits of attendance or penalties for absenteeism? And if attendance improves, do grades also improve?This paper continues my study of the relation of attendance and course performance in large introductory science classes for developmental education students. An earlier study (Moore, 2003) showed high rates of attendance correlate strongly with high grades and low rates of attendance correlate strongly with low grades. This study expands those findings by reporting the relative effectiveness of penalties and rewards for improving the attendance by and academic success of developmental education students.MethodSettingThis study was conducted in special-admission college (General College, GC) of large, state, research university in the northern Midwest. GC prepares developmental education students to transfer to one of the university's degree-granting colleges. Many students in GC are considered to be at risk because they have lower high school grades and ACT scores than many other students the university. GC courses are content-rich, credit-bearing courses count fully toward graduation from the university.Course and Student DemographicsThis study was done in 2002-2003 in several sections of 4-credit introductory biology course (GC 1131: Principles of Biological Science). All sections of the course were taught on the same days (Tuesdays and Thursdays), similar times (between 9:45 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.), by the same instructor, in similar way (e.g., same syllabus, textbook, sequence, pedagogical techniques), and in the same large lecture hall. The study involved 684 developmental education students having an average age of 20 years, an average ACT composite score of 20, an average high school rank of 50%, and an average course load of 14 semester-hour credits. The classes were, on average, 53% male and 47% female and were ethnically diverse: 16% African American, 2% American Indian, 17% Asian and Pacific Islander, 4% Chicano/Latino, and 61% Caucasian/other. …