What_to_Do_About_Absenteeism

What to Do About Absenteeism

It is not unusual to notice several times during the semester that attendance in your classes is not as high as it used to be. There are various reasons for periodical widespread absenteeism: mid-semester exam pressure, combined effect of final exam pressure and a big break coming up, special events on campus and in students' lives, like a job fairs, Spring weekend, an important sports event, and so on. This is especially true in classes populated by students who are not mathematically inclined, which most TAs teach. Since class attendance has a direct impact on students' understanding of the material, and on their grades, you can help your students by encouraging attendance in various ways. Here are a few tried and tested tips:

Find out if the absenteeism is due to any particular campus event by asking your students directly and listening to their story. Your genuine interest will strengthen the relation between you and your students, and will have a good effect on both attendance and motivation.
The Speech: Give a short speech to the entire class on the importance of attendance to their grades and to their understanding of the material. Suggest that they do their absent friends the favor of sharing what you said with them. Your speech may include a description on how our mind absorbs new mathematical notions: It does so small amounts at a time, and through repeatedly seeing the material from different points of view-- seeing it done on the blackboard by their instructor, reading the material in the book and writing a summary for themselves, and practicing their skills on the homework assignments. There are no shortcuts, even for geniuses. If you feel like including a joke you might mention Woody Allen's saying "Half of the job is just being there." If you need help with your speech consult Sarah Glaz.
Read the class roster telling your students that you would like to keep track of attendance. Add to the reading The Speech mentioned above.Do not make any threats. Just reading the roster and marking attendance two or three times in a row will help.
If a student who is habitually absent suddenly shows up in class, ask this student to stay for a minute or two after class and talk to them. Listen patiently to the reasons for low attendance, and then tell a personalized version of The Speech.
If the situation does not improve in a week or two after you took the above measures, you may increase the pressure by announcing a few quizzes (no make ups), or a few bonus class-works (no make ups).
You may repeat this process several times a semester if necessary. In particular be alert for absenteeism a few weeks before the end of the semester. It is the worse time of year for missing classes, since it can undermine the efforts some students put into the course through the entire semester. Tell them to hang in there for a few more weeks, and enjoy the big break all the better for doing well in your course.
CATs: Here is another suggestion from the MAA webpages: Give your students a few CATs. It will help in more ways than one.

If you try any of these tips in your class, please, let Sarah Glaz know how it worked for you. Also, please share any other solutions to absenteeism you have found. It will be added to this page.