At 2:51 PM -0500 4/9/02, Jeffrey Nagelbush wrote: >I would like to solicit your thoughts on a problem I have every semester or >two. Every college or university I know of has a policy for excused >absences. Most of the absences are for sports activities (at least at those >schools that have sports) but some are for field trips and other academic >activities. In most cases I have no problem adjusting to the student >absences and the students make up any missed work. However, in one of my >courses students make brief presentations that are integrated into our >discussion of the material. If the student is not present, the other >students suffer by not hearing the presentation by the absent student. I >cannot really have the student present at another time since we will be >discussing other topics by the next class. My question is what is the right >thing to do in this situation. Can I tell a student that her or his grade >will suffer if the class is missed (if I put this in my syllabus)? Will my >(or your) institution back me in this case? Or do institutionally approved >absences always trump classroom activities? And if so, is this really >appropriate? What message does this send about the importance of being in >class?
There are many issues here, but to address the immediate one: Sports and field trip dates should be known at the beginning of the term. Have students indicate then which classes they will have to miss, and set their schedules accordingly. If they have to change their schededules later, give them the responsibility of arranging a topic swap with another student so that the appropriate presentation is still given on the designated date. Obviously, I have no idea what your institution (read Dean) will do in the way of enforcing attendence priorities. One can only hope .... * PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Psychology Dept Minnesota State University, Mankato * * 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 * * http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html * --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
