But now with a parent/teacher perspective, I feel that I cheated myself. Student learning is associated with time exposed to the material--and being in class is a first step in exposure to the material for that day. As a teacher, I hate the idea of spending time preparing for class only to be met by a partial audience. As a parent, I dislike the notion of my children skipping class--esp. when I am footing the bill. So I alway pass around an attendance sheet and make attendance a part of the "participation" component of the course grade (usually 8-10%). This plus weekly quizzes helps to ensure that everyone is there for our "work" each class meeting. This keeps everyone honest and they seem to like the procedure, given the positive course evals.
As you can see, I would rather sidestep the question of uneven attendance by structuring the class so that attendance will remain high, week after week.
--Dave
Rick Froman wrote:
I know that we have discussed the fact that studying over the course of a semester is not actually on a fixed interval (even with the phenomenon of cramming being so common) because that would mean that the first response of studying after the test would be reinforced. However, is it correct to say that attendance in class might be on a fixed interval schedule if test dates are fixed in the syllabus? The reason I ask is because attendance records in my Intro class show the usual scalloping patterns: high attendance right before a test with large dropoffs afterward with attendance increasing again right before and through the next test. This really seems counterinituitive from a rational or cognitive perspectve because I don’t review for tests during class and so no particular class period has an advantage over any other in terms of preparation for the test. This clearly looks like a fixed interval pattern. Is this evidence that tests reinforce attendance behavior? On the other side of the coin, is it evidence that class periods in which tests are not given are not reinforcing? Possibly other more inherently interesting profs don’t see such a pronounced scallop in attendance patterns.
Rick
Dr. Rick Froman Professor of Psychology John Brown University 2000 W. University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (479) 524-7295 http://www.jbu.edu/academics/sbs/faculty/rfroman.asp
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David E. Campbell, Ph.D. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Department of Psychology Phone: 707-826-3721 Humboldt State University FAX: 707-826-4993 Arcata, CA 95521-8299 www.humboldt.edu/~campbell/psyc.htm
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