EFFECT OF CLASS ATTENDANCE ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Authors

  • Ruel F. Ancheta Assistant Professor Dr., Faculty of Business and Management Studies, Gulf College, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
  • Deny Daniel Lecturer, Faculty of Business and Management Studies, Gulf College, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
  • Reshma Ahmad Programme Leader, Faculty of Business and Management Studies, Gulf College, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v8i9.3887

Keywords:

attendance, academic performance, effects, learning outcomes.

Abstract

Student attendance is one of the issues that most teachers in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is facing today. Many colleges and universities have compulsory attendance policies while others have refrain from making it as such. Despite the different policies, higher education teachers believe that attendance has positive effect in academic performance. Non-attendance in class lecture is seen as one of the reasons for academic failure. This study aimed to find out the relationship between class attendance and academic performance of the L3 Omani undergraduate students in their English courses during the first semester of 2020-2021. The two English Language courses comprise 20 credit each to gauge students’ English proficiency, at least IELTS 6.0, as a general entry requirement to Level 4 of the undergraduate programme. The two courses are taught separately through lectures, seminar type and practical sessions based on the module descriptors prescribed by the affiliate university. Each module is delivered in two hours and fifteen minutes per week. Thus, it is expected that each student has to attend the teaching sessions for 11 weeks with a total of 24 hours complete attendance in one semester. Result revealed that almost 71% of the L3 Omani undergraduate students had accumulated poor attendance which is below the 70% required attendance as per the attendance policy of the college. The average absence of students in the two English modules is identical with a minimum of five absences in a semester. Further, the result revealed that there is a significant relationship in the class attendance on the student performance in the two English modules at 0.01 level of significance. Therefore, the null hypothesis “There is no significant relationship between students’ class attendance and academic performance”, is rejected. The mark and absence of the students have negative inverse correlation. It means that as the absence of the student increases, the mark also decreases of at least 1 mark. It is concluded that students’ class attendance is very critical in terms of learning as it affects students’ achievement. To address the issue, a holistic approach to engage students both within and outside the classroom is recommended.

 

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Author Biographies

  • Ruel F. Ancheta, Assistant Professor Dr., Faculty of Business and Management Studies, Gulf College, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
    Dr. Ruel F. Ancheta is currently an Assistant Professor in Gulf College with more than 2 decades of teaching experience at graduate and undergraduate levels. Coupled with his teaching, he has massed industry experience in the field of HR, training, and development. He is a motivated lecturer who strives to make each student feel heard and cared for. He is dedicated to his profession and committed to the development of his students. His field of interests are English Language Teaching, Educational Management and Leadership, and Human Resource Management and Development. He is currently a member of the Research Council- Oman (TRC). He has written and published various researches in the field of education and English Language Teaching. The recent study he conducted and published is the “New Normal in Education: A Challenge to the Private Basic Education Institutions in the Philippines” published by the International Journal of Education and Development Studies.
  • Deny Daniel, Lecturer, Faculty of Business and Management Studies, Gulf College, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
    Ms. Deny Daniel is an accomplished lecturer, with more than 20 years of teaching experience in leading academic institutions in India and the Sultanate of Oman. She is a postgraduate in English Language and Literature. She has been teaching English as a foreign language to students in non-English-speaking countries. Her field of interests are Educational Psychology, Multicultural Education, Second Language Acquisition, Teaching Technologies, and New Media, Online Learning. She has co-authored and published paper on “Challenges Encountered by EFL Tutors of Academic Study Skills Module: A Pedagogical Point of View” published by the International Journal of Social Science and Technology.
  • Reshma Ahmad, Programme Leader, Faculty of Business and Management Studies, Gulf College, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
    Mrs. Reshma Ahmad is one of the senior lecturers in Gulf College, who also serves as a Programme Leader within the Faculty. Throughout her career in Gulf College since 2004, she has been involved in teaching, learning and assessment development and administration process for Staffordshire University and Cardiff Metropolitan University programmes. She has over 26 years of academic and industry-linked experience in the field of teaching and managing academic affairs. She closely works with the industry to ensure the syllabus being taught in the college is on par with the needs of the job market as well as international higher education standards. Her expertise lies in developing teaching and learning materials as well as in developing formative and summative assessments. Her field of interest is on educational management, teaching philosophy, and corporate governance.

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Published

2021-08-08

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 9 (2021)

Section

Articles

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