Abstract:

Student’s class attendance and engagement plays an important part in today’s higher education Discussion on whether student’s attendance at lectures affects student’s exam performance has received significant attention. Attendance in class is important as students are more likely to succeed in their exams when they attend lectures on a regular basis. It can also be problematic for a lecturer to develop their student’s knowledge and their skillset if these student’s are frequently absent. Carnevale, Rose, and Cheah (2011) suggest that an increasing number of individuals seek a high level of education to secure their future and improve their economic possibilities. Wise (1975) writes that academic performance is an essential factor in the success of the post-education period with respect to employment. Lamdin (1996) reports that there is evidence that student attendance has a positive and significant effect on student performance.

The purpose of this study is to examine the correlation between student attendance and examination performance in a First Year Accounting class in Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) for 1 Semester. In CIT, student attendance is not mandatory, however lecturer’s place a strong emphasis on student attendance. The Student Engagement Department here in CIT observe that attendance is hugely important at third level, as it is very easy to fall behind in classes, especially if a student is not familiar with the content. Students simply cannot rely on notes from Blackboard/Canvas, as they may not contain enough information for a student to understand their course material. For the purposes of this piece of Research, I tracked the attendance of First Year Accounting students who had 2 classes weekly of a Creativity, Innovation and Teamwork module over Semester 1 of the 2018/2019 Academic Year. This is a mandatory module for all First Year students here in CIT.

Having emphasised the importance of attendance at the beginning of the module, it soon became apparent that not all students were buying into this. There are a number of reasons why students decide not to attend some of their classes, ranging from the need to work, to having difficulty managing the transition to third level, to having a reduced interest in some of the modules. After compiling attendance data for 12 weeks in Semester 1 and viewing the results of the Semester 1 Module on Creativity, Innovation and Design there was a clear correlation between student attendance and examination performance. Student attendance ranged from 21% to 92%, while exam results ranged from 40% to 88%. These findings are reaffirmed by Davis (2011) in a study of student attendance and achievement.

References:
[1] Carnevale AP, Rose SJ, Cheah B. The College Payoff: Education, Occupations, Lifetime Earnings. Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. 2011
[2] Wise DA. Academic achievement and job performance. The American Economic Review. 1975;65(3):350–366.
[3] Douglas J. Lamdin. Evidence of Student Attendance as an Independent Variable in Education Production Functions. 2010
[4] Student Engagement Department: https://studentengagement.cit.ie/attendance
[5] Davis A. The Correlation between attendance and Achievement 2011.

Keywords:

Education, Accounting, Attendance, Correlation, Performance.