The core of this article is about the negative impacts that lecture absenteeism can have on a student’s performance throughout the course as well as the motivation that students have for actually attending lectures. The first topic the author starts with is the effect that lecture absenteeism has on academic performance within the student body. The authors site studies that are less certain about the link between lecture absenteeism and poor academic performance and studies that shows that this bond is stronger in minorities (Moore, Armstong, & Pearson, 2008). After this, they go on to discuss how studies show how poor attendance can affect performance in university.
It seems that the relationship between academic performance and lecture absenteeism pretty much explains itself (Moore, Armstong, & Pearson, 2008). However, this particular study shows that the student can gain knowledge by attending lectures that you normally would not receive from your text book. The study involved mainly undergraduate students in their early twenties, all in their third year and all were business students. The study consisted of 230 students. After evaluating all 230 students, they were able to come up with three different factors that show student motivation for being absent from lecture (Moore, Armstong, & Pearson, 2008). The first level is low student motivation. Some examples of this level are too tired to attend, bad weather, watching TV. Mid-level motivation is considered moderate motivation. An example of this is would be a student that simply had assignments from other classes due. The highest level of student motivation is known as high student motivation. Highly motivated students rarely miss class and if they do, it is for an extreme circumstance such as a major surgery or death in the family.
Overall, I felt that this was an intriguing article in that I never really considered different tiers of motivation for attending class. Personally, I am willing to admit that I have skipped class before, but it is mainly due to a poor professor, who literally will read Power Point Slides with his back to us the entire class period. I’m going to get a copy of the Power Point anyway, why would I bother staying? Sure, paying for my own tuition is not something that I, but if all I’m paying for is a piece of paper that says I have a lot of knowledge in a specific area and not quintessential knowledge that I cannot get from simply reading then I am probably not going to be motivated to sit through that lecture. I have had this outlook pretty much through my college career, and my academic performance is outstanding (3.8 overall G.P.A). I am not saying that there is absolutely no link between lecture absenteeism and academic performance; there is simply two sides to the coin. It affects each student differently.