TY - BOOK

T1 - Why do students miss lectures?

T2 - An exploratory study of a faculty at a post 1992 university

AU - Keane, Jim

PY - 2007

Y1 - 2007

N2 - A large number of factors are known to be influential on student absenteeism, butlittle work has been undertaken into understanding this behaviour at a moreconceptualised level. In the UK, it appears that only one small scale study hasbeen undertaken into reasons for absenteeism specifically from lectures, despitethe growing concerns about this behaviour. This thesis attempts to both improveunderstanding of why students miss lectures in a Faculty at a post 1992university, and to explain this behaviour in a more conceptualised way. Nineattributions categorised using three headings: 'student', `lecture' and `context' arefirst proposed from which three broad constructs are derived that, it is argued,give meaning to the experience of missing lectures for many students in theFaculty. The three constructs are disinterest, disquiet, and disengagement.Disinterest is about an approach to study and learning in the context of missinglectures and is understood as the 'Can't be bothered' attitude to attendinglectures; disquiet is about the affective meaning of students missing lectures andis a 'Don't like it! response to the lecture experience; and disengagement is arational assessment of lectures as having a low expected gain to the student as a'What's the point? ' deduction in relation to attending lectures. It is possible thatthese three constructs allow for a reconstruction of the empirical data within aholistic framework interpreting the behaviour of missing lectures from either anetiological perspective, or from an individual psychoanalytical perspective. Lowimmediacy, instrumentalism, expectations, isolation, discomfort and goalambiguity, are argued to be the important influences on disinterest, disquiet anddisengagement. This thesis presents empirical evidence supporting disinterest,disquiet and disengagement as important constructs in the student's attendancebehaviour, and considers how these constructs might be used to guide futureresearch. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the issues for the Facultyraised by the research.

AB - A large number of factors are known to be influential on student absenteeism, butlittle work has been undertaken into understanding this behaviour at a moreconceptualised level. In the UK, it appears that only one small scale study hasbeen undertaken into reasons for absenteeism specifically from lectures, despitethe growing concerns about this behaviour. This thesis attempts to both improveunderstanding of why students miss lectures in a Faculty at a post 1992university, and to explain this behaviour in a more conceptualised way. Nineattributions categorised using three headings: 'student', `lecture' and `context' arefirst proposed from which three broad constructs are derived that, it is argued,give meaning to the experience of missing lectures for many students in theFaculty. The three constructs are disinterest, disquiet, and disengagement.Disinterest is about an approach to study and learning in the context of missinglectures and is understood as the 'Can't be bothered' attitude to attendinglectures; disquiet is about the affective meaning of students missing lectures andis a 'Don't like it! response to the lecture experience; and disengagement is arational assessment of lectures as having a low expected gain to the student as a'What's the point? ' deduction in relation to attending lectures. It is possible thatthese three constructs allow for a reconstruction of the empirical data within aholistic framework interpreting the behaviour of missing lectures from either anetiological perspective, or from an individual psychoanalytical perspective. Lowimmediacy, instrumentalism, expectations, isolation, discomfort and goalambiguity, are argued to be the important influences on disinterest, disquiet anddisengagement. This thesis presents empirical evidence supporting disinterest,disquiet and disengagement as important constructs in the student's attendancebehaviour, and considers how these constructs might be used to guide futureresearch. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the issues for the Facultyraised by the research.

M3 - Doctoral Thesis

PB - Lancaster University

CY - Lancaster

ER -