Abstracts Education

Dwindling attendance of classes by students

by Anne Marie Sinclair

Little research exists about the relationship between student engagement and attendance in mandatory courses. The purpose of this study was to understand engagement and attendance by capturing perceptions from teaching staff and students’ nursing programmes that offer no electives. The study took place at Manukau Institute of Technology [MIT], a tertiary education provider in South Auckland. The mixed-method approach comprised of two focus groups and a questionnaire collecting both quantitative and qualitative data to determine if a link existed between engagement and attendance. A link does to exist with students missing classes where they felt the teaching style was inadequate. Belongingness is an important factor of engagement whilst technology use is not. The study demonstrates the importance of teachers’ in creating effective learning environments that enable engagement.