Analysis of Undergraduates' Attendance at Class Meetings with and without Grade-Related Contingencies: A Contrast Effect.

The effect of quiz contingencies on at tendance in three undergraduate classes was investigated. One class was required to take only four major examina tions. A second class was required to take fifteen quizzes and the four major examinations. A third class received course credit for looking at graded quizzes and took the four major examinations. Results showed that attendance at test meetings (meetings where students took quizzes or exams) was approximately 90 percent for each class, while less than 55 percent for nontest meetings. Further, analysis of attendance for nontest meetings indicated that (a) atten dance was lower for the last part of the semester compared to the first and (b) that frequent quizzing resulted in lower attendance for nontest meetings than infrequent quizzing. It was concluded that grade-related contingencies maintain high overall attendance. However, such contingencies may lower attendance at optional class meetings. Keller (1) introduced a system of higher education known as Person lized System of Instruction (PSI). Investigators (e.g., 2, 3,4, 5) repeatedly have shown PSI to be effective in establishing higher student achievement than traditional lecture methods of instruction. In PSI, students obtain study guide questions and small reading as signments and determine when to meet individually with a proctor to take quizzes and examinations. Little or no reg ular group classroom attendance for lectures or discussions is necessary. However, some instruction may require group class room attendance and possibly a lecture format. For in stance, laboratory courses involve the use of centrally lo cated special equipment, where students must congregate to acquire desired skills. Similarly, an instructor may find group attendance at formal lectures the most economical means of presenting remedial information or of providing students with current research information to supplement readings. In these instances, it is important for an instruc tor to have available reliable teaching procedures which maintain a high proportion of students in attendance. A few investigators have evaluated the effects of vari ous contingencies on attendance. Whitehurst (6), for ex ample, looked at student achievement and satisfaction as related to class size and instructional procedures such as films, lectures, group discussions, etc. Within this, he re corded attendance as a partial index of student satisfaction. Results indicated that students infrequently attended (e.g., 30 percent) optional films or lectures, while attendance at instructional exercises, such as discussions and examina tions, was relatively high. Further, when attendance at group discussions became optional and the sessions no longer covered test information, attendance decreased markedly. Lloyd, Garlington, Lowry, Burgess, Euler and Knowl ton (7) looked at the "reinforcing properties" of univer sity lectures on attendance by comparing the effects of course credit, quiz-related information, and contingent assignment completion. Quizzes were administered each week and results showed high attendance when grade related contingencies were in effect. Specifically, mean at tendance for quiz days was above 90 percent. However, during periods of noncontingent course credit? that is, nontest meetings and class meetings during which no test related information was provided? attendance fell to a mean of 46 percent and 38 percent, respectively. When course credit and test information were added, mean at tendance increased above 90 percent for nontest meetings. Contingent assignment completion as prerequisite for en trance to class resulted in a decrease to 5 percent mean attendance. Finally, Williams (8) presented similar data showing at tendance during optional lectures to be lower than atten dance for quiz meetings. However, Williams reported smaller differences: a mean of 96 percent attendance for This content downloaded from 207.46. 13.181 on Thu, 14 Apr 2016 05:09:08 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor. org/terms HOVELL-WILLIAMS-SEMB 51 quiz meetings and 76 percent on no-quiz meetings. These analyses suggest that when students obtain grade points or specific information (e.g., test questions) to appear on an examination, they are highly likely to at tend class, but they are not so likely to attend in absence of these contingencies. One way of producing high stu dent attendance has been to schedule frequent tests (7). However, no study explicitly has evaluated the effects of frequent testing (e.g., weekly quizzes) and relatively in frequent testing (e.g., three-four major examinations) on the proportion of students in attendance during meetings when tests are not scheduled. Thus, the purpose of this analysis was twofold. First, a systematic replication of the procedures used by Lloyd et al. (7) was designed to evaluate again the general effects of grade-related contingencies on university students' at tendance. Secondly, this analysis was designed to evaluate the possible differential effects of frequent and infrequent testing schedules on attendance at class meetings where tests were not scheduled.