Does sex (female versus male) influence the impact of class attendance on examination performance?

Abstract

The "conventional wisdom" is that grades are related to class attendance, i.e., students who attend classes more frequently obtain better grades and class attendance dramatically contributes to enhanced learning. However, the influence of sex (female vs. male) on this relationship is understudied. Furthermore, there have been several studies examining the impact of attendance on course grades that challenge the conventional wisdom. To address these issues, we determined the effect of class attendance on examination scores for female and male students enrolled in our undergraduate exercise physiology class of 51 students (20 female students and 31 male students). The experiment was designed not to interfere with the normal conduct of the course. Attendance was recorded in each class, and, although regular attendance was encouraged, it was not required and did not factor into the final grades. The final grade reflected the average days of attendance for female students only. Specifically, female students earning a grade above the class average attended 89 ± 4% of the classes; however, female students earning a grade below the class average attended only 64 ± 6% of the classes. In sharp contrast, there was no difference in the number of classes attended for male students earning grades above or below the class average (84 ± 3% vs. 79 ± 5%). Accordingly, some male students were absent frequently but scored above the class average, whereas other male students attended many classes but scored below the class average. Thus, the influence of regular attendance on examination performance is more important for female students than male students.

Higher levels of intrinsic motivation are related to higher levels of class performance for male but not female students

“…This is not surprising since sex differences in how women and men learn and behave in educational settings exist (1,28,33). Furthermore, the brains of men and women appear to develop differently (11).…”

Student Attendance and Academic Performance in Undergraduate Obstetrics/Gynecology Clinical Rotations

“…Previous studies have addressed only student attendance at lectures without any consideration of attendance at other tutorial-based or clinical activities and predominantly in basic science subjects. [6][7][8][9][10][11][14][15][16][17][19][20][21][22] Both clinical activities and tutorial-based activities separately correlated positively with academic achievement, suggesting the possible importance of both for academic achievement. This finding is important because some medical students struggle in adapting to the challenges of learning within the clinical environment, which is possibly more challenging than the more familiar tutorial-based learning environment.…”

Could Attendance at Medical School be improved? A Prospective Study of Medical Education at The University of Liverpool: Study of Attendance at a UK Medical School

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] This is worrying due to the strong correlation between absenteeism and poor exam performance that has been demonstrated by a number of studies, across a variety of locations and subjects. 5,7,8,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] A lack of interest in subject matter, an un-favourable learning environment, excessive socialisation between students, perceived quality of teaching and ineffective lecture scheduling are cited as core reasons for absenteeism. [29][30][31][32][33] Furthermore, improved access to online materials is an increasingly common reason for students' non-attendance.…”