Wednesday, November 12, 2014
What Harvard Researchers Found Out When They Secretly Photographed Classrooms
Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education: The methodology of the Harvard research that used secret cameras to study class attendance has concerned some faculty members. But putting aside the question of whether the methodology was ethical, what did the researchers learn about classroom-attendance patterns from their study, and what were the motives behind the experiment?
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7 comments:
The most interesting part of this article for me is in the comments. There are hundreds of posts from students, researchers, and educators having an argument about whether attendance should really be the issue. Most seem to be of agreement that in a lot of cases class does not offer something you can't get elsewhere. My economics class is a great example. I attend class because it makes me uncomfortable to skip any class no matter the content. But a large portion of people skip and do fine. The professor reads us the powerpoint he got from the makers of the textbook, that summarizes the textbook. If he is not going to add to the book (which I read) and all the homework and exam questions are taken from the book (which they are), then whether or not it is beneficial to go to class depends on the students learning style. Avoiding this kind of lecture is one of the reasons I like the School of Drama. Small classes means the professors tend to put an emphasis on the in class learning and not on reading I do on my own outside of class. I can learn the material either way but if I am going to take the time to attend class it is nice to know that I am benefiting from it in ways I couldn't on my own time.
Was anyone really that surprised by those findings? Maybe as a student myself I have a better understanding of the thought processes that go into deciding whether or not to actually go to a class. I'm obviously going to go to class if attendance is taken and my grade depends on it. As soon as it is no longer required it brings up a whole new array of questions. How much do I care about the class? Is the subject matter something that interests me? Is the professor just showing a powerpoint that comes directly from the text? Can I get exactly the same information from just reading the book? Can I do well on tests without actually having to go? If the class is low priority with uninteresting subject matter that I can just learn from the book and still pass the class, I’m probably not going to go to class. Although it kind of goes against my morals it doesn’t actually change my decision. If a professor keeps things interesting I am more likely to go but sadly, most of the time, this just doesn’t happen.
I would agree with both Isaac and Philip. Attendance is lectures is always going to be down if the students still understand the material. I assume for most students that the grade is what matters most and if they can get the same grade from not going to lectures then that's what they are going to do. People attend classes for a variety of reasons and their motivations behind taking the class vary for each student. You would think Harvard of all places would understand already without having to spy on their students that lecture attendance is going to be low and vary within classes. I'm honestly more surprised that they spied on their students than their findings.
Who actually thought that students went to classes that attendance does not affect your grade? If I can still pass the class and I do not have to go to class why would I ever think to go to class. Maybe if I really enjoyed the content of the class or the teacher I would still attend but if I had more pressing work that had to be done I would skip class. This is not a problem we come across in the School of Drama very often because our classes are so small and you not being there would be noticed. The structure of the class itself is also different from ours because we generally get more work to do in class and less assignments that have to be accomplished outside of the classroom.
Ethical concerns aside, I found this study to be pretty interesting, if not already intuitive. Sometimes as a School of Drama student, it's hard to gauge what is normal behavior in terms of class attendance within the rest of the university at large. Our drama classes get such high priority that sometimes I feel that our non drama classes get tossed to the side, especially if attendance is not required or factored as part of your grade. I echo Philip and Olivia's sentiment that the slightest inkling that I might get homework done instead of going to class propels me to skip class.
I actually watched the guy's whole presentation. He was extremely dry at first, but once I understand the heart of the matter, his presentation made a lot more sense in context. Some of this information is intuitive, such as day of week or exam effects, but there definitely were more questions that answers arising out of this study. It is definitely an area of research that is not only interesting to me, but warrants further effort.
Although this study is really interesting, I am not surprised in the slightest by what was observed. People have been saying for a while now that class engagement is affecting class attendance. It is happening across the board whether the student is in grade school or in college. It is definitely more clear now that engagement is a big part of class attendance. Even for some required courses I have taken so far, if it wasn't mandatory that I had to be there then I probably would not have gone. Furthermore, even though they were mandatory, I used the accepted amounts of unexcused absences to my advantage. I think a better study would be how to make the classes with low attendance records more engaging.
Such a shame the Mr. Moulton himself is not a more interesting lecturer. These results are not particularly groundbreaking, nor does it seem like HILT has a good idea about how to productively and effectively use the statistics gathered. Those two things combined really makes me question whether the filming of these classes was justified. With no real particular goal, this study seems obtrusive in a very unhelpful, unguided way. I believe the researchers should have spent more time at the outset investigating ways to actually, holistically assess "learning" instead of trying to reduce it to a nice graph and some tidy numbers. Simply, what newfound knowledge did this really contribute?
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