YÜKSEKÖĞRETİMDE DEVAMSIZLIK OLGUSU VE NEDENLERİNE İLİŞKİN ÖĞRETİM ÜYELERİ VE ÜNİVERSİTE ÖĞRENCİLERİNİN GÖRÜŞLERİ

Introduction Defined as not attending school, not following courses regularly, legging behind school for a day or not going to school without any legal cause, absenteeism is an important factor affecting the quality of education. Thus, it is essential for investigating the reasons for students’ absenteeism, precautions for mitigating, and the importance of attendance/absenteeism checks. Continuous absenteeism might lead to drop-outs. Also it is important due to the consequences it bears for academic success. Reasons for student absenteeism can be several such as family, instructor and school. Individual reasons include smoking and taking alcohol, medical problems, psychological problems, homelessness, poverty, adolescence pregnancy, academic anxiety, obesity, friends, and gender. Family reasons include divorced parents and conflicts with parents. Lastly, school and instructor factors include violence at school, school climate and teacher-student conflict. Since eliminating causes of absenteeism seems crucial for improving schools as educational organizations, present study attempts to scrutinize the meaning of “absenteeism”, its reasons and probable measures to be taken. Method In this qualitative research implemented with phenomenological method, 180 students and 52 instructors were selected from 13 faculties of Cumhuriyet University with maximum variety sampling technique. An unstructured interview form was used for collecting qualitative data in the study. The instrument was revised by researchers after being reviewed by two specialists in assessment and evaluation. Study data were analyzed with content analysis at four consecutive stages as “coding, finding themes, coding and arranging themes, defining and interpreting findings”. Themes and subthemes were identified by researchers. As a result of checking the Cohen’sKappa coefficient, reliability of the coding was found as κ=.91.Findings and Comments The importance of attendance was found to have high frequency among both instructors and students. Instructors and students’ views showed no congruence as instructors regard absenteeism as a reason for failure; while the latter think it is student’s choice and (an obligation) that should be abolished. It is interesting that students regard absenteeism optional which is not a condition for education and instruction. On the contrary, instructors reported the phenomenon as a reason for failure with highest frequency, still they think it is student’s choice (f=6) and (an obligation) that should be abolished (f=5). The results show that both groups of participants see attendance as an important factor while noting that it should be optional. By grade level, the views regarding the importance of absenteeism showed higher frequency (f=103) than attendance unimportant and depends. The students in their last year explained absenteeism as an obligation and student’s choice. They were followed by frequency of last-graders seeing it as (an obligation) that should be abolished and legal right. This can be related with their experience. In comparison with the whole study findings, this point seems to be contradicting with students’ views regarding the importance of attendance. By content, students describe absenteeism controlling, oppressive and variable in practice, whereas instructors think implementation of absenteeism as controlling and tolerant. The fourth-graders resulted with higher frequency for all categories except for tolerance and controlling. Views of students and instructors are contradictory as students find instructors strict while instructors find themselves more flexible about absenteeism. The reasons for absenteeism are listed by students as medical problems, individual problems, irregular sleep routine, quality of course instructor, attractiveness of course, and studying lessons. The highest frequency was found in medical problems and irregular sleep routine. Instructors attribute the highest frequency to quality of course instructor. Though congruence was seen between students and instructors’ views regarding quality of course instructor, the students often referred to non-school reasons such as medical problems and irregular sleep routine. Distribution of reasons for absenteeism by grade shows that first and second grade students indicated transport, visiting family, friends, not paying attention to course and individual learning. On the contrary, third and fourth grade students cited academic reasons like work, studying lessons, participating in activities, attractiveness of course, and inefficient course. Also absenteeism is affected from studying hard among fourth grade students. Besides non-school reasons like medical problems, irregular sleep routine and individual reasons highly cited by students, academic anxiety was highlighted with other reasons such as timetable, quality of course instructor and attractiveness of course. It implies that students expect instructors to run classes effectively and attractively.The students’ recommendations for preventing absenteeism were listed as increasing quality of education, arranging timetables, making lessons attractive, quality of lecturing and raising consciousness. From the instructors’ point of view, the recommendations included increasing quality of education, raising consciousness, teaching methods, quality of lecturing, and assigning homework and responsibility. The students in the fourth grade underlined increasing quality of education, attractiveness of course, and quality of lecturing; whereas the first year students often referred to arranging timetables, increasing quality of education, and improving transport. High frequency was not obvious in any category according to the other grades. As grade level increases, the frequency of views regarding quality of education and attractiveness of course increases, too. Fourth grade students place emphasis on quality of education, while freshmen expect improved social and physical conditions besides quality of education. So, there could be a negative relationship between students’ expectations regarding quality of education and absenteeism. Results and Recommendations Instructors attach more importance to absenteeism than students do. Also instructors explain absenteeism as a reason for failure, while students think it as student’s choice and (an obligation) that should be abolished. By grade level, the importance of absenteeism was found to be emphasized with higher frequency than attendance unimportant and depends. In relation with the content of absenteeism, students find such practices controlling, oppressive and variable, while instructors think they are supervisor and tolerant. Under reasons for absenteeism, medical problems, individual problems, irregular sleep routine, quality of course instructor, attractiveness of course, and studying lessons were listed by students; however, instructors pointed out quality of course instructor with highest frequency. Lastly, recommendations by instructors and students were found related with increasing the quality of education, arranging timetables, attractiveness of lesson, quality of lecturing and raising consciousness. In the light of above, faculties and departments can develop an implicit still effective control system over activities for increasing the quality of education. In this scope, technology should be integrated in classrooms and promoted for more attractive and meaningful lecturing. Secondly, in-service training should be given to instructors about teaching and learning methods. Then, students should be given assignments for their active involvement in learning. The last but not the least, lessons should be student-centred and students should be more active during lessons by means of research assignment and presentations.