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Your Career

Get the latest advice and news to help you work smarter and thrive in your faculty, staff, or administration job. Delivered on Mondays.To read this newsletter as soon as it sends, sign up to receive it in your email inbox.

September 26, 2022
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From: Denise K. Magner

Subject: Your Career: What to Do to Stem the Skipping

Class attendance went off a cliff last year. How can you reverse the trend?

Last spring witnessed a “stunning’ level of student disconnection” in college classrooms. Plenty of professors were speaking to empty seats and were worried that their students had checked out. With a new semester underway, it’s a good time to think about how to keep your students enrolled and engaged. By restoring some guardrails, you can help students adapt, and maybe help yourself, too. For example:

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Class attendance went off a cliff last year. How can you reverse the trend?

Last spring witnessed a “‘stunning’ level of student disconnection” in college classrooms. Plenty of professors found themselves speaking to a lot of empty seats, and many worried that their students had checked out. With a new semester underway, it’s a good time to think about how to keep your students enrolled and engaged.

Students — much like their instructors — have been in transition from pandemic isolation to a time of more freedom. And the change is not like flipping a switch. It’s more like coming out of a dark cave into sunlight; it takes a while for your eyes to adjust. By restoring some guardrails, you can help students adapt, and maybe help yourself, too. For example:

  • A required-attendance policy helps students get to class (although they don’t like to admit it). Taking attendance is an especially good idea for first-year students who are fresh out of high school and accustomed to accountability.
  • The possibility of making new friends inspires some students to come to class. During remote learning, they couldn’t make friends in a physical classroom. The return of in-person teaching last year restored that opportunity. Take advantage of it by devoting some class periods to peer-critique sessions or small-group activities that help students connect.

Continue reading: “Why Students Are Skipping Class So Often, and How to Bring Them Back,” by Carol E. Holstead

Share your suggestions for the newsletter with Denise Magner, an editor at The Chronicle, at denise.magner@chronicle.com. If you’d like to opt out, you can log in to our website and manage your newsletter preferences here.

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Denise K. Magner
Denise K. Magner is senior editor of The Chronicle’s advice section, which features articles written by academics for academics on faculty and administrative career issues.
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