Travis Haber¹
Jessica Stander¹, Karen Donald², Jessica Lees¹, , Deb Virtue¹, , Samantha Byrne¹, , Tamara Clements¹,  Bronwyn Tarrant¹, Anthea Cochrane¹,  Elaina Kefalianos¹,  Nicole Hill1¹,  Lauren Story¹, Lisa Cheshire¹ and Miki Maruyama¹
1 University Of Melbourne

Is mandatory attendance for practical classes a historic approach or is it based in sound pedagogy? This scoping review aimed to explore the evidence related to mandatory/ hurdle attendance at practical classes, simulations and skills labs and its association with performance in health professions education. 

Summary of work 

We undertook a systematic scoping review to ensure a systematic search, literature evaluation and descriptive synthesis of current research evidence for this topic (Peters et al., 2020; Tricco et al., 2018). Nine electronic databases (Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Dissertation Abstracts, Education Full Text, ScienceDirect, ERIC, Google Scholar, and Web of Science) were searched using synonyms for the keywords: “academic performance” AND (medical OR dentistry OR health sciences) AND practical classes AND (attendance OR attendance-hurdle) AND “grades”. 

Results 

Nine studies were included in this review. Four studies in medical courses, two studies in health sciences and three studies in biology courses described the association between practical class attendance and student performance. One study in biology described the relationship between mandatory attendance policies on practical classes and performance. 

Discussion 

We found that attendance was positively associated with performance. However, these associations ranged from small to large, including between attendance and practical examination performance. We also found inconsistent associations between attendance hurdles and student performance. 

Conclusions 

This scoping review is the first to focus specifically on practical class attendance and performance. This scoping review may inform assessment design, policy review and organisational approaches to attendance hurdles within higher education. 

Take-home messages / implications for further research or practice
Further research should focus on perceived impacts of attendance hurdles on students and their beliefs about attendance hurdles in practical classes. Studies could determine the association of practical attendance with clinical performance. 

References (maximum three) 

Peters, M. D., Marnie, C., Tricco, A. C., Pollock, D., Munn, Z., Alexander, L., . . . Khalil, H. (2020). Updated methodological guidance for the conduct of scoping reviews. JBI evidence synthesis, 18(10), 2119-2126. 

Tricco, A. C., Lillie, E., Zarin, W., O'Brien, K. K., Colquhoun, H., Levac, D., . . . Straus, S. E. (2018). PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR): Checklist and Explanation. In (Vol. 169, pp. 467-473).