Currently reading Gülbak & Gülbak (2025) on “Autonomy-Supportive Teacher Behaviours and Their Impact on Student Attendance at University Level”

Student attendance has been a hot topic for a while now. In this study, an impressive 101 interviews with students from one first-year course on what teacher behaviours influence their attendance are analysed. They find that structured guidance, promoting active participation, acknowledging students’ feelings, and teaching performance are the most important categories.

So what do those categories entail?

• Structured guidance is both about articulating clear expectations and giving constructive feedback, as well as that attendance feels “informative”, for example through frequent use of examples that help students connect course content to the real world.
• Promoting active participation is done, according to students, through an interactive teaching style in which students are asked thought-provoking questions.
• Acknowledging students’ feelings is about the teacher’s “sincerity” and about valuing the expression of students’ ideas.
• Teaching performance is about liveliness, humour, change of tone of voice.

All of these strategies can be learnt by teachers (and taught in academic development courses), and are classical good practice strategies. Gülbak & Gülbak (2025) recommend that universities should invest in teacher training and changes in curriculum to enhance student self-determination and intrinsic motivation to attend, rather than using strict attendance policies. Sounds good!

Gülbak, G. M., & Gülbak, O. (2025). Autonomy-Supportive Teacher Behaviours and Their Impact on Student Attendance at University Level. Teaching and Learning Inquiry, 13, 1-16.

Speaking of autonomy, here is a little shoal of fish I just watched this afternoon… So fascinating how they coordinate!