Should Class Attendance Be Required
Required class attendance is so common at colleges and universities that many teachers and even students themselves simply assume it is a good thing. In fact, required class attendance does more harm than good.
There are several reasons that teachers should not require attendance. First, rigid attendance policies do not benefit students' studies. For example, a student may have to give up a lecture which he finds important to his studies simply because of rigid attendance polices which is a contributing factor to his course performance. Second, the lectures of some teachers are not always constructive. A student should be allowed to decide for himself whether an in-class experience is worthwhile when his teacher merely repeats material from the textbook or wastes class time by telling irrelevant stories. Finally and most importantly, there is no proven correlation between attendance and performance in a course. A student may never miss a single attendance in a course, but it doesn't mean that he has acquired the knowledge of this course.
Required class attendance may secure one hundred percent attendance for a course, but it does not make much sense. (187 words)
結構剖析
文章分為三段
文章首段作者先給出自己的論點:即要求上課出勤率是弊大于利。
第二段給出作者的理由:考查出勤率對學生的學習沒有好處;而且逼著學生因為想獲得比較高的出勤率而去上可能對其來說沒什么價值的課是浪費時間;最后,出勤率和課程成績之間并沒有什么確切的聯(lián)系。
最后作者做出總結: 要求上課出勤率和確保課程之間并沒有太大的聯(lián)系和意義。
是否應該要求上課出勤率
要求上課出勤率在學院和大學變得如此普遍,以至于許多老師甚至是學生自己都認為這是件好事。其實,要求上課出勤率是弊大于利。
出于一些原因,老師不應該要求出勤。首先,死板的出勤點名政策對學生的學習沒有好處。例如,一個學生可能不得不放棄一個據(jù)他發(fā)現(xiàn)對自己學習很重要的課程,僅僅是因為死板的出勤點名政策,出勤率是他課程成績中的重要因素。其次,有些老師的課不總是有建設性的。如果老師只是在重復課本中的材料,或者講一些不相干的故事而浪費上課時間的話,應該允許學生自己決定這樣的上課經(jīng)歷是否有價值。最后,也是最重要的,出勤率和課程成績之間沒有確鑿的聯(lián)系。一個學生在某門課上也許從未缺勤過,但是這不意味著他已經(jīng)學會了這門課的知識。
要求上課出勤率可以確保課程百分之百的出勤率,但是這沒有多大意義。
attendance n. 出席,參加
assume v. 假設,承擔
rigid adj. 僵硬的,死板的
contributing adj. 貢獻的
performance n. 表現(xiàn),性能
constructive adj. 建設性的
irrelevant adj. 不相干的
correlation n. 相互的關系
1. Required class attendance is so common at colleges and universities that many teachers and even students themselves simply assume it is a good thing. 要求上課出勤率在學院和大學變得如此普遍,以至于許多老師甚至是學生自己都認為這是件好事。
2. Finally and most importantly, there is no proven correlation between attendance and performance in a course. 最后,也是最重要的,出勤率和課程成績之間沒有確鑿的聯(lián)系。
3. A student may never miss a single attendance in a course, but it doesn't mean that he has acquired the knowledge of this course. 一個學生在某門課上也許從未缺勤過,但是這不意味著他已經(jīng)學會了這門課的知識。