Background

During 2007-2008 several teachers and administrative personnel completed Neufeld's home study course, "Making Sense of Kids". The 22-hr. DVD program was supplemented by weekly discussion groups among the participants and seven facilitation meetings with the senior author of this paper. At the conclusion of the academic year attendance data for all of the students in the school (n=540) were made available for the present analysis.*

The teachers

Among those participating in the home study course there were 5 teachers with home rooms and one who had no home room assigned but who spent a considerable amount of time with the students in one class. The classes of these six teachers were dubbed the Neufeld Group.

Samples

Classes involved in the study ranged from Kindergarten(JA) through Grade 8. There was a total of 103 students in these classes: (JA, n=22; Grade 3, n=17; Gr 6, n=28; Gr 7, n=27; Gr 8, n=11). At each grade level an equivalent number of students was chosen from other classes where the teachers had not had formal training in the Neufeld paradigm. The final sample consisted of 206 students.

Results

The relationship between teaching approach (Neufeld Group vs Other) and absenteeism over the entire year was statistically significant: those being taught by the Neufeld-oriented teachers were absent less freqently than those in the comparison (Other) classes.

A secondary analysis shows that when the data were separated into Excused vs Unexcused absences the Neufeld Group had fewer Excused absences. The same trend was found for the Unexcused absences but this was not statistically significant.

Conclusion

Teacher-pupil relationship is a significant factor affecting pupils' attendance and this relationship appears to have been positively affected by participation in the Neufeld home-study program.

*The authors wish to thank Ms Candee Forest, Principal of Sherwood Public School, Oshawa, Ontario, and Ms Diane Cary, former senior secretary of the school, for their yeoman work in downloading these records and manually masking personal identification on each form.