Uncovering the principal dominances in the motivation of students to skip classes

Abstract

In this article, taking into consideration that an increase of the motivation of students to receive academic training and attend classes is one of the expected positives from joining the national educational system with the Bologna Declaration, the graphing procedures of evaluation utility functions of skipping classes by a limited number of points were first developed and practically realized. An analysis of such functions allows one to uncover the principal dominance which, pursuant to the postulates of the theory of taking decisions, is regarded as the inclination, disinclination and indifference to the risk. An analysis of individual utility functions graphed by 45 students-air traffic controllers for tvelve academic disciplines revealed that the interrelation of students with ratio of students with different attitudes toward the risk. In this regard, the aspirations of a student to play a virtual lottery in order to minimize the skipping of classes can be understood as an inclination toward the risk. Students relate decisions to skip classes with the complexity of academic disciplines. Students, who are indifferent toward the risk, or, in other words, those with a «linear» attitude toward the attendance of classes, make up only 13,55 %. This convincingly shows the necessity to develop special pedagogical events for the individualization of studies.