Active Participation

Active participation is important in the curriculum, especially within graduate courses, because it allows students the ability to learn from other cohort members, while also allowing students the chance to ask questions in a safe environment to enhance their learning capacity in the present and in the future, especially within fieldwork placements. By actively participating inside and outside of class, I think students can gain a better understanding of the course and the course’s material, then if students only sit in class, quietly, and do not attempt to complete the assignments outside of class. For example, by reading the assigned articles or chapters in the course’s syllabus, I think students can come to class to further their knowledge

Everyone in my cohort has different life experiences that influence their thought process. With active participation by the cohort and myself, we can learn from each other’s perspectives to see if there are similarities or differences to our own. Also, by actively participating in classes now, I can become more comfortable in asking questions and sharing my thoughts in a professional manner and safe environment, before doing the same in field work and professionally as an occupational therapist (OT). For instance, if I voice a “wrong” response in the classroom, the ability to make mistakes without major repercussions in a safe environment will benefit my learning and processing overall. Being able to learn and process information now, will help me pass field work and benefit my future clients because I will have a better base knowledge for how to handle different situations within my scope of practice, then if I did not participate in my graduate

As a result, it has affected how much participation I would like to give for each class. For this course, OCTH 340, I would describe my level of participation as being mediocre. While I felt I participated more in discussions in OCTH 340 than in other classes, I did not take as much time outside of class to prepare and study for OCTH 340 as I did for the other courses. For instance, my level participation outside the class consisted of occasionally skimming the readings, but I would also make sure to print and bring the documents that the professor mentioned in class, such as the OTPTAT laws and current news articles about unethical issues in health care (OTPTAT, 2015). In contrast to participation done outside of class for other courses, I would not review the material following the OCTH 340 course as I would for other courses such as Neuroscience. By reviewing the material learned in OCTH 340, I think I would have been able to comprehend and apply the information more quickly. However, also in contrast to other courses, I actively participated more during this course then I did for others because I felt more comfortable knowing the answers were not black or white when faced with an ethical situation. To actively participate in class, I would try to at least answer or ask one question per class. By answering or asking a question in