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Participation
(100 Points)

Objectives:
• Think critically about colleague's ideas
• Explore relationships of ideas in course content
• Practice new communication skills

Specific Requirements:
Class participation is extremely important for your development of ideas and skills. You will find that very often, the ideas and concepts that you long recall are those you shared with colleagues in class. Participation in discussions enables you to test your understanding and develop critical thinking skills. Simply attending, without contributing to discussions, will lead to a reduction in participation points.

All of us will benefit from each other’s perspectives, honesty, compassion, and commitment. My goal is to provide you with a classroom environment that is nurturing and safe to enable us to access ideas and issues you may not have previously considered or been aware of. Therefore, your attendance and active participation are vital to the goals of this course.

What constitutes appropriate participation? It does NOT mean you talk more than anyone else does. Quantity of participation is only one measure; others include thoughtful responses, appropriate questions that enable us to focus in on needed clarifications. Discussions will seek to enrich our understandings of the issues, rather than debate the accuracy of opinions, and should be approached with respect for our classmates and their perspectives. Participation is facilitated by careful and complete preparation of homework and reading assigned prior to the in-class activities and discussion.