COOP 125T Co-Op Field Experience for Transfer Students
The Co-op Field Experience for Transfer Students course leads students to reflect on prior experience, to pursue initial ideas for continued engagement, and to explore some of the themes that emerge from prior work. The course frames experiential learning as a co-constructed process that is realized through the promotion of student agency and the facilitation of engaged dialogue. It is based on best practices in experiential and participatory education as it integrates prior experience with intentional forms of reflection. This integrated course is intended to promote students' understanding of social engagement as it encourages them to reflect on collaboration with previous colleagues, supervisors, and mentors. It also helps students better understand forms of deliberative action as it leads them to participate in dialogue, engage regularly in the practice of reflection, and develop a sense of inquiry within their field-all fundamental organizing principles of effective field-based learning. Planned for transfer students who have prior work, apprenticeship, or service experience, participants are expected to reflect on their emerging educational interests; to explore their assumptions about experiential learning; to become aware of action-based methodological approaches within their fields of interest; and to initiate a practice of communicating with colleagues within a variety of disciplines as well as within the diverse communities of practice in which they have engaged. The course promotes an understanding of reflection as a central component of integrative learning that is carried out by cultivating the habits of thinking, writing, and engaging in forms of creative expression in order to create meaning of one's prior work experiences and broaden knowledge of self and others. As a vehicle for reaching these goals, students produce a Fieldbook that contains documentation of their prior experiences and constitutes a record of their reflections on learning. The course introduces students to a variety of dynamic tools for self-expression and leads them to embrace a medium to communicate their experiences, reflections, and ideas. Students are encouraged to make connections between their immediate experiences and prior learning, while also encouraging them to develop new practices, set career goals, and identify self-defined pathways toward their life aims. Upon completion of the course, students evaluate their learning based upon their ability to express themselves as well as progress toward the goals, action steps, and benchmarks they set for themselves early in the term.
Prerequisite
Permission of the Dean of Cooperative, Experiential, and International Education
Corequisite
Approved and documented prior work, apprenticeship, or service experience totaling 300 hours within the last two years prior to enrollment in the course.
Notes
This course is graded Pass / No Pass