To participate or not participate?... that is the question.

In a recent class, some of my peers and I facilitated a discussion which focused on what drives students to participate in class and what discourages students from vocalizing their thoughts in class. Personally I enjoy to participate in my communication classes because I am truly interested and engaged when it comes to the class discussions. A point that I brought up during our discussion was that I am not naturally a person who always participates; I never participated in classes such as meteorology because I was not interested in the content of that class or felt as if I would never answer the questions correctly. Another part of participation willingness has to do with how comfortable the student feels in that class. For example in my SJSU communication courses, the dress code is comfortable and casual which I feel lightens up the mood in class to a relaxing setting. Personally if I were expected to dress in formal wear every day to class, I would feel uncomfortable, out of place, and hesitant about vocalizing my thoughts in class. On the other hand, many students in today’s discussion expressed that the dress code wouldn’t have any effect on them when it came to participation. One of my peers explained that she went to a Catholic high school and they were required to dress in uniform but she never participated much then and now even if she is able to wear casual dress she still does not participate much. We then talked about how sometimes students learn better when they just observe the class discussions rather than volunteering in them which makes sense to some extent. All in all I felt like this discussion was extremely interesting because it allowed me to see from different points of views on the subject of participating.