Cooperative Education
Weekly Reflections and/or Summary Paper
Cooperative Education provides you an opportunity to earn academic credit for paid/un-paid experience and learn from
that real world experience. Writing learning objectives with your supervisor will assist you in focusing on the specific skills & learning will you will gain from this experience. Another
important way to deepen your learning is to think analytically about
and reflect upon the experiences that you have.
This will be accomplished by writing about those experiences.
This activity is REQUIRED on all co-ops:
A. Weekly Reflections that reflect on the learning & challenges of the co-op. You will submit this to your assigned Faculty Mentor in the format & manner that they instruct to you to do.
B. You may also be instructed to submit an End of Term Summary Paper that relects on the over-all cooperative education experience for the term.
Consider the following questions:
1. What is your job description?
2. What skills are you utilizing? (technical, communication, administrative, supervisory, etc)
3. What were your first impressions?
4. What is different than you expected?
5. What were you able to accomplish?
6. What were the effects of what you did? How do you feel about your role?
7. How does what you did (or observed) relate to your coursework?
8. What are the biggest problems faced by your organization in meeting the needs of people served? (Could be social service issue, or business objective.)
9. Describe the current state of the organization or business you work for. Does it exist in a stable or an unstable environment? For example, is funding a problem, or is competition intense?
10. Explain a misunderstanding, disagreement or conflict you observed, or were involved in. Who were the key players and what was their role? What points of view did the differing people hold? What attitudes, feelings or values did they express? What was the end result? What could be done to avoid or resolve such a conflict in the future?
11. Describe how this experience will influence your future, either as a citizen or as an employee in a similar environment.
One of the best ways to reinforce your learning experience is to write it down and share what you've learned with your Faculty Mentor!