Ruminating on Course Registration
by Dana Forbes | January 9, 2009
What is the purpose of course registration? You may think the purpose of course registration is to fulfill degree requirements; for monetary benefits of educational institutions; for learners to achieve their academic or career goals; or for a combination of these purposes. These reasons only scratch the surface for the purpose of course registration.
To move beyond the surface of these reasons, a thought experiment will provide a deeper understanding for the purpose of course registration. For example, if a coffee cup falls from a table onto the floor and shatters, oftentimes we will explain that the coffee cup broke because it struck the hard surface of the floor. Is this why the coffee cup broke? An alternative explanation is that the dispositional nature of the coffee cup created the conditions such that if the conditions were satisfied, the cup would shatter. In other words, the nature of the coffee cup contributed to the causes of a shattered coffee cup. Likewise, the dispositional nature of registration creates the conditions that if satisfied result in transformational learning.
Registration creates the conditions to move you toward self-actualization. Each course presents the opportunity to move through, not over the fear of failure, self-limitation, and it may bolster your self-confidence to accept academic challenges in the future. The fear of failure may emerge from reading the requirements of a course syllabus, receiving feedback on writing that doesn’t align with your perception about you as a writer, or posting a response that a learner challenges, but you are unsure how to respond to it. With equal force, you may experience your limitations, especially as they relate to the doctoral competencies. As a result, you may doubt that you can’t succeed in a doctoral program.
However, when you choose to face your fear about failing and indentify your limitations, you learn more about yourself and participate in transformational learning. Registration creates the conditions for you to engage existential angst; It opens up the possibility for transformational learning; It helps to move you toward becoming a more authentic learner. Will you choose to engage the conditions course registration creates for you? The next time you register for courses ruminate on the reasons for registering for them. The following questions may help you on your academic journey:
Why do you think course registration exists?
What other conditions does course registration create for you?
How will you engage these conditions in your current and future courses?