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Age as a Factor in the Classroom Verbal Participation of Occupational Therapy Students, Part 2: Report of a Study

Both the first and second year cohorts (session 1989/90) of the Department of Occupational Therapy of The Robert Gordon institute of Technology, formerly the Grampian School of Occupational Therapy, took part in the study. Each group comprised almost equal numbers of standard-aged students and students aged 21 years and over and were observed for 12 hours of normal classes to quantify each student's verbal participation. The classroom observation was supplemented by questionnaires to the students to probe their perceptions of answering and asking questions and taking part in discussion. The results of the observation were statistically significant, demonstrating that the older the student the more likely he/she was to speak in class. The questionnaires confirmed that the quieter students perceived themselves as participating less, the main reason for their reticence being communication anxiety.