February Monthly Summary

Keith Commented on Group 3 and Group 6 Summaries

The past month we’ve explored different learning processes that interested us and based on those interests formed groups for future projects. Therefore, this month was used to figure out the dynamics of the group, learn more about spiritual learning, and investigate programs that use a spiritual learning approach in their educational setting.

The formation of our Spiritual Learning group spawned more out of convenience then by design.  Katie and Samantha directly selected Spiritual Learning as their focus topic, where as Keith and Sean joined the group later in the process.  At this point in the semester, the choice to combine has proven rewarding.  Individually our communication is effective and timely.  As a group, we split work in a balanced and fair manner with division based on personal strengths and skills.  For example, our Program Investigation project divided as follows:

• Kate Bowers –Earlham School of Religion program, main features and application write-ups. 
• Sean Rodgers –Sant Bani School program, main features and applications write-ups. 
• Samantha Pickens – Initial program investigation, applications and conclusion write-ups, formatting and final editing of APA, blog design. 
• Keith Cozart – Initial program investigation, table creation and development, embedded video and references, blog creation and posting. 

For this project, the process of work division was quite organic.  After an initial prompting from Samantha, all four members quickly offered contributions to the process allowing for timely organization, reasonable scheduling and a quality end result.  As future projects near, our currently established communication habits will prove extremely valuable.  Creating a foundation of quality work that builds from project to project throughout the semester is an important facet.  I believe we’ve accomplished this quality foundation within our first project.  This will allow our future work to be more streamline and cognitive resulting in a better product. 

We didn’t encounter many, if any, challenges this month. This can be attributed to our communication and drive to meet deadlines. They are definitely an advantage moving forward.  This is not to say we did not have personal challenges in these previous months.  We are all still trying to get accustomed to working with new peers and professors, the drain of taking many classes, working full time, and taking care of our families. 

For next month we will be focusing on our Program Design and Program Evaluation.  Coming up in March, the group will have two projects to work on. One will be the program design, in which the group will design their own program.  The second project is to get educators to evaluate the program, and we will reflect on these recommendations. We believe that our group will have no issues in tackling these projects.