CCT 698.Fall’05: Closing Circle Notes

Chu + Classroom environment and people shaped her views

∆ Class would be better if it is longer

Michelle + Getting feedback on draft

∆ Longer course

Maho + Exchanging draft and emailing classmates for comments. Works better with support.

∆ Exchange earlier as assignment in class

Elliot + Forcing me to struggle and be engaged with input from others

∆ 1^st few weeks read course description at the beginning to focu on the essential aspects of the course

Amy + Appreciative of the people, of the food. Peter could be a therapist because he is good at it.

∆ Peer support 1^st class – buddy pairs from 9-915 – give a little bit of the syllabus over the weeks

Barbara + Sense of engagement from process – tools are helpful good stuff

∆ Review a little of the process each week to get the overall picture

Terry + Appreciates the process, like to see the whole syllabus at once

She appreciated everyone. It was interesting to see the bits and pieces of everyone’s projects. It helped her keep perspective appreciated Peter’s quiet direction.

∆ More interaction, buddy system sharing of material.

Luz + She likes the attitudes of the people. She was expecting a competitive war but everyone listens and is accepting

∆ Simplify syllabus

Doan + Simple to read website. Everyone was friendly and supportive. He can use the process/steps in the future

∆ Orientation for course to understand syllabus. More time to watch movies about research.

Berta + People are wonderful. Feedback is incredible – very important to her. Having a supportive person like Peter and wise like Peter is important rigorous with theory and concept in a gentle way (from Peter) – couldn’t do it without him. The process, methodology, organization – she liked the course.

∆ More coaching

Kristen + Phases – learned new skills and about her learning style. Feedback from Peter great – grew confidence from this – loved working with everybody.

∆ Start with Elbow in the beginning, get people more comfortable with each other earlier.

CCT 698.Fall’05: Paragraph overviews

I liked all assignments (seriously) which helped me to gain thinking skills, analytical skills, research skills, and writing skills. I have been thinking a lot and I’ve been writing a lot.. Even though my writing has something , I like to write. I liked reading many comments. I liked check-ins, working with others, especially exchanging papers.

What about working peers earlier? Can we (could we) work particular assignment by exchanging and making comments like you just did? You might be able to avoid having student’s delays. By the way I don’t care others. I shouldn’t care. In cat many people do not want to work with someone outside of this country. I just thought (sometimes think how can I help other with?) I liked phases I want to spend more time to think about what other ways of assignments I like to think about them assignments. (can you ask me later?) I like the sense of place map I used non-verbal expression to describe my process. That was fun. Can you do check-ins with non-verbal expressions? I don’t know the effect by doing this. I just threw out weakness. Not knowing well about other research might not be needed, but we can be good supporters. I need more time….

Capacities that I have develop in this course:

1. Union with my classmates. (this is relevant because is part of the process.)

2. Capacity of expansion and concentration. At the beginning expanding our minds looking for the research and bibliography in the presentations I develop the capacity of synthesis.

3. Solving Questions

4. Using of different tools, learned about the process and the progress of all of us, and how all the phases were developed in a very kind way

5. Develop self confidence.

This is a great course that helped me to find my own processes and resources to research the aspects that most interest me. The way the class is conducted in the workshop style makes the research process a more supportive and engaging activity. Rather then a tedious step to follow. The instructor is very open and supportive, which also creates an environment of trust where everybody learns.

As the classes have progressed and we have walked each step through each phases of research and engagement, there has emerged a whole- a project that initially was formless and barely an idea. Each step has been adequately taught and has created a expansion of growing ideas to be incorporated into our projects. All _______ have ______ to further the profess on the final project and to help students to develop as a _____ ____________

This course was a very effective preparatory course for synthesis. In addition to providing traditional research tools it also provides a forum for discussion of ideas as well as an interested peer support group for ones project. The workshop model was excellent and provides very useful tools that I will use not only in my thesis work but also in work projects to clarify issues-identify themes and write.

For me the most remarkable thing about this course is the engagement piece. All of the workshops the instructor as one of us and the peer support provide a sense of willingness to get involved in ones theme-beyond what the _____ end product would be. The one big take away for me is the sense of genuine inquiry I have gotten from this process________ which will carry me far beyond where I thought I was headed. My destination “was” supposed to be the next rung on the management ladder- this process has revealed my destination as the tip of the iceberg and opened up the possibilities for potential improvement in a work culture that was thought to be unchangeable. Very perfect stuff.

This course is great. Though I already did some research and even PhD degree but all the phases go systematically yet are met for the first time. Looking back at the journey, I see every step is important. This has big impact on my synthesis, researching, teaching ________,_________. Time is short, anyway that is the time allowed. I still _________ about the phases and head to _______ ___________.

This the guidelines, format, _________ impressions, experience, it should serve for long ____.

This was a course that helped me learn about my learning style, my best practices and the tools and skill I didn’t know I needed to create a better research product. The phases of research and engagement are helpful for building a process for future papers. The progression of the classes activities were inline with what was expected for homework. I recommend this course to anyone who has to do research.

My thoughts in what (would advise future student) This course will disengage your sensibility in your interaction with the self, others people, texts, and the world; but do not feel ________, in the end the less you may have walked in with will become clearer______ from the methodology used (precious is one’s own experience) and introduced. There are only strengths learned in this course, it does one good to question our precious engagement w/the process – instead of taking what we’ve learned from grammar school we (at this class) learn, relearn and manipulate it to be reflective and encouraging to our engagement in the process. The class is to short for such a tremendous task but it can (I hope_ get done. Everything that has been done inside and outside of class benefit beyond this classroom environment and product – it (the class) may act as an ______ in a greater understanding of ourselves allowing for growth that is immeasurable. All I can say is good luck! (this is not a synthetic statement sorry Peter!)

I think that any student who works through the phases in 698 will benefit by not only learning new techniques for research and engagement, but will also discover nuances of his/her learning style that will generate increased focus and productivity. I found the feed back particularly helpful as I moved through each phase; both from PJT and my classmates. The shared experience of undertaking a challenging project helped me stay excited about it throughout the process.

The sequence of the classes and workshop activities was an effective complement to one individual work outside of class. The peer support was productive and t hose of us who are in the other classes together have been applying what we’ve learned about sharing feedback independently in these other courses. One of the things I’ve greatly appreciated about this course is the challenge to achieve a personal best. While we work with others, our work is not directly compared to one another and we are responsible for meeting out individual goals to the best of one individual ability.

CCT 698 does a good job introducing students to unique ways to conduct research in a reflective and thoughtful manner. The in class activities as well as suggestions for research are invaluable. The syllabus other class materials and numerous examples of (other) past students work that students are instructed to printout at the beginning of class and then organize is a very daunting and overwhelming task. It maybe better to have teacher or graduate assistant printout (copy) materials and give to students over a 2-3 week period as the progression and phases are slowly introduced.

Peer support can also be improved on. Possibilities include very early assignments of study groups, time for groups to meet privately during class time, i.e. dismissing class 15 minutes early and have teacher leave to allow students to assist one another. Assignments, because they are new to most students, can be confusing for many. Allowing students to understand work at all times would be very beneficial.