Process = Product

From: Diana Courson
Email: dianacourson@sbcglobal.net
Date: June 02, 2008

Comments

I'm Diana Courson, program coordinator for Arkansas State University Childhood Services. We provide training and technical assistance to licensed facilities statewide. I work primarily with projects that support directors and mentors.

In thinking about Keith's questions, I was reminded of weaving (and my short-lived attempt at this craft and the expensive abandoned loom in our storage room!). I see weaving as the process, interlacing different and sometimes quite diverse elements to produce a fabric. Variations in the elements used and/or in the ways in which the elements are combined produce different fabrics. The myriad of potential combinations of materials and weaving methods and patterns provides levels of complexity and keeps the process interesting.

Learning is like weaving. The process of learning (weaving) interlaces experiences, interactions, responses, collected data, feelings, to produce The Learning (fabric).

Even a slight change in the process (materials/methods/pattern) changes the product. Process and product seem to be interdependent, one would not exist without the other.