Cohort Protocols
The Doctor of Ministry program is delivered in a cohort community of learners who engage in the entire process together. DMin students are encouraged to abandon any competitive habits accumulated during previous years of formal schooling. The idea of the seminar is to engage the doctoral student in the giving and receiving of ideas, information, sources, and materials in the context of a community of learning.
This community of learners will be developed and maintained between seminars through the e-mail and other means of communication or social media.
Doctoral students are expected to ground their work in significant and pertinent literature, and to share ideas and resources with their colleagues. They are expected to know what they are talking about and to help one another.
In the facilitation of community and the networking for cooperative learning, three educational principles are considered essential:
- The outcome of advanced graduate education is the development of refined sustainable habits of scholarly inquiry with professional integrity. These habits include engaging in seamless and life-long learning, and discerning, upholding, and accurately communicating truth.
- Competitive practices and individualistic approaches to scholarly inquiry are considered inappropriate outcomes and inappropriate toward the community of learning.
- The preferred learning environment is one that fosters a community of cooperative inquiry. Faculty and students alike are to be engaged in this learning community toward the development of all participants, not just the individual.