The one-page comic below was created as a quick reference for faculty and students at Olin College, where learners can see the development of both products and processes in the domain they are learning in (whether that's engineering, education, or something else).

The text after the comic is also in the Scribd document description and functions as an accessible image description of the one-page comic.

Products and Processes: how a visibility of developmental processes aids in practitioner formation by Mel Chua on Scribd

Another theory comic: image description follows. (Heavily influenced by Community of Practice, Situated Cognition, and Cognitive Apprenticeship theories.)

Text at the top of the page: When learners are engaged in an authentic, situated, & communal practice context, they see the development of two kinds of things over and over again in their environment:

Title text: Products & Practitioners (of their practice).

The middle of the page is divided into two columns. The left column is under the portion of the title that says "Products," and shows three people getting clay from a big lump labeled "raw materials." Below that, the same three people are shown starting to form pots from the clay; one person drops their pot and cries "oh, no!" Below that, the same three people are shown continuing to work on their pots; the middle person is now saying "oh, cool!" as they piece the pottery shards back together, and one of the other potters looks at them and thinks "I see how you adapted that!" Below that are drawings of the three final pots, all different; one is a squat, short pot with squiggly decorations, another is the broken pot pieced artistically back together, and the third is a tall vase made out of coils. All together, the left column shows the development process of a variety of pottery "products" from start to finish.

The right column is under the portion of the title that says "practitioners." At the top is a group of three small children labeled "novices," in the middle is a group of three teens labeled "juniors," and at the bottom is a group of three adults labeled "masters." The novices are making small simple pots; one cries out "my first pot!" while raising their fist in excitement. One teen is looking at the excited small child and thinking "I remember that time." Another teen is being gazed at by a small child thinking "someday, I'm going to do that," and is in turn looking at an adult practitioner and thinking the same thing. One of the teens has made a mistake on their pot; an adult is watching them and saying "I remember that time." All together, the right column shows the developmental spectrum of potters from novice to master, with younger practitioners looking towards the older ones in anticipation of what they will do, and older ones looking back at the younger ones in remembrance of where they once were.

Below these two images is text that reads: one thing seeing these developmental cycles constantly reinforces is the sheer diversity of ways to engage with the profession/practice and the world. Each product and practitioner is fashioned from a different mold. The question becomes not "how do I fit the norm," but rather...

"What might I make?" and "Who might I become?" (in a thought bubble coming from a person at the bottom center, head cradled thoughtfully in hands, with a variety of ceramic pieces surrounding them at either side)

At the bottom of the page is the copyright/authorship notice: Copyright 2016 CC-BY-SA Mel Chua.