You Got SMERFED

In the early days of teaching my sales class, I had students take four team-based exam that had 225 questions to be completed in 1 hour and 20 minutes.  There were 150 multiple choice and 75 true/false questions. Each exam covered four chapters of the primary text.  Luckily, the text came with an extensive battery of test items to make such an exam possible.  Since one of the course objectives had to do with learning to work in a team, the exam was designed to prevent social loafing -- it was impossible for one or two students to pass the exam for the team, all had to be prepared to do their part, or they would not pass.  

Each team had to file their strategy with me on how they were going to study for the exam and take it as a team in the student union.  Yes, a public space on campus and not a classroom.  The space had large wooden tables so the students could spread out and implement their strategy for taking the exam.

Once the results were in, the top team set the curve for the rest of the teams.  A histogram was shown in class to show how all teams did compared to the top one.  Teams were then required to analyze why their strategy did or did not work to set the curve.  They then had to file their improvement plan to explain how they would do better on the next exam and perhaps set the curve.

There was one team that had set the curve on the first three exams.  I asked the manager to share what his team's strategy was with the other teams so that they might do better on the fourth exam.  On the appointed day, he stood before his classmates and told the rest of the teams that they had been "SMERFED."  He then went on to explain the meaning of the acronymn that is shown below (which was edited down for this blog post).  I have read alot of books on teamwork and found this one to be up there with the best.  See what you think.

My message in this blog post is that I would have never known this student had such great insights on teamwork had I not asked him to share his team's strategy with the rest of the class.  We all learned a great deal that day in class on what it takes to be a great team.  Indeed, I have found it quite rewarding to put the spotlight on the students and give them a chance to shine as often as possible in all my classes.  It gives students a chance to showcase their true talents and abilities that would go unnoticed in the traditional tightly scripted classroom where the teacher controls the learning.  My experience has been that the more chances I give students to shine the brighter the classroom or lab!

SMERFED -- How to Be a Successul Team

Synergy: People working together as a team hold more power than all those working on their own. A good example is a school of fish. One hundred fish have not deterrent defense individually, but swimming together they trick predators into thinking there is one large fish — don’t mess with it.

Motivation: People are all motivated by different things, so getting on the same page can be a challenge. Although it is harsh, it is necessary to find out who in your group is not motivated to help work towards success and get rid of him/her using the proper provisions of the team charter and the instructor. Don’t waste your time with people who will not contribute; let your competitors make that mistake.

Effort: Motivations lead people to put forth effort to achieve their goals. You cannot just want an A, you absolutely have to put forth the effort. A high level of effort by properly motivated people will lead to success.

Respect: Respecting each other is the basis for developing communication and comradery within one’s team. It is important to listen to the ideas and opinions of each group member. Even if one thinks that what a person is saying is way off, just consider it anyway. Do not discourage someone from brainstorming.

Focus: When it is time to make decisions and overcome obstacles it is important to focus, brainstorm, put your heads together and work with the team charter. Do not be cool and go work together at the bar. Find an area that is conducive to thinking and avoid distractions. Get the work done, then go out together and build some comradery with teammates in whatever decadent manner you choose.

Execution: Once you have focused and set a strategic agenda and charter you need to execute those plans. Do what you say you are going to do and give your plans a little time to develop before making changes.

Delegation: The D can also stand for divide and conquer. Teammates must share the responsibility and the workload. What a team is faced with any task, the members should decide what duties would have to be carried out, then divide and conquer them. At times a member may have a lot to do but it evens out because the team will not require as much of them on subsequent tasks. Besides, his team’s charter stated that, “no member will carry all of the load or none of the load.”

Listen and Learn to be a Better Teacher

Teaching is not what I do for a paycheck; it defines who I am as a professor. That is why I conduct a regular and ongoing reflection on the quality of my teaching.  Sometimes while in the midst of it. I do not gauge the quality of my teaching based on the end of semester course evaluation like others because that would be foolish. I routinely do it because the students depend on me to prepare them to be hospitality managers one day and the onus is on me to deliver. 

Here is a tip on gauging the quality of your teaching on a routine basis. We have a student-led debrief session to wrap up the quantity foods lab. We want them to reflect on how they thought they did in the front and back of the house. The student managers of the day are taught how to lead the session because they will be doing it one day as a manager. One of the tools they use to gauge their performance is the results from their Report Card, which is what we renamed the customer comment card. We interject occasionally into their conversation when a manager says “we were awesome today!” They are asked to cite the specific things that they observed that led to them to declare their “awesomeness.” Otherwise we listen.

But while they are talking about their performance in the lab on any given day I listen carefully for clues on what they are signaling to myself, the chef instructor and TA as to the quality of our teaching. Are the problems they encountered when cooking and serving the food due to they way we taught them in the first place?  Are the successes they had due to the way they were taught? We need to find out in order to revise our approach to teaching the lab perhaps the next day or day one of the following semester so they will be successful.

So next time students are talking, do some active listening to see what they are saying to you about your teaching. When acting on that feedback you will steadily improve upon your teaching and the best part of all – student learning!

New Teaching and Learning Initiative

I want to say thanks to those of you who have followed the blog over the past four years.  Now that FELC is no more I am pleased to announce the start of my own Teaching and Learning Initiative.  I now can share all of the expertise I have acquired on teaching and learning over the past 20 years directly with those who have read my publications, attended my workshops, or those who I will meet in the near future.  To learn more about my Initiative visit: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/LaLopaTeachingAndLearningInitiative

Hell's Kitchen

Well, sorry for not posting in so long.  I was on a great 8 day winery tour of northern Italy which I will begin to share this week once I get my thoughts and notes together.  What I wanted to talk about now is Hell's Kitchen which I watched at a few points during the show although hard to stomach.

I used to be a fan of the show.  I liked the competition and it was entertaining.  Now I just see it as a show that sheds a bad light on chefs.  I do not know how they choose the competitors but they do not seem to be all that sophisticated socially or personally.  The thing that drives me the most crazy is how out of shape this batch of contestants appear to be -- more so than any other.  I do not like it all that much when watching them chain smoke in their personal time which is not good for their sense of taste and the tongue is perhaps a chefs most important piece of cooking equipment.  Or they are drinking.  Then there are the fights that erupt between competitors during the various competitions between teams, during service and in their private quarters (of course not so private since filmed).  Even more of a puzzle is that they cannot cook the simplest of dishes during service this time around like pork, chicken or a steak for goodness sake.  Not good!  I wish they would show some of them doing something constructive like having an intelligent conversation about food or heaven forbid, going for a run in the morning or doing some kind of exercise.

So I am now boycotting watching the show but will use it as a teaching tool to show students how NOT TO BEHAVE as hospitality professionals.  There is just no place for bad attitudes, limited intelligence, anger management issues, chain smoking, bad hygiene, drinking to handle stress, petty bickering and the rest.  Worse still is that the show has Ramsay play the role of a fire breathing asshole chef for the American television viewer when he indeed is not portrayed this way at all in Britain.  How sad. 

I hope you will do the same.  Tell students that the behavior on display on Hell's Kitchen is not cute or entertaining.  I will be doing so when teaching the restaurant class again this fall and leading by example!

Learning Styles Debunked

Perhaps you have heard of Daniel Willingham on your own or in some of my posts over the years.  He wrote a great book, "Why Students Don't Like School" and encourage you to read it over the summer if you have not done so already.  He argues that there is no evidence for learning styles, so changing up your teaching to accommodate the hypothesized (although widely accepted with little data) styles will not change the learning.  I know many want to believe that there is such a thing as learning styles and it can help one be a better teacher because it makes sense but there is no evidence to support it other than folk lore.

Here is an excerpt from an article entitled "Ask the Cognitive Scientist" which discusses learning styles:

Question: What does cognitive science tell us about the existence of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners and the best way to teach them?
The idea that people may differ in their ability to learn new material depending on its modality—that is, whether the child hears it, sees it, or touches it—has been tested for over 100 years. And the idea that these differences might prove useful in the classroom has been around for at least 40 years.
What cognitive science has taught us is that children do differ in their abilities with different modalities, but teaching the child in his best modality doesn't affect his educational achievement. What does matter is whether the child is taught in the content's best modality. All students learn more when content drives the choice of modality. In this column, I will describe some of the research on matching modality strength to the modality of instruction. I will also address why the idea of tailoring instruction to a student's best modality is so enduring—despite substantial evidence that it is wrong.  You can read the entire article here, which is a good read:
http://www.aft.org/newspubs/periodicals/ae/summer2005/willingham.cfm

You can also watch a video where he explains the trouble with learning styles:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIv9rz2NTUk

Enjoy!

Am off to Italy and hope me and the iPad will get along so I can post my journey on  to the blog.  We shall see!