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!

Banfi Wine Tour of Italy

I am extremely honored to be representing Purdue's School of Hospitality Management at the annual Banfi Foundation Scholastic Wine tour, which starts in Milan and ends in Rome over a 7 day period.  I will be joining faculty and students from over a dozen other top hospitality and culinary programs in the United States on this educational tour.  Along the way we will be visiting some of Italy's best wineries located in Vinge Regali, Acqui Terme, Gamba, Reggio and more. 

Many of you who read this blog may have even been on this tour or one of your own as a culinary educator or restaurateur over the years but this will be my first.  If you have or have not been to Italy I am going to take you along through the blog and post the highlights of each day and photos or videos if at all possible.  I know I will be able to post website links from those I will be visiting at the very least.  I am taking my new iPad which I hate so far but hope to come to terms with it as a working tool like my laptop. That being said, I will do all I can to share what I am learning with you so that you can share with students.  If you have tips for me to enjoy the tour as a novice feel free to e-mail me at lalopam@purdue.edu.

What the H is a Calorie?

Okay, I am closer to age 60 than I like to admit but there is one thing I never really got and that is, "what is a calorie?"  This question was asked of people in the film "Supersize Me" and those interviewed on camera could not define a calorie.  Indeed it was finally defined by renowned nutritionist and food scientist Marion Nestle in the film after the "people on the street" could not do it.  Nestle defined it as "the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of a quart of water by 1 degree centigrade."  Say again?!  That definition left me clueless.

But now Nestle has a new book out entitled, "Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics" that she co-wrote with Malden Nesheim and it is an excellent primer on the history of the science concerning calories.  The chapters are short and concise making it easier to digest (pun intended) the information on calories.

Did you know that the concept of a calorie was written about by the Greek physician Hippocrates around 400 B.C. especially as it relates to the secret of health, which is to balance diet and activity?  Hippocrates reasoned that was a way to forestall illness and have a healthy life.  I know the answer to this question but one can only wonder why such sage advice prevented the epidemic of Type II diabetes and obesity we have today because so many cannot live their lives according to this simple hypothesis.

Then there is the example of Santorio Sanctorious who in the 1600's built a contraption to be the first one to study human genetics with respect to the use of energy in the body (tied of course to the definition of calories).  Although some say he made of OC disorder, he took the initiative to weigh himself, weigh everything he ate and drank, and everything he produced in urine and feces nearly every day for thirty years.  From this dogged research he noticed the effects on how is body weight was effected by the foods he ate and the resulting waste excretions.  He attributed this to "insensible perspiration" but little did he know at the time he was discovering what we now know about calories.

I highly recommend this book to culinary educators as a summer read.  It is really a fascinating journey into the ancient and modern science of the research on calories and written in a manner that allowed me to comprehend and apply the concept to my diet and the way I will teach the restaurant management class in the fall when we discuss the calorie count in each dish we serve the public.

As a result of reading only the first half of this book I know longer think of calories as a bad thing, I think of them in terms of how I can use food and drink to power my body to do what I need to do every day which is get out of bed and be a vibrant teacher, and climb on my bike or work out in the gym to fend off the aging process.  Perhaps you too will understand "calories" and pass it along to your students for their professional and personal use.

Off to the NRA Show in Chicago!

I am truly excited to be going to the restaurant show in Chicago this year, although for only a couple of days for four great reasons.  The first reason I am excited is that I will take the train for the first time from Lafayette, IN to Union Station in Chicago for $19!  I LOVE traveling by train, it is so relaxing.  You can kick back, watch the scenery roll by, read a book, take a nap in your comfy seat and more.  We were used to taking trains all over the UK during my six month sabbatical in Wales, UK.  In fact we never drove once the entire time we were in Wales to do sightseeing as a family or when I needed to take business trips for my research on sustainable tourism, which was only fitting due to the nature of the research!  So I am looking forward to getting back on a train.

The second reason I am excited is that I will see plenty of old friends, colleagues, business associates, alums, current students, FELC advisory board members, FELC members and more during the show; it is like Homecoming weekend.  It is such a great time to catch up with who is doing what in their personal lives and professional careers.  Perhaps I will see some of you reading this blog post at the Show.  If you are going come see me in the Purdue booth for the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management on Monday afternoon or Tuesday.

And of course the third reason is that I LOVE Chicago.  It is truly a great city and I have been visiting it as part of the show since 1989.  The city and I have truly come a long way since then and both are better off for it or so I would like to think.  I am still trying to find a watch I lost late one night on Rush Street but that is another story for another day.

Finally there is the obligatory stop at the Billy Goat on Hubbard, below the Wrigley Building.  It is the place that inspired the "Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger" skit with Dan Akroyd and John Belushi on Saturday Night Live from their days at Second City where they were regulars.  Of course, I will have the grilled cheese now since going vegetarian but the atmosphere and the eclectic mix of people at 1 AM is awesome!

In closing, it was a great pleasure seeing so many at my seminars as part of the Education Development Series at the Central and Northeast Regional ACF Conferences.  The series entitled "Teaching that Sticks" was a great success and hope it has made a difference in the way those who attended the series teach their courses when back on their respective campuses.  Chef Carmel also had the same pleasure of seeing so many culinary educators at his seminars for the South and Southwest Regional ACF Conferences!

Service-Learning Project for Culinary Arts

I just wrote an article for the Journal of Culinary Science and Technology entitled, "Service-Learning: Connecting the Classroom to the Community to Generate a Robust and Meaningful Learning Experience for Students, Faculty, and Community Partners."  It will be published in the next issue and encourage culinary educators to read it and learn what truly constitutes Service-Learning because it is not what many believe it to be -- it is much more than "community service."

To that end, there is a new Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge being signed by hospitals all across the United States, sponsored by the Health Care Without Harm coalition.  The essence of the program, according to the website is:

Healthy Food in Health Care (HFHC) is a national initiative of Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), developed in conjunction with its member organizations. We work with hospitals across the country to help improve the sustainability of their food services. Founded in 2005, the program provides education, tools, resources, and support to health care facilities, making the connection between the health of patients, staff and community and the food they serve...The program aims to leverage the significant purchasing power and health expert status of hospitals to promote a healthier food system. By purchasing foods that are produced, processed and transported in ways that are protective of public and environmental health, hospitals can make a profound difference in the food system and in their own food environments.

To learn more about this program visit: http://www.healthyfoodinhealthcare.org/index.php

So when looking to do a true Service-Learning project and connect your classroom to the community to provide meaningful service that enhances student learning see if any of your local hospitals have signed the pledge and get in touch.  The patients, hospital administrators, students, and you will find this project very rewarding and educational indeed.

TeamLEAD at Duke Medical School

It is interesting to me that culinary program after culinary program has the same cookie cutter approach to preparing students (with slight variations) to be chefs and all claim to be the best -- whatever that means -- because there are no measurements other than accreditation to determine what consitutes "the best culinary program" at the end of the day.  When will someone take a bold new approach to educating chefs regardless of accreditation rules and regulations and make a change for the better?

For goodness sake, we are teaching kids to cook food so why can't we find new ways to teach culinary arts and hospitality management so that the way we teach is more interesting, engaging and effective for the students?  I can speak for myself on this, we are constantly reinventing our approach to teaching students in our foodservice lab and each new change brings about a better educated, invigorated and engaged student.  Excitement, energy and education abound in the lab because we ask ourselves every day how we can make the experience better and invite students in on the conversation because they have to spend their day learning in the environment we have created so why not let them have their say!

Compare what many are doing in culinary arts with TeamLEAD at Duke University which is teaching students to be doctor's!  Here is a blurb about what it is they say they are doing:
This is a video showcasing the TeamLEAD curriculum at Duke-NUS. We believe medical education is more than just memorizing facts; more importantly, it should critically examine facts and build creative thinking skills. To this end, we use an innovative yet rigorous team-based learning platform called TeamLEAD. TeamLEAD -- which stands for Learn, Engage and Develop -- describes how our students and faculty work and exemplifies the innovative spirit of our school.


Watch the video if you have 9 minutes and feel good about yourself if doing anything in your class or lab remotely close to what Duke is doing to produce doctors.  If not, perhaps it is time to reenginer the approach being taken to prepare the next generation of chefs who will need to log 10,000 hours to be truly great chefs (read Outliers) or have we forgotten to tell them that as we accept their tuition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlVPLYGdBLg&feature=youtu.be
When all is said and done, our limits are self imposed, so when is the time to make changes that will better prepare the next generation of chefs-in-wating.

I Am a Better Judge

Sorry for not posting for a week or so.  We were on break at Purdue so it was time to hang out at home and reflect on my life and career.  Upon reflection, it struck me that I am a better judge of student performance than I ever was before in my career.  Quite a revelation really because I see thinks differently now when reflecting on my teaching and its impact on student learning.  I see things that students do for what they are -- not what I had hoped or prayed they would be based on my teaching -- and judge accordingly with little or no emotion.  It does not mean I care less about the students or the quality of my teaching or my commitment to the craft, it just means I am becoming a seasoned teaching professional! 

I remember back in 1989 when first starting to evaluate student performance as a novice teacher.  I would anguish over each and every grade, given to each and every student, in each and every class, on each and every assignment especially when grades fell below a B.  One reason for my anguish was that I was an A student all through college -- well except that one accounting course -- and worked as hard as I could to set the curve or make an A in all my classes and wondered if my students had the same approach to their studies.  It would have been the "end of the world" for me to get a B when I was a student and would not want to have that impact on my students due perhaps to my bad teaching (although bad teachers never got in the way of me making the A).  I have since learned that not all students feel the same way.

I was unsure of myself when first teaching and wondered how anything and everyting I did impacted student performance. I wondered if the grades earned by students were a reflection of the quality of my teaching and not that of the student's desire to learn the materials.  I also wondered if I had picked the right text to help students learn the course materials?  Did I say the right thing, at the right time to explain the course materials so the students would comprehend the day's lesson?  Was I giving good feedback?  Was it timely?  Was I too abstract or too concrete?  Should I wear a tie or dress casually?  Should I show up early to class or get there just in time to commence teaching.  Did I tell too many jokes or anecdotes or not enough?  Did I need office hours?  Was I approachable?  Was I too casual or too strict?  I wondered about these things and many, many more over the years as to their impact on student peformance.

But not now!

I am a better judge of student peformance today.  In fact, I know it without even being conscious of how I know it, which must have evolved gradually over time while assessing and evaluating the performance of literally thousands of students over the past 20 years.  I have indeed learned how to behave as a professor for the students that attend our program at Purdue.  I am more aware then ever before about the way to plan, direct, organize and control a given class based on the description and objectives of the course.  Hands down, I am a better judge of student performance today than at any time in my career.  It is a part of me and I am a part of it with little or no need to second guess myself on the effect my teaching may or may not have on student performance.  I know it.

So today, if you are able, reach out to a novice teacher in your program.  Invite them to coffee and empathize with them a little bit and see if you can assist them on their journey to find their comfort and competency as a quality teacher and judge of student performance.  I am sure they have their misgivings about their teaching and its impact on student peformance -- if they give a damn -- and could use a bit of mentoring and assurance that their day will come when they can separate who they are from what they do and assess or evaluate student peformance for what it is and then help get it to where it needs to be before the class comes to a close -- if that is indeed the desire of the student(s), too. 

See you next week in Charlotte at the FELC Summit!

Professor Dancealot

Sometimes it is good to observe the teaching style of others to determine if what we are doing is better or worse by comparison.  The video shown below is a clip of how one professor teaches a class on dancing and then evaluates student learning.  As you watch it, ask yourself if you are guilty of some of the mistakes being made by this teacher in ways big and small to inhibit student learning of culinary arts and sciences in the lab and classroom.  In other words, do the teaching methods you select match up with the methods you use to assess or evaluate student learning? And if your students are not measuring up to what it is they are supposed to learn in your classroom or lab -- given their  performance on the assessment or evaluation methods you have selected -- then who is to blame?  The student?  Give it more thought!

So sit back and take note:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k8aeDUC9XQ

Happy Teaching!

Fat Chef

Are you kidding me?  Fat Chef!?  Not the kind of show that speaks kindly of culinary arts from the education or commercial side of the equation. 

I watched an episode tonight of an obese male chef and a female chef.  The obese female chef teaches healthy eating!

Once again I call out to those of us who teach and earn a living in food service to educate ourselves and our clientele on healthy living which involves their relationship with food, front and center.

When will we be able to reach the parents of the 9-year old boy I watched at my son's wrestling match this past weekend eat a huge portion of nacho chips with cheese and pulled pork.  Then one hour later he waddled, and I am not kidding when I say "waddled", past us with a giant pretzel and nacho cheese for dipping sauce?  How can this be?  I then looked around the arena where the wrestling match was being held and the reality of a statistic that almost 70% of Indianans are overweight or obese -- they were all around us.

Ladies and gentlemen, I submit to you that we are part of the problem and must become part of the solution.  I am working to make the menu in our food service industry both trendy, healthy, contemporary, local, and sustainable by having 30% of the menu be vegetarian, 86 the french fried starchy potatoes and in with the sweet potato fries (which are a huge hit), tofu in lieu of animal proteins (also a big hit on the B'ahn Mi) small desserts, and more.

Please for goodness sake let us teach our students how to create taste sensations in moderate portions that support a healthy lifestyle. Indeed we could do our part to reduce health care costs in this nation by reducing demand which results from those who are eating the food our students and our colleagues crank out on a daily basis that IS TASTY BUT NO DAMN GOOD FOR THEM TO EAT ON A REGULAR BASIS.  I am doing my part and hope you will join me!

Never trust a thin chef, my ass!

The Future is Now!

The customer walks into a restaurant.  She passes the host stand that acknowledges her presence especially since it has been tracking her journey to the restaurant since leaving home.  She proceeds to her table.  All at once, her order is communicated to the chef to prepare her to meal to her exact dietary needs while her bank account is debited, including tip.  When the order is ready the server brings it to the customer who has been catching up on e-mails, meeting with a friend, etc.  A truly seamless business transaction that meets the expectations of all concerned.  How will that change what chefs need to know in the future?  The service staff? 

Are we preparing our students for that future?  Which, by the way, exists in independent forms waiting to be linked up soon by some App maker.

Moreoever, what do our student know of "Nutraceuticals?"  A combination of nutrition and pharmaceuticals already being formulated by food giants and on the market like Nestle?  What about Phytosterols?  Probiotics?  Conjugated Lineolic Acid (CLA)?  Tonalin?  Nutragenomics?

Here is my point.  Technology is a game changer in one industry after another.  And what about culinary arts and sciences?  I do not mean training a kid to program the merry chef to cook a burger or a pizza.  It is more than that to say the least.

I am talking about the evolution of what food will mean to people in the very near future beyond that of getting a foot long sandwich for five dollars and the reason they are enticed into buying "vitamin water."  Albeit important, while we dick around teaching a kid the difference between cooking tender and less tender cuts of beef there is an entirely different conversation about meat at Food Science programs like the one at Purdue that has a culinary arts emphasis. 

The simple truth is that customers are going to demand more from the food service industry and our students and those who teach them better be prepared to deliver.  Otherwise, our customers will start dining at some restaurant chain launched by a pharmaceutical company-food giant-bank that decides to launch a new age "health food" restaurant concept that is designed to treat their diabetes, hypertension, etc., in the way I described at the beginning of this blog post.  They will hire our students not to screw it up.

Student Designed Instruction update

The decision to let the students decide how they wanted me to teach the HR course is going absolutely fantastic.  Every day I walk into class I know I am doing something that has 100% buy in from the students because they chose what I am doing on any given day. 

This includes the online quizzes I create after the days that I have lectured over the past two weeks, which they have 36 hours to take. 

Today we reviewed the essays they wrote based on SmartBriefs Workforce, that is free and e-mailed daily to HR professionals and others. The students were to write a short summary on the article they selected and why the information will help them be a better manager someday.  At the start of class, I had them share one or two of the articles they wrote with their neighbor.  I then went around the room and called upon a dozen or so of them to share what they had told their neighbor with the class.  I was able to tie what they read in the SmartBriefs to the information they were given in the lectures (that they had requested to get a basic appreciation of HR) to demonstrate that what I taught them indeed has real world applications.  We had a great time!

You gotta let go of your teaching and give some control to the students!  Let them tell you how they want to be taught and you will actually have a more productive learning environment.  That has been my experience so far.  I just wish I had thought of this 15 years ago so take advantage of it now.  If you have any more questions on what I did to create this class based on student input contact me at any time via e-mail (mlalopa@fooded.org) or phone 765-494-6218.

Bon Teaching!

Looking to Direct a Culinary Program?

Leader in CULINARY ARTS EDUCATION seeks a passionate Academic Department Director for their Texas Campus. Two positions are currently available within the state of Texas.

Campus #1 is well established, with the Department Director having direct responsibility for a large culinary program, as well as full P & L responsibility for its restaurant and deli operations. This well regarded institution is looking for an individual with previous culinary academic management experience, a strong desire to make a difference in the lives of its students, and who possesses a Master’s Degree.

Campus #2 is a newer campus with approximately 300 culinary students. This individual will have a strong influence on the future direction of the program, will assist in creation of the school restaurant, and will be highly involved in promoting their program within the community. The ideal candidate will have experience as an Executive Chef, or as General Manager of a notable hotel chain, or prior culinary academic teaching or management experience. A Master’s Degree is required.

For a confidential conversation that includes more specific detail about these opportunities, please contact Kristin McMahan at 206-466-1041 or Kristin@collegeperformancepartners.com

Kristin McMahan
College Performance Partners
206-466-1041 OFFICE
kristin@collegeperformancepartners.com
http://www.collegeperformancepartners.com/



Teaching Theory

Having taught for some time now and work as faculty consultant for the faculty development center here on campus I have a theory that might predict what students will get out of a class based on the teachers subject matter expertise (SME) and teaching quality.  Knowing this going in, administrators should already know what the students will experience and take great pains to hire faculty (adjunct, permanent, part-time) who will give students a great return on their tuition dollar.

Condition 1:  High SME + High Teaching Quality
This is the best case scenario.  This is when someone who has a great deal of knowledge, skills, and abilities on a given topic is selected to teach a suitable course.  Better still, because the individual is a great teacher there is a higher probability that the students will get a healthy return on their tuition dollar because they will learn what they should about a given subject because it is taught by a skilled teacher.

Condition 2: High SME + Low Teaching Quality
This may be the second best scenario.  The teacher is no doubt high on knowledge, skills and abilities on the subject being taught in a given course but unable to communicate that effectively to students due to limited teaching skill set.  So the students will have access to an expert but not learn as much as they could had they been taught by a more skilled teacher.

Condition 3: Low SME + High Quality Teaching
This may be the third best scenario.  Unfortunately the individual does not know much about the subject being asked to teach but the course has to be taught and nobody else qualified to do it.  The students will experience high quality instruction but what they learn will be deficient or suspect because the person teaching the class does not know much about the subject.  The proverbial "one chapter ahead of the students!"  Sadly, been there, done that!

Condition 4: Low SME + Low Quality Teaching
This is the worst case scenario.  This is when someone is selected to teach a class with little or no knowledge, skills, or abilites to teach the class.  Worse still, the individual is not a very good teacher.  In effect, this is the nightmare scenario for students.  The teacher does not know the subject and a terrible teacher making for a very long term/semester.  Sadly, this condition exists far too often on too many college campuses especially when graduate students are called upon to teach a class for the home department as part of their assistantship, for example. 

What do you think of this theory?  I think it is one that administrators should consider when selecting people to serve as teachers.  It predicts what students will be subjected to when taking a class given the four conditions.  I am also sure that many of you would be able to think back on your education, or knowledge of other teachers, to put names and faces to each condition.

Group Work Video

I was clued into a great video on group work.  It talks about forming and managing student groups to mazimize their experience of working with others on group-assignments.  It is worth 15 minutes of your time to watch if you have not seen one before or a refresher.  You can enjoy this yourself or show to faculty at:

http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/SEI_video.html

Freedom to Teach

Involving the students in designing the way the HR class is to be taught has been liberating to say the least.  Having 20 years of teaching under my belt and tried almost every teaching technique known to human kind has also made this possible.  I am free to teach!

Opening up the class to the possibilities proffered by students got an unexpected boost.  Yesterday I was checking voice mail and ran across a message from Hilton Hotels.  The person calling was from HR and wanted to see if she and Hilton HR could become involved with the class.  I almost jumped out of my chair given what is happening right now to design the HR class.  I was incredulous as she indicated Hilton would help the students with resume writing, job interviewing, getting a job with Hilton and more.  We also talked about doing skype presentations from HR folks to the class.  We talked about them coming to campus or us going to Chicago.  The bottom line being that the phone call could not have come at a more perfect time.  I could not wait to share with the students today.  Which I did at the start of the class.  They were jacked up, too, with the possibilities.

We also nailed down the structure of the quizzes that they gave a unanimous vote to having during the semester.  I am going to essentially put together a quiz after class and give them 24 hours to take it over materials we talked about in class using their notes.  We also agreed on how many case studies they would do involving real problems being experienced right now by those working in HR.  They also agreed on the format for addressing the cases which will involve research.  Hospitality students doing research, never!  Well as it turns out, they are happy to research something that they are interested in researching.  We also discussed what we want guest speakers to do when they come into our class. 

The takeaway.  Same as it was the last blog post. Go for it.  Stop doing the same old mind numbing shit when you teach.  Take all that experience, take a deep breath, and work with your students to teach them what they need to know as a result of taking the class but with their input.  I must tell you that there was no end of class shuffle of jackets and notes today.  We lost track of time.  And so far there are 70 pairs of eyes glued to me as we facilitate what we are going to do to learn HR and satisfy standardized course objectives this semester.  Viva liberacion!

Go Ahead, Take a Risk in Your Teaching

As I indicated on last blog post, I was going to not start my HR class with a well defined syllabus beyond course description and course objectives.  I did indeed do just that in class on Monday and found myself with a very engaged group of 70 junior level students in our program.

I started class by saying that I am constantly being told by students that they are here at Purdue to learn.  The problem is that teachers get in the way of their learning.  I then shared with them the description and objectives we had to meet for the semester.  Then came their first assignment.  They were to complete the following sentence with sufficient detail, "The best class I ever took at Purdue was taught in the following manner:"  I told them they had 10 minutes and we would review what they wrote.  I then left the room putting the class in their hands.

When I returned to class I simply started to go from one student to the next to learn their concept of best practices in teaching.  The discussion was eye opening and the best part of all was that every last student was focused on the discussion!  There was not the usual deadpan look one gets from students on the first day that have learned that their teachers go blah, blah, blah through the syllabus.  This was not the case -- they were starting to design their class.

As I went from student to student we started to get a sense of those things that we will do and those things that we will not do to learn the course objectives.   They do not want exams.  Interestingly enough they want some sort of quiz at the end of the classes.  That was a complete surprise.  They told me it helps them stay focused.  There will be no textbook.  We will generate the content.  We will "go someplace to see HR in action."  We will do case studies.  We will look at current issues facing HR in Hospitality Industry.  They want guest speakers.  They also decided that there will be no need for an attendance policy because we will design a class that students want to go to.  Indeed the students put a lot on the table and we will finalize in the next two classes.  Oh by the way, unbeknownst to me a student had volunteered to become our scribe and handed me notes at the end of class!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The takeaway?  Take some risks in your teaching.  Get your students on board regardless of what you teach or where you teach it.  Build on the message from Daniel Pink's book Drive on the power of intrinsic motivation and apply it to your teaching.  Give your students ownership of their learning and get them to hold themselves accountable to their studies.  You have everything to gain so take a risk, so far I have learned the rewards are great!

Student Designed Instruction

I am going to do something this semester I have been wanting to try for years.  I am going to go out on a limb and walk into my HR class tomorrow with a syllabus that has the description and objectives and assigned text and that is it.  I have no agenda.  I have no lesson plan.  I have no exams scheduled.  Indeed, I have no planned assignments whatsoever for the class ready to go. I am going to leave it up to the students to tell me what they want to do to learn the course objectives!

I am a firm believer in everything that Daniel Pink said in his latest book Drive, that the best motivation is intrinsic.  So I am going to have the students spend the first week working with me on how they want me to teach the class.  I am going to have them decide what it will take to captivate their interest in the subject of HR.  If that means no attendance policy and they can convince me how that will lead to them learning the course objectives, so be it!  If they say no quizzes, so be it!  Of course, if they say no assignments whatsoever then that will be unacceptable, to say the least.  Indeed there has to be a way for them to demonstrate they learned HR because it is a vital management tool.

I intend to keep a journal this semester as to how the course progresses.  But I do believe the students when they say they want to learn the materials, based on my most recent approaches to getting students to evaluate my teaching.  They claim that the problem is that they do not like the way most of their classes are taught.  So now is the time for the students to put their money where their mouth is and prove that they are in college to learn dammit!

I am equally nervous and optimistic and will keep you posted.

Until then, continue to preach the gospel of culinary arts and sciences, my brothers and sisters!  I cannot wait to see you all in Charlotte at the FELC Summit!