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!