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.