EDCI 672 Phillip Cook Overview

Case Analysis: Beth Owens

November 5, 2012

Beth Owens has recently graduated with her Masters in Instructional Design. She has been hired by State College as an instructional designer, and is currently tasked by Dean Jacobs with evaluating existing programs on campus, starting with the Culinary Arts program, headed by Chef Reiner. Beths primary focus is to develop recommendations and action plans for programs, which result in program growth in enrollment, while maintaining high standards of excellence within the coursework. Chef Reiner has already established a wellknown and respected culinary arts program, and is known for being a taskmaster and disciplinarian within the courses he teaches. He produces results though, and Dean Jacobs is proud of the program, wanting only for the enrollment numbers to grow. Beth observes the high quality output of student work at a luncheon, and is constantly pondering how to inject constructivist principles into an obviously behaviorist classroom. A summary of the key stakeholders is shown in table 1 below.
Table 1: Key Stakeholders at State College Key Stakeholder Position Overview and Stance on Training Beth Owens Instructional Fairly new to field of Instructional Design. Strong desire to integrate Designer at State constructivist principles within instruction. College Dean Carlton Dean of State Focus is on analysis of existing programs; any instructional design must Jacobs College enhance retention and maintain quality of program. Results for the Dean would primarily take the form of increased enrollment in programs, though evaluation feedback also seems to play a role. Chef Gerhard Program Chef Reiner has built a well-known and respected program at State College Reiner Director of with focuses on fundamentals and a strict disciplinarian instructional method. Culinary Arts at Chef Reiner is the epitome of a behaviorist, and shows many external signs of State College struggling with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

EDCI 672 Phillip Cook Challenges

Case Specific

Case Analysis: Beth Owens

November 5, 2012

Table 2: Summary of Case Specific Challenges I. Navigate introduction of constructivist principles within an established behaviorist environment. II. Consider the impact of OCD upon changing instructional methodologies. III. Improve student retention rate while maintaining quality of courses. IV. Balance need for professional decorum by students with necessity for growth within program.

Several challenges became apparent within this case study, most glaringly the contrast between Beths desires for constructivist learning with a clearly successful behaviorist implementation by Chef Reiner. In particular, the checklist used by Chef Reiner seems to be a primary issue with Beth, who would rather allow students to learn through experimentation and error, constructing best practice as they progress through the course, guided throughout the process by Chef Reiner. Compounding this issue is the obvious fact that Chef Reiner suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, as indicated by his meticulously organized office and checklist, with components such as aggressively cleans, and fingernails trimmed appearing within the content of the list. Chef Reiner does show evidence that he is willing to change practice to benefit the program however, as he has modified his checklist from the instruction he had originally received when going through culinary school. There is no doubt that changes to his checklist will be met with resistance, particularly with regards to grooming and cleanliness, key components mentioned several times within the case study. Add in to these conflicts the desire of Dean Jacobs to increase program enrollments while maintaining the excellent standards already established by Chef Reiner. Currently, the culinary arts program is cash positive, so increasing enrollment will prove beneficial to the school. Beth certainly must balance the need for program growth with the importance of maintaining the excellent standards already in force within the program with any changes she suggests.

EDCI 672 Phillip Cook

Design Specific Challenges

Case Analysis: Beth Owens

November 5, 2012

Table 3: Design Specific Challenges I. Develop a scaled evaluation for use by Chef Reiner as well as students based upon the student performance checklist based upon established course objectives. II. Revise existing instruction to better meet the needs of students. III. Interview past and present students regarding program feedback and suggestions.

It is clear that, along with the case specific challenges that are present, there are underlying design specific needs that must be addressed. Of primary importance is the need to develop a scaled formative evaluation. This evaluation would encompass the student performance checklist items, and would provide for Chef Reiner to include additional information about how performance in this area can be improved. For example, many of the checklist items are yes or no prompts, such as the uniform components. Others, like cleanliness, have degrees, which would need to be better clarified. Criteria for meeting standards needs to be delineated so that students know what it means to aggressively clean, and this likely needs to be balanced with health guidelines established by the FDA for food handlers. In addition, there is revision in course instruction that must occur. Chef Reiner teaches his courses all in the same behaviorist manner. While new students can benefit from the direct instruction and guidance, advanced culinary students may leave the program if they are not allowed to explore technique within established guidelines. Beth will need to look at the existing course goals, and revise upper level course activities to allow for student creativity. It is possible to create a situation where students have the freedom to explore technique once they have demonstrated mastery in key areas delineated by Chef Reiners checklist as well as other course specific areas. For both the evaluation and course revision, Beth must interview past and present students of Chef Reiner. It is important to obtain feedback from students who left the program, in addition to those who graduated from the program successfully. These interviews will be explicitly helpful in the identification of areas in need of revision. It will be helpful to create an exit evaluation if one does not already exist, for future students so that additional feedback can be obtained about their reaction to instruction.

EDCI 672 Phillip Cook Recommendations

Case Analysis: Beth Owens

November 5, 2012

Table 4: Summary of Recommendations Recommendation I. Revise existing Student Performance Checklist to include formative feedback. Develop method to provide process and performance grades to students. Introduce guided-inquiry activities within courses. Pro Clarifies areas where students are doing well as well as those needing improvement Process grades show progress throughout course and allow for a learning curve. Performance grades allow for the maintenance of high standards, set by Chef Reiner Focus on inquiry allows for increased student freedom, while providing guidance and oversight. Allows for student freedom within the kitchen to explore new flavor combinations. Fosters creativity Provides a hybrid solution, encompassing both behaviorist techniques in lower courses, and constructivist techniques in upper coursework Con Does not allow for the inclusion of constructivist activities Students may not understand the difference between performance and process grades Chef may have reservations about implementing guidedinquiry lessons within the lockstep of his established routines

II. Design constructivist activities for inclusion within culinary arts course programming.

Chef Reiner likely to have greater resistance to changing the pedagogical stance of how course content is taught Content may prove to be too overwhelming for students to discover on their own or as a team Good technique needs an expert to demonstrate and explain

In order to meet the needs of increased program growth as set forth by Dean Jacobs, Beth will need to consider a primary commodity: students. Each of the two recommendations I suggest fundamentally focus on enhancing aspects of the course to better improve the student experience. These recommendations are made such that a balance is struck between changes likely to increase enrollment, with minimizing stress upon Chef Reiner and his OCD, as well as integrating facets of Beths constructivist pedagogical preferences. The first recommendation is to revamp the existing student performance checklist. The checklist can be broken down in concrete items, such as uniforms, timeliness and equipment and more subjective components, like sanitation, appearance and production. For the subjective components, developing a scale with feedback will provide students with additional information to hone their skills and improve overall performance in the class. This checklist improves upon the original used by Chef Reiner by delineating more specific standards to

EDCI 672 Phillip Cook

Case Analysis: Beth Owens

November 5, 2012

the students. Receiving or not receiving a checkmark for teamwork is not as meaningful as receiving a rating of approaching standards on teamwork with a short description on how to improve in future classes. The core criteria suggested for subjective checklist components is as follows: Exceeds Standards Exemplary performance, illustrating concept mastery Meets Standards Expected performance, illustrating concept competency Approaching Standards Below expected performance, illustrating novice understanding and implementation of concept In addition, as students meet standards, guided inquiry activities can be integrated within the course structure. These can be scaffolded such that degrees of inquiry are available based upon student skill level. Primarily these activities would surface with more advanced students within upper level coursework, once they have demonstrated mastery of core culinary concepts. The second recommendation revolves around the development of constructivist activities for inclusion within culinary arts courses. It is not reasonable, nor pedagogically appropriate for students to learn culinary skills solely through constructivist techniques; this would present a high level of frustration to students, as well as a significant health and safety issue. There is evidence in the research community that implementing constructivist techniques is not as effective as more concrete methodologies, such as behaviorist, particularly when dealing with novice learners (Kirschner, Sweller & Clark, 2006). Beth must understand that the need to let students explore must be balanced with their level of culinary competency. To this end, constructivist activities can and should be designed as culminating experiences within the courses, such that students learn and refine technical skill, and then have the opportunity to investigate a new challenge through the use of these skills (Kirschner, Carr, Merrinboer & Sloep, 2002). Building in appropriate constructivist activities allows for increased student creativity, and will prove to be a highlight of courses, as it is during these challenges that students can really shine.

EDCI 672 Phillip Cook

Case Analysis: Beth Owens

November 5, 2012

Final Recommendation & Conclusion

It is recommended that Beth select the first recommendation as she begins to investigate means to enhance the current courses taught by Chef Reiner within the Culinary Arts program at State College. This option presents the opportunity to increase student creativity, provide more detailed feedback to students, while also applying gentle pressure to Chef Reiner to introduce more guided-inquiry scenarios and break out of the behaviorist mindset. A primary benefit of the recommendation focuses on increasing student interaction, creativity and providing necessary feedback for improvement. The first recommendation allows for much of the existing curriculum to remain in force, focusing on refining the delivery and feedback mechanisms for the content. By designing a more appropriate feedback form for each course, students will receive the information they need to improve whether they are just beginning studies in the program, or are further along and primarily focused on mastering and applying specific techniques. The student performance evaluation can be tailored to each individual course, while emphasizing industry standards related to health and safety with regards to food preparation. The recommendation also calls for the injection of guided-inquiry activities. These activities, while more structured than constructivist activities, allow Chef Reiner to serve as facilitator, using his years of experience and expertise as students come up with creative dishes based upon criteria that the Chef chooses. I believe that Chef Reiner will be pleasantly surprised at the ideas that his students can concoct when provided the appropriate opportunity. As with any learning situation, we must always consider the zone of proximal development of the learner when constructing the inquiry activity. Within the context of my science classrooms, I can see analogues to the situation that Chef Reiner currently is in. When dealing with novices, scaffolding is necessary and appropriate pedagogically; the learners need the structure and specific direction with regards to technique whether we are discussing food preparation or chemical investigation. Once students have a base toolkit of skills, a lesson can be designed which allows students the freedom to integrate their

EDCI 672 Phillip Cook

Case Analysis: Beth Owens

November 5, 2012

skills to solve an task or challenge of appropriate difficulty. For example, within the chemistry course that I teach, students are first taught proper lab documentation and information regarding precision and accuracy of lab glassware. Then, we allow students to determine a protocol to measure the density of a sample of matter as accurately and precisely as possible. This would be an inappropriate task to administer if students had no prior knowledge of accuracy, precision or lab equipment. In a similar manner, culinary students must learn basics about cleanliness, kitchen equipment and protocols before they can effectively devise a dish of their own within a simulated restaurant setting. For Beth, this recommendation will likely be bittersweet. Her desire to change learning tactics must be balanced by research-based approaches that work, or else she risks designing materials that detract from the quality of the program, as well as distance Chef Reiner from the college. In this setting, Chef is the subject matter expert, and she must defer to his techniques, while suggesting appropriately stepped changes in order to end up with a more attractive and effective program for State College. This end result will please Dean Jacobs because of increased enrollment, will help Chef Reiner break out of his fixed mindset regarding his pedagogy, and provide Beth with a challenge to design effective inquiry activities for use within an already exceptional program.

EDCI 672 Phillip Cook

References:

Case Analysis: Beth Owens

November 5, 2012

Kirschner, P. A., Sweller, J., & Clark, R. E. (2006). Why minimal guidance during instruction does not work: An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry-based teaching.Educational psychologist, 41(2), 75-86. Kirschner, P., Carr, C., Merrinboer, J., & Sloep, P. (2002). How expert designers design. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 15(4), 86-104.