I have been employed as a Catering Lecturer at Otago Polytechnic for the past 18 months.
I started my G.C.T.L.T. last year and have only recently started to do any reading on teaching/learning styles or teaching theory.
Before looking at material from these courses I would have put my teaching style into just the one "pigeon hole" that would have been the "Behaviorist model" Operant conditioning where there is reinforcement of behavior by reward or a punishment, (B.F. Skinner, Science and Human Behavior 1953) also known as Radical Behaviorism.
I think this comes directly from the disciplined training i myself gained as an apprentice chef where that style of teaching in the work place was the norm.
My views have since changed with reading more on the subject and by talking to other lecturers in my department.
The next reading i looked at was "Constructivism" under the heading of cognitive learning. Views learning actively and builds on ideas based on past experience or knowledge. When students come to us to study catering the experiences they bring with them (as most are employed in hospitality) is always built upon and expanded from both sides, teaching and learning.
The "Humanist" approach looks at the person as a whole, looking at the unlimited potential for human growth. I did look at Abraham Maslows "Hierarchy of needs" http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/maslow.html
and can see that of course this fits into everyones, everyday wants and needs but in looking at my own specific course needs, time constraints and things like HSI and NZQA requirements, a more structured course regime may be required.
The philosophy I would prefer to single out, and the philosophy i believe fits into my teaching is "Social constructionism" I would reference Peter L Berger and Thomas Luckmann, The social construction of reality.
All knowledge, including the most basic, taken for granted common sense knowledge of everyday reality, is derived from and maintained by social interactions. When people interact they do so with the understanding that their respective perceptions of reality are related, and as they act upon this understanding their common knowledge of reality becomes reinforced.
The above is a perfect fit for teaching best practice in a kitchen. We must all work as a team with the goal to complete together, with everyone participating in a first class finished product, within time constraints and set quality guidelines as set out by policy, food safety and traditional methodology.
My next reference is kolbs learning styles. I think his diagram "kolbs diagram"
fits into the Social constructive theory. As far as it pertains to my course, it is the way we would approach any task, recipe or demonstration.
The example i would like to give of Social constructivism in my teaching is the attached assignment for commodities where the students work out of a partly random box of ingredients and drawing on all members experience and ideas in their groups, come up with and present a new dish within given guidelines using the set spice or herb mixes.
This encourages full participation from everyone and gets every student (and teacher) working together and communicating.
To sum up, I think the environment we offer accommodates several learning styles from the passive "need to know" through to the self paced, ipod learning of video demonstration. I believe all my students have a voice in their own learning with set knowledge based guides throughout the course. The experience the learner brings, along with the wealth of experience available throughout our department gives every opportunity to our students and develops the tutors knowledge and experience along with them.
References:
B.F. Skinner - Radical Behaviorism, 1953
Abraham Maslow - Toward a Psychology of Being, 1968
Peter L Berger and Thomas Luckmann - The social construction of reality, 1966
David Kolb - Learning styles model, 1984
