For this assignment, I decided to create an infographic because I had never created one before and I wanted to challenge myself to design a poster that would look unique while being engaging and informative but not overwhelming in information overload. I loved the challenge of keeping to a simple colour palette and finding interesting ways to add graphical elements that were true to my cloud and education themes. Also, I chose word clouds as my topic because it is a strategy that I had not had a chance to use before and I wanted to learn how I could use this tool in my classrooms. Please find my infographic below. Because of its file size, it might be difficult to read, so I have also included a link to my project if you would like a closer look and read.
Please click on the link below for a closer look at my project:
PIDP 3260 – BLOG POST – PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
As I near completion in the PIDP with just one more course to go plus my capstone project, I still don’t feel like a professional teacher because I am lacking in actual classroom teaching time. As an auxiliary instructor, filling in for a day or two, here and there, makes it difficult to really get into the flow of teaching a classroom, especially when I am teaching a different unit each time.
(Photo courtesy of https://www.vcc.ca/programs/artisan-baking/)
So, while I do have some free time before I can become a full-time pastry instructor, I would like to address my lack of experience in hands-on bread production. In the world of baking, there are quite a few paths to consider when it comes to specialization and when I decided to focus on pastries, I wanted to work in hotels so I could get exposed to as many facets of the industry as possible. Therefore, I learned to work in fine dining restaurants, making plated desserts and ice creams, as well as working on big banquets and setting up buffets while learning to make croissants and danishes from scratch. And when I opened my pastry shop, I specialized in working with chocolate and sugar and making custom cakes and wedding cakes along with teaching myself how to make sugar flowers. But the one area I never felt comfortable in was bulk bread production so I would never claim to be an expert boulanger. There are many bread making classes and workshops available locally and around North America, but luckily, we have one of the best master bakers teaching at VCC, so I would look to sit in on a week of his artisan baking classes to learn firsthand from the master himself. Additionally, I will need to do some reading and research to help fortify my background knowledge about the science behind artisan breads and not until then will I feel fully comfortable in teaching students about bread making.
As an instructor, I know that there is much that I have to learn so I will be looking at all available resources to help me become a better instructor. One area that I would like to focus on is increasing my teaching skills in the kitchen labs. I know that I can rely on my experience training my employees when it comes to teaching one on one skills, but it is a little bit different when you have a group of 16 students surrounding you as you demonstrate a recipe. I find that I need to have a greater awareness of how each student is absorbing my lesson and making sure that everyone is able to see and understand what I am trying to teach them. Therefore, I will need to do some research and read about strategies that will help me ensure that my students are all engaged in my demonstration and of course, practice makes perfect, so just being able to do demonstrations for students again and again, will help me become better at this skill.
(Photo courtesy of https://stock.adobe.com/ca/search?k=baking%20class)
In terms of books on teaching that I would like to read in the near future, here is a list of some books that have been recommended to me by my instructors in the PIDP and other fellow instructors:
(All book photos courtesy of amazon.ca)
“Facilitating Learning with the Adult Brain in Mind” by Kathleen Taylor and Catherine Marienau discusses the physiology and neuroscience behind how the brain works and how emotions are necessary for meaningful learning to occur.
“Teaching What You Don’t Know” by Therese Huston talks about teaching a course where one is not a subject matter expert and how teaching comes down to how one engages their students in the course material, despite one’s inexperience or lack of knowledge.
“Powerful Teaching - Unleash the Science of Learning” by Pooja Agarwal and Patrice Bain discusses the science of learning and they present highly accessible step-by-step guidance on how to transform teaching with four essential strategies: Retrieval practice, spacing, interleaving, and feedback-driven metacognition.
“What the Best College Teachers Do” by Ken Bain gathers insights from nearly one hundred college and university teachers across all fields of study to explain that its not what teachers do but what they understand, and that is, how to engage and challenge students and involve them in their learning.
(Image courtesy of https://unsplash.com/illustrations/little-boy-reading-books-kid-character-studying-visiting-college-or-preschool-learning-classes-school-child-in-library-back-to-school-education-knowledge-concept-cartoon-vector-illustration-Qqq2wJkv0Es)
PIDP 3260 – BLOG POST – ETHICAL DILEMMA: THE BURGER MURDERS
While doing some research for this week’s assignment, I came across this interesting ethical dilemma created by George Siedel and Christine Ladwig on TED-Ed Animations, called the Burger Murders, and the video can be watched below:
From the video’s discussion page is a quick summary of the ethical dilemma:
“Your meatless burger company’s brand was a rising star before a criminal tampered with the product in grocery stores. Now three people who ate the burgers are dead, and you are faced with the difficult task of deciding what to do in response. What’s the most ethical strategy you can devise to save your company and balance the interests of customers, investors and employees?
Businesses frequently struggle to make ethically-responsible decisions that minimize legal risk for their organizations, employees, and customers. Choosing among legally-compliant options while balancing stakeholder interests is often complex and challenging. Ideally, business leaders hope that their decisions are both legal and ethical, and will also create value in the company that ultimately benefits all stakeholders.” (https://ed.ted.com/lessons/ethical-dilemma-the-burger-murders-george-siedel-and-christine-ladwig/digdeeper)
Having worked in the food and hospitality industry for the majority of my career, this case study was fascinating to watch. My first reaction was that the company has to look after the safety of all their worldwide customers because customer safety is paramount. Without customers, your business will not survive. And if your customers do not have confidence in the safety of your product, then you will not have customers and again, your business will not survive. To ensure consumer confidence, despite the financial hit, your business will survive in the long run by maintaining the safety of your customers (pulling products worldwide) and in the end, will win the PR and image war. And with the real world example of the tampered Tylenol bottles and how Johnson & Johnson devised their response, this seems like the best workable solution to this dilemma.
(Photo courtesy of https://news.wttw.com/2022/09/28/reporters-revisit-tylenol-murders-40-years-later-new-developments-emerge)
In the rest of the educational background write up, they discuss the values involved in business-related ethical dilemmas and the decision tree or analytical tool devised by the Dr. George Siedel for businesses.
“The model focuses on the key foundations for decisions in business, politics, non-profit organizations, and everyday life: strategy, law and ethics (the Three Pillars)…The Three Pillar model is especially valuable when making business decisions, and you begin the process by devising a strategy that aligns with value creation for your company… After devising a legally-compliant strategy, you next conduct an ethics analysis. To do this, work through these four steps of ethical decision making: (1) describe the ethical dilemma, (2) identify the stakeholders involved, (3) analyze options (including how each group of stakeholders will be affected—the stakeholder analysis), and (4) make a decision based on your analysis. To help you in examining the ethics of a potential decision, you may apply the tests included in the video, such as the Utilitarian Test, the Newspaper Test, the Family Test, and the Mentor Test.”
This is the first time I had ever heard about these “tests”, and they seem like great questions to help analyze one’s thinking. The following descriptions are taken from the transcript of the video (bold emphasis is mine):
“First is the Utilitarian Test: Utilitarianism is a philosophy concerned with maximizing the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people.
What would be the impact of each option on these terms?
Second is the Family Test:
How would you feel explaining your decision to your family?
Third is the Newspaper Test:
How would you feel reading about it on the front page of the local newspaper?
And finally, you could use the Mentor Test:
If someone you admire were making this decision, what would they do?”
(Photo courtesy of https://nataliaperaita.com/ethical-dilemmas-in-coaching/)
And now, after a week of thinking about ethical dilemmas and talking about Assignment #3 with my partner, I think that any type of decision tree or framework is important to helping organize one’s thinking about possible solutions to their dilemma, but I think the most beneficial is being able to discuss all the various points of view with someone else. It really expanded my thinking after having the discussion with my partner, and allowed me to improve my answer. I still don’t know if my solution was the best solution, but it is the solution I would enact and I would be willing to live with all of its consequences. And I believe that that is the true answer to any dilemma...being able to live with the consequences.
PIDP 3260 – BLOG POST – PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS
(Photo courtesy of https://depositphotos.com/photos/teacher-thinking.html)
After I closed my shop in October 2023, I decided pretty quickly that I wanted to pursue a career in teaching. Baking and the pastry arts are my passion, and I wanted to stay within the industry but in a capacity where I could inspire and pass along my lifelong passion to a new generation of pastry chefs. So, I enrolled into the PIDP as I had no formal teaching experience and within a year, I was hired as an auxiliary instructor in VCC’s Baking and Pastry Arts department. It’s been an amazing learning experience as a student in the PIDP and as a new instructor, learning everything I can about the curriculum, the course materials, the students and student engagement.
As with most of us enrolled in the PIDP, my schedule is super busy with work and school assignments, so I haven’t thought about what my future will look like in five years from now, but I hope it’s as a full-time instructor at VCC. Holding to this assumption, I hope that I will have established myself as a positive, reliable and forward-thinking member of the department. On a professional level, I would like to be helping to modernize and update the course materials within the curriculum and making sure everything is in alignment with the standards set by Skilled Trades BC. There are much more experienced instructors than I who would be more suited to this task, but with their busy schedule, I don’t know how much time they are willing to invest to make these changes, so I believe that I can help out and contribute positively to this process. Personally, I would like to bring my bread baking skills and knowledge up to the level of my pastry skills. And with this increased knowledge, I can become a more seasoned presenter of course materials during theory classroom sessions that continually engages and motivates my students. And in the kitchen labs, I would like to present demonstrations with active learning techniques that addresses my students’ diversity of learning styles.
(Photo courtesy of https://www.thinkteaching.co.uk/how-to-set-smart-goals-as-a-teaching-assistant-with-6-examples/)
So, what are some of the SMART goals that I have, to help me achieve my vision? First, and most obvious, I would like to be hired as a full-time instructor. Timeframe-wise, this goal is flexible as I know there could be one or two instructors who are eligible to retire soon but the timing is not exact. And with the funding issues for post-secondary institutions in Canada, staying employed is not always guaranteed, but with my department’s current enrolment being full and most student intakes being domestic in nature, I am hopeful that the department will keep going at current levels, if not growing in the future. So, with some luck, good student reviews, and recognition of the hard work, seriousness and effort I am putting into each teaching assignment, I hope I can achieve this goal with an offer to become a full-time faculty member in the near future.
Second, I need to increase my content knowledge about bread baking as this is the subject area that I am weakest. As a pastry chef, I have been focused on baking cakes and making desserts, creating wedding cakes and working with chocolate and gumpaste, but throughout my career, I do not have much experience in bread making. Therefore, I would look for professional bread courses or workshops to increase my knowledge and skills or possibly sit in on one of the artisan bread instructors during their classes to pick up some tips. And depending on when I would be hired as a full-time instructor, and workshop availabilities, this goal could be achieved within two to three years. In the meantime, I will need to do my own research and read textbooks on bread making as well. Personally, I will need to be as comfortable and instinctual with bread making as I am with making chocolates and sugar flowers in order to feel satisfied with my level of mastery of the content.
And my third goal is to increase student engagement within my kitchen labs and lectures. After doing demonstrations, students are usually practicing the skills I am showing them, but I know I can improve how I explain concepts and instruct them, so every student understands clearly what I am trying to teach them. As they practice, they are physically engaged, but my challenge is to keep them cognitively engaged and focused on their learning and honing their skills. And during theory classroom sessions, I would like to increase engagement by using different techniques centered around group learning and peer instruction. Within a one-hour theory session, I would prefer to chunk their learning rather then reading off of a PowerPoint presentation with no breaks. By breaking up each lesson into a small theory session, then an activity, some more theory, and another activity, I hope to keep them constantly engaged. And with the use of a weekly feedback questionnaire, I will be able to monitor and measure how my engagement techniques are working by asking specific questions targeting these issues. Once I am able to teach on a regular basis, this will be easier to measure and hopefully, be achieved within a year though I know that this will be a constant challenge with each new group of learners.
Finally, while doing some research into creating SMART professional goals for teachers, I found this great resource from the Alberta Teachers’ Association where they have created a variety of templates for teachers to choose how they would like to present their SMART goals in a professional development plan. Please follow the link above to explore some different ways to help organize your professional growth plan.
BLOG POST – Teaching Methods for Inspiring the Students of the Future | Joe Ruhl | TEDxLafayette
In this charming TED talk by biology teacher Joe Ruhl, from Jefferson High School in Lafayette, Indiana, he outlines his 6 C’s of teaching that will engage students and inspire them to be better learners. The 6 C’s are Choice, Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, Creativity and Caring. His approach moves away from teacher-centered to more student-centered learning and focuses on the students choosing what and how they would like to learn for each unit as he provides them with a menu of various learning activities from educational games to computer tutorials. Many of these activities require the students to collaborate with each other, where they are communicating and thinking critically about their projects. Then at the end of each unit, they are required to create an arts and entertainment presentation to show what they have learned about a subject they have studied. In the end, it’s all about how much we teachers care about our students learning and how we will inspire and motivate them. By making them the focus of our classroom, the students will take control of their learning as we stand back and guide them with our passion for the subject.
This video really makes me think about how I can spend the time I spend teaching theory into a more student-centered approach, even if there will be push back from students because I am not teaching as they are normally used to. As an auxiliary instructor, my challenge is that I do not have much notice ahead of time to be properly prepared for each teaching assignment and most of the time I only teach for a day or two. But once I am a full-time instructor, I will look to introduce more activities that center around the students being engaged with the course material, versus me lecturing at the front of the class.
PIDP 3260 - BLOG POST - SOME THOUGHTS ON BROOKFIELD’S CHAPTER 16: UNDERSTANDING STUDENTS' RESISTANCE TO LEARNING
(Photo courtesy of https://thesocietypages.org/sociologysource/2011/07/05/student-resistance-paralysis-and-rage/)
As a new auxiliary instructor, I cannot say that I have much experience with resistant students in my kitchen lab or classroom. So far, most of the classes that I have taught have been in the middle to later units in the course, so the students in my class have chosen to be there because they are interested in baking and pastries and wish to graduate with their baking diplomas. For a Red Seal trade like baking, there is normally a waiting list to enter the program, so everyone that enrolls and registers at VCC has paid tuition and paid for their tools and textbooks. So, it could be fair to say that most of the students are invested in the course.
Despite this financial investment, sometimes there are students that decide to leave the program after a month or two because the course didn’t meet their expectations or they did not match well with the type of work that is involved, or they were not doing well academically with the weekly homework assignments and quizzes. Therefore, it’s possible they were not fully emotionally or cognitively invested in this course as they thought they would be. For others, they may be resistant learners because they are not keeping up with the reading of assigned material in their textbooks or they question why they must understand the science behind baking and all its extensive terminology when all they want to do is bake bread or decorate cakes. As I have not yet had the chance to instruct any of the beginning levels of the program, I have not encountered students that are resistant learners, thus, I feel ill-informed to provide a proper opinion on this topic is not pure speculation and guesswork.
(Photo courtesy of https://www.facebook.com/groups/507231329632837/)
The only frame of reference that I have to this topic would be my time at UBC as a student where I was taking a 3rd year biochemistry class. I barely managed to pass this course because I ended up skipping classes due to the boring lecture style my professor would inflict upon us. It didn’t help that he was basically reading notes from the textbook off of his overhead projector. Also, I would have to sprint across campus from my English class, and barely make it to the lecture on time, just to sit in the back of a 300-seat lecture hall and not disturb anyone. I believe that I would have classified myself as a resistant learner in that specific class because that was my worst learning experience ever. It’s a miracle that I passed the exams! When I think back on that class now, I can laugh about it, but from an educational point of view, there was nothing funny nor skillful about that professor and sadly, I don’t think he really cared about being an engaging teacher either.
(Photo courtesy of https://dailyillini.com/opinions-stories/2016/01/31/lecture-hall-etiquette-101/)
For some further reading or listening, I found this great podcast called Truth for Teachers and the host speaks with Dr. Robyn Jackson about barriers to motivation (instructional, institutional, interpersonal, internal) and the need to have students believe that classrooms are worth investing in.
You can break motivation barriers for disengaged students by recognizing that motivation is an investment decision. Students have time, atte
SOME THOUGHTS ON CHAPTER 18: EXERCISING TEACHER POWER RESPONSIBLY
Dear fellow instructors… some days, don’t you wish teaching was as simple as pulling out a sword like Prince Adam, transforming into He-Man, and saying “I HAVE THE POWER…to make you into the best students ever!!!”
I know, this is a silly example, but this image just popped into my head when thinking about the word ‘power’ and how it relates to the classroom. Sometimes, the life of a teacher or instructor can be a comedy of errors and there are days when we wish we had superpowers and the ability to solve all our challenges with the snap of a finger.
As a new auxiliary instructor, there have been many challenges, big and small, and walking into a new classroom with every new assignment means wrestling with the idea of “power” and my authority as a teacher. Being a pastry instructor, I think there is a natural deference from students towards their instructor as the culinary arts are based on the traditional master and apprentice training model. From my working days, whenever the chef or sous chef would walk into the kitchen, all the cooks would straighten-up a bit, look more attentive, and be ready with a “Yes, Chef!” to all requests and directions.
Similarly, as I wait in my kitchen lab for my students to arrive, there is instant recognition when the students walk in, and I hear similar greetings of “Morning Chef” or a head nod from some. I don’t know if it’s the instinctual recognition of the way we wear our chef’s jacket or where we stand in the front of the class, but you do feel that you’re in a position of power in the classroom. But power can feel like a mirage sometimes so, I always greet every student with a “Good Morning!” and a smile and show them that I am not there to be an authoritarian but to be what Brookfield calls, an “authoritative ally” (p.43).
But, there are a couple of quotes from this chapter that speak to me…
“[There] is one thing you can depend on in your life as a teacher. There is the power of your own positional title, the power accorded you because of your training or qualifications, the power you demonstrate through the command of your subject or skill set, and the power grounded in your particular personality” (p.241).
As a trades instructor, I feel like we do rely on our qualifications and years of experience to justify our authority and power, because that is how we rose up the ranks in the workforce and within our industry. It’s like a badge of honour that we wear proudly. So, when I enter a new classroom or kitchen lab, my experience allows me to have the confidence to speak to my students and teach them as if I were training my own employees. It is the safety net of my experience that allows me to teach without fear and to train my students with a steady hand.
“We also exercise power in the way we run a class, in how we enact our classroom management. Students watch us carefully to see how we deal with classroom events” (p.243)
To me, classroom management is arriving to each day with a plan in mind, to always be prepared, and to be intentional in everything we do. And I do believe that students can and will notice if you are prepared or unprepared for the day. I also believe that any power that I use or enact, must be earned. As an auxiliary instructor, I don’t feel like I have any inherent “real authority” or “power”, other than to teach the course material to the best of my abilities, and to follow the regular instructor’s lesson plans. But what I do have control over, is how I engage my students and facilitate their learning. And I know if I do a good job at that, my students will appreciate my efforts and my preparedness and they will hopefully learn to the best of their abilities.
PIDP 3260 - BLOG POST ON BROOKFIELD CHAPTER 8: TEACHING IN DIVERSE CLASSROOMS
(Photo courtesy of https://www.123rf.com/clipart-vector/diverse_teens_school.html)
I am proud to be Canadian, having been born and raised here in Vancouver. And I consider myself to be so lucky that my parents immigrated to Canada back in the 1960’s. Now, as an instructor at Vancouver Community College, I am privileged to be living and teaching in the city and the country that I love. To me, diversity in the classroom, from a cultural and racial point of view, is a natural way of life for someone who lives and teaches in Canada and especially in Vancouver. I do not deny that I grew up with racism and that racism still exists everywhere we live and persists to this day, but in a country and city as diverse as ours, there is a co-existence and multiculturalism and acceptance of one another here, that makes other parts of the world envious of what we have.
(Photo courtesy of https://www.mcislanguages.com/mcis-blog/canada-the-multicultural-mosaic/)
In the various classrooms that I have taught, there has definitely been a diversity of cultures, and ages, and experiences, and learning abilities. But this mixture of students creates an authentic learning environment that mimics real life and real workplaces where my students will one day be joining. And so far, in my limited teaching experiences, I have mainly seen teamwork, cooperation ,and open communication without many differences or conflicts coming to the fore. I know that this may not normally be the case and that our diverse classrooms can lead to some differences and some conflicts even, but from what I have seen, most conflicts come about more from personality clashes than from racial or cultural biases.
In Chapter 8, Brookfield talks about several approaches to teaching a diverse classroom environment and one includes mixing student groups. As with most schools and classroom, I observe students dividing themselves into cliques or groups where they are familiar with each other and this is just natural. But to help them learn what it is like to work with people they do not normally associate with, I like to divide them into mixed groups for different learning activities versus letting them choose their own groups. I learned this technique from my trades-specific PIDP courses and there are many ways to group learners so that they benefit from working and learning from each other.
(Photo courtesy of https://en.99designs.fr/illustrations/contests/fun-creative-illustration-about-flexible-teacher-1076258)
Another aspect of teaching diverse classrooms is that we as teachers need to be flexible and adaptable in our teaching. This is definitely a skill that I am working on and learning as I go. While my approach to delivering a demonstration may work for most of my students, there will be others who do not follow or are unable to follow how I explain things. Therefore, I need to find different ways to explain what I am try to teach so that everyone is able to learn. I feel this responsibility keenly and learning to adapt my teaching is extremely important to me, especially with a diverse classroom of diverse student learners.
From my reading of Brookfield’s Chapter 4, the concept of an authoritative ally is not a term that I have heard of before, but it sounds like something that an effective teacher should strive to be and consequently, something that I would like to be to my students. Brookfield states that “[a]s an ally, students want to know that their teachers are genuinely concerned with helping them learn… and that you’re dealing honestly with them in an adult way” (p. 42).
An Authoritative Ally: Credibility and Authenticity
He defines credibility as “the perception that the teacher has something important to share and that whatever this ‘something’ is (skills, knowledge, insight, wisdom, information), learning it will benefit the student” (p. 43). Brookfield then defines authenticity as “the perception that the teacher is dealing with students in an open and honest way… They are also regarded as flesh-and-blood human beings with passions, enthusiasms, frailties, and emotions. From a student’s viewpoint both credibility and authenticity need to be present in a teacher if that person is to be seen as an important enhancer of learning – as an authoritative ally in other words” (p. 43).
In doing some research into authenticity and credibility in teaching, I found this engaging video by Teacher ACER where an Australian music teacher talks about the value and authenticity in teaching.
And on the Mentoria Blog, Reyaa Agarwal (2023) lists “[the] four crucial steps to help you pave the way for a classroom brimming with credibility and rapport”. And here are some excerpts from her list:
Authenticity: The Genuine Connection
“Being authentic isn’t about being flawless; it’s about being real. When you let your students see the real you—the passionate educator with dreams, quirks, and a genuine love for teaching—it builds a connection that no facade can mimic.
Authenticity in the classroom is about being true to yourself and your students. It’s about letting your personality and passion shine through. Share your experiences, both successes and challenges. Don’t hesitate to laugh at a mistake or share a personal story that relates to the lesson—it humanises you.
In a recent study, 85% of students stated that they learn better from teachers they perceive as authentic. This authenticity translates into trust, with 90% of students believing that authentic teachers genuinely care about their success. Let your authenticity be your North Star, guiding you through the teaching cosmos.”
Competence: The Wisdom Beacon
“Competence is about showcasing your knowledge and skills… Students believe that a teacher’s competence significantly influences their credibility. And when you possess expertise, your students are more likely to engage with the subject, boosting retention rates. So, keep refining your knowledge and skills; it’s the lighthouse that guides your students safely to the shores of understanding.”
Fairness: The Balance Beam
“Fairness is about treating all your students impartially and justly. Understand that each student has their unique strengths, weaknesses, and circumstances. Tailor your approach to accommodate these differences. Provide equal opportunities for success, making sure that grading, assignments, and participation are fair for everyone… Communicate your expectations clearly and consistently.”
Empathy: The Heartbeat Of Connection
“Empathy is about understanding and relating to the emotions and experiences of your students. Put yourself in their shoes to comprehend the challenges they face—academic, personal, or emotional. Show genuine interest in their lives and concerns… According to a study, 94% of students believe that an empathetic teacher greatly enhances their learning experience. Empathy nurtures a culture of understanding, compassion, and open communication, paving the path to a classroom where every student feels seen, heard, and valued.”
We're about to dive into the heart of building teacher credibility, a journey filled with fascinating insights and real-life strategies.
Reflecting on these ideas and in my teaching context as an auxiliary instructor, I do not usually have the luxury of an extended period of time to establish myself as an authoritative ally, so it is something that I must project to the students with my first introduction. With my 30 years of experience as a pastry chef, I am very comfortable in a pastry kitchen/bakery environment, so I feel at right at home in the kitchen lab and speaking to and leading the students as if they are my pastry staff. And from my studies in the Trades-Specific Training courses, one major tenet that I have adopted is to teach with intentionality in everything I do; therefore, I need to be prepared before my teaching day and to setup my day’s lessons or demonstrations in a way that leads to my students’ best learning. By showing my preparedness, forethought, and organization over the start of the day, my students can feel comforted that I have a plan for them and have not arrived to school unprepared. And when I am in the kitchen lab, I am able act naturally and be myself in an authentic manner. Accordingly, I make sure to learn and use the students’ names as quickly as possible, and to smile and talk to them in an encouraging manner while being responsive to any questions they may have. I also speak to them honestly, as an auxiliary instructor, so if I am not familiar with the specific recipes we are using, I will tell them and if I am not sure of anything else, I will make sure to find out the answers to their questions or concerns from other instructors or the instructional assistants. And so far, with my limited teaching experience, I believe that I have been successful in being an authoritative ally to my students as they have accepted me openly and without many reservations as I will see some of my past students in the hallways, in between classes, and they will greet me warmly as if I was a regular faculty member.
PIDP 3260 – BLOG POST – BROOKFIELD CHAPTER 2 – THE CORE ASSUMPTIONS OF SKILLFUL TEACHING
After reading Chapter 2 of the Skillful Teacher, I basically agree with Brookfield’s 4 core assumptions on what constitutes skillful teaching, but I can only comment and compare it to my own teaching context which is quite new and limited as an auxiliary instructor.
Assumption #1: Skillful Teaching is Whatever Helps Students Learn
As a trades instructor, most of our day is spent in the kitchen lab either doing demonstrations or watching students practice the recipe or products that I have just demonstrated. So, as I walk among the students, it is quite evident to see which students have “got it” while others are struggling or having challenges. This is where I find I must be adaptable and be able to explain or demonstrate a technique or recipe in different ways to different students so that they can understand what is required. And sometimes it is during these teaching moments that I have my own “Aha!” moment about a new way to demonstrate and explain something. So, rather than being a negative, doing whatever it takes to help students learn is a positive experience that helps me to become a better teacher.
Assumption #2: Skillful Teachers Adopt a Critically Reflective Stance Toward Their Practice
Being a new instructor, I am always looking for ways to improve my craft and I appreciate all ideas, comments, and critiques of my work, whether from students, colleagues, or my instructors. And since I started working as a pastry chef, I developed a habit to always take notes when I learn new recipes and techniques and that has continued throughout my time in the PIDP and my new career as a teacher. But more specifically, from a teaching point of view, I always take time after class to reflect and write down notes on each teaching day and I try to be honest with myself about what went well during the day and what didn’t go as smoothly as planned. Since I have such a sporadic schedule where I might teach one day in two months to one week the next month, my notes help me to keep track of my progress and to remember what is necessary to do my job well. In the future when I have a permanent position, I may not need to write as many notes as I do now, but I will strive to be a critically reflective practitioner that continues to improve little by little and day by day.
Assumption #3: Teachers Need a Constant Awareness of How Students Are Experiencing Their Learning and Perceiving Teachers’ Actions
As an auxiliary instructor, I have not had the opportunity to teach a regular classroom with the same students for an extended period, so I feel less qualified to comment knowledgably on this assumption. But when I do teach, I do ask my students at the end of each class if they have any comments, questions or critiques about my teaching and I usually get some nods, or quiet comments like “Everything is good” but mainly there is silence as I look around the room. And I guess that’s to be expected in my situation. But thinking of what I might try in the future, the use of anonymous comment cards that I hand out and ask for written comments may lead to more promising results than just a verbal survey of my class.
Assumption #4: College Students of Any Age Should Be Treated as Adults
Having taught a variety of classes so far, my students have ranged from Grade 12 high school students in the Youth in Trades program to young adults in their 20’s to older students exploring their 2nd or 3rd careers in their 50’s. But no matter their ages, I agree that they should all be treated equally as adults who are responsible for their own learning and all the expectations that are required of students today. From a teaching perspective, I think of my students as if they were my employees in my shop, so I will treat them with the same care and respect as any other adult I am training and hold them to an industry standard that will help them feel confident in the skills they are learning. Along with their individual skills, I have my students work collaboratively in pairs, in groups, and as a class, because teamwork is a must when entering any bakery or pastry shop environment and is a skill that will benefit them throughout their careers.
PIDP 3260: JUST SOME THOUGHTS ON MY PROFESSIONAL VALUES AS AN INSTRUCTOR
After my initial post recapping my PIDP journey over the past year and a half, I just wanted to expand on the professional values that guide me as an instructor. As both an adult learner in the PIDP and a new auxiliary instructor, my experiences in formal teaching environments is quite limited, so I rely on my years of experience teaching and training new employees when I owned my pastry shop. For the most part, I preferred to hire graduating baking and pastry students, usually from VCC, that had been working with my team during their 4-week work practicums. In essence, their work practicums became 4-week auditions to see how well they worked, how quickly they learned new recipes and skills, and how well they fit into our team. Thus, I was able to continually add great, hard-working talent to my team when needed, while also offering an authentic learning experience to many pastry students over our 20 years in operation.
(Photo courtesy of https://www.tastingtable.com/695685/best-french-pastries-paris-eclair-macarons/)
With these new hires and new additions to our team, I was continually teaching and training while supervising my senior staff as they learned to teach and train our new employees as well. Therefore, my professional values as an instructor stem from my years as a pastry chef and this colours how I view my role as an instructor. One thing I tell all my students after I introduce myself, is that I will treat them and train them as if they were my own employees working in my shop. Therefore, I will instruct them in an authentic manner that will prepare them to enter the industry, and I always try to provide real-world context to what I am demonstrating so the students can trust that what they are learning is authentic to our industry. And being a trades instructor where most of our teaching occurs in the kitchen lab, our hands-on teaching methods mirror exactly how we would teach in any bakery or pastry kitchen.
(Photo courtesy of https://tradesappliedtech.viu.ca/apprenticeship/professional-baking-and-pastry-arts-apprenticeship)
So it is not much of a surprise that when I took the Teaching Perspectives Inventory assessment (http://www.teachingperspectives.com/tpi/) to get an idea of what my philosophical view on teaching is, my dominant perspective was Apprenticeship, followed by Nurturing. From the Teaching Perspectives website, the Apprenticeship perspective is where “[e]ffective teaching requires that learners perform authentic tasks within their 'zone of development'. Good teachers are highly skilled practitioners of what they teach. Whether in classrooms or at work sites, they are recognized for their expertise. Teachers must reveal the inner workings of skilled performance and must translate it into accessible language and an ordered set of tasks which usually proceed from simple to complex, allowing for different points of entry depending upon the learner's capability. Good teachers know what their learners can do on their own and where they need guidance and direction; they engage learners within their 'zone of development'. As learners mature and become more competent, the teacher's role changes; they offer less direction and give more responsibility as students progress from dependent learners to independent workers.”
Additionally, the Nuturing perspective espouses that “[e]ffective teaching assumes that long-term, hard, persistent effort to achieve comes from the heart, not the head. People become motivated and productive learners when they are working on issues or problems without fear of failure. Learners are nurtured in knowing that. (a) they can succeed at learning if they give it a good try; (b) their achievement is a product of their own effort and ability, rather than the benevolence of a teacher; and (c) their learning efforts will be supported by both teacher and peers. Good teachers care about their students and understand that some have histories of failure resulting in lowered self-confidence. However, they make no excuses for learners. Rather, they encourage their efforts while challenging students to do their very best by promoting a climate of caring and trust, helping people set challenging but achievable goals, and supporting effort as well as achievement. Good teachers provide encouragement and support, along with clear expectations and reasonable goals for all learners but do not sacrifice self-efficacy or self-esteem for achievement. Their assessments of learning consider individual growth as well as absolute achievement.
From reading the descriptions of these 2 teaching perspectives, they express what I believe in as an instructor and ring true to how I would like to teach. Having grown up in an apprenticeship model with some amazing mentors has helped me to become the pastry chef that I am today. So being able to teach what I know and being able to pass along my expertise and experience to the next generation of bakers and pastry chefs feels like a natural extension or continuance of my career. And personally, I believe that anyone can achieve any goal or learn any skills if they put in the work and effort to achieve them, so I also have belief in all my students and their abilities to one day become the baker or pastry chef that they want to be. One thing I note in both descriptions is the use of the term “good teacher”, and I just hope that one day my students can refer to me as a “good teacher”.
BLOG POST - PIDP 3260: A RE-INTRODUCTION AND UPDATE
Hello there! Welcome to my blog! It’s been a while since my last post…approximately 1.5 years and eight PIDP courses later, to be more precise! Since completing 3100, the journey to my current enrollment in 3260 has been quite eventful and has confirmed my belief that I made the right choice to switch to a career in teaching in the Baking and Pastry Arts.
My name is Peter Fong and I am a Red Seal Baker and Pastry Chef with 30 years of industry experience. My career began working in 4-diamond hotels before I opened my own pastry shop Ganache Patisserie in 2003 and decided to close the doors in 2023 after devastating changes to the industry after Covid-19. Thereafter, I decided to pursue a new career in teaching, so I enrolled into the PIDP. With every new course and every reflective writing assignment, it has been my experiences at UBC, Dubrulle Culinary School, my hotel training, and all the hours training my employees and apprentices, that provide the foundation for organizing my thoughts and reflections about my evolution into a baking and pastry instructor.
From each course, I have gained new insights into teaching and learned new skills that I can employ as both a student and instructor. In my opinion, PIDP 3220 – Delivery of Instruction, has had some of the greatest impacts on my learning and career, so far. Without any prior formal teaching experience, that one week of in-person instruction with fellow students who were teachers already, changed my life. Up to that point, I was comfortable being in front of people, having done industry demonstrations before, and even doing cooking shows on tv as well. But I have never been as nervous and felt as ill-prepared as I did when I taught the first of three mini-lessons in front of that class. What a humbling experience that was. However, with amazing formative feedback from my peers and instructor, I improved lesson to lesson, so that my last mini-lesson felt very natural and dynamic with great energy and positive reactions from my classmates as I created an interactive lesson plan about cake design which is right in my wheelhouse. I believe that the community and the environment of supportive peer review and feedback that our class built over that week, created an incredible learning experience that I will remember forever.
Notably, before that week in 3220, I interviewed with the Baking and Pastry Department at VCC for an instructor position, but I was unsuccessful as my inexperience showed. Without real classroom time, I was not familiar enough in the areas of lesson planning, learning objectives and student engagement. But I had close to 30 years of experience as a pastry chef! Obviously, teaching is about more than just knowledge and experience. Subsequently, a few months later, another position came up at VCC and another interview. By drawing upon my 3220 experiences, I showed that I could create a lesson plan which engages students in active learning and my delivery showed much improvement over my initial foray. And yes, I did get hired as an auxiliary instructor and have had the pleasure of being a part of the department since November 2024. Even though I am not yet working full time, I cherish every opportunity to work with the students and to use all the knowledge I have gained through the PIDP. And with every chance that I get to teach, I feel more passionate about teaching and how natural it feels to be an instructor.
Lastly, as a trades instructor of a Red Seal trade, I had the opportunity to complete my PIDP electives by finishing the Trades Specific Instructor Training program (TRAI 3001, 3002, 3003 and 3004) over the course of this past summer. Again, each of these courses occurred over a full week of in-person classes, except 3001 which is a one-day course, and they allowed the opportunity to participate and progress through this program with many of the same fellow instructors. With Doug Mauger as our instructor, he exemplified and showed us how to teach effectively and with confidence in our instruction, and he demonstrated the impact that we instructors can have on the future of our students and the future of our trades. The trades-specific focus of these courses has helped me to understand the importance of alignment from our curriculum development including course outcomes and learning objectives to our evaluations and assessments and to how we engage our students in the classroom and work labs.
Now, with just a couple of courses left and my Capstone Project to complete in the PIDP, I feel much more confident in my abilities and knowledge as an instructor. And with this course, I am looking forward to learning more about being a professional teacher and the ethics inherent to our profession and the challenging situations that I may encounter in my future classrooms.
Chapter Six from our textbook deals with experiential learning theory and is something that I relate to from a training point of view as learning through practice and experience is how the culinary arts is traditionally taught. If we look through the lens of Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle, he states that,
“Learning…is the process of whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience [1984. p.38]” (Merriam & Bierema, 2014, p. 108).
And according to Kolb, to engage in meaningful learning, learners must engage in the four stages of his cycle: Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualization, and Active Experimentation.
(Photo courtesy of https://www.torontomu.ca/experiential-learning/faculty-staff/kolbs-el-cycle/)
Using a culinary example, if I demonstrate a recipe to my class and then they replicate the recipe in the kitchen lab, they are engaged in a Concrete Experience. The next day, we think about how successful they were in reproducing the recipe and think about what they can do to improve their performances. This is the Reflective Observation stage. Through our class discussions, we decide that the students need to adjust their oven temperatures and baking times and this is Abstract Conceptualization or what they have learned. The following week, when we revisit this recipe in the kitchen lab, the students make the required adjustments and see better looking products, which is Active Experimentation or learning from their experiences.
And in my opinion, the notion of reflective practice is the most important part of the experiential learning theory; when we critically reflect on our experiences, that is when learning with deep meaning occurs.
(Photo courtesy of https://www.bakersjournal.com/a-bakers-path-4739/)
Later in Chapter Six, another section that really resonates with me is the discussion about cognitive apprenticeship. From our textbook,
“Like traditional apprenticeships in which the apprentice learns a trade such as…culinary arts by working under a master teacher, cognitive apprenticeships allow the master to model behaviors and the thinking that accompanies the task” (p. 119).
In support of this theory, I found an interesting article by Tsui, P.L. & Chen, Y.C. (2020) where they study the satisfaction of hotel workers in their F&B service training under a situated cognition apprenticeship model versus a traditional lecture-only model. They conclude that,
“The current study has experimented with cognitive apprenticeship teaching and has determined that learning satisfaction is enhanced when the master assists during the learning process. Furthermore, the study has also found that cognitive apprenticeship teaching is superior to conventional teaching, which may be because F&B service demands the acquisition of more knowledge and skills in a situated learning environment, wherein the master and apprentice interact and solve problems together. Meanwhile, the learner also acquires F&B skills by following the master’s lead. These factors work together to achieve a higher level of learning satisfaction.” (p.13)
PDF | The main purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the cognitive apprenticeship teaching approach in food and beverage (F&B) s
Therefore, this study supports the validity of teaching the culinary arts within a situated cognition apprenticeship model as it creates a more positive learning environment for the students where student and teacher work together to learn from their experiences in a meaningful way. In my evolution as a pastry instructor, I hope that I can utilize this model in my future classrooms and teach my students to become reflective and self-directed, lifelong learners.
(Photo courtesy of https://www.vcc.ca/programscourses/baking-and-culinary/)
After reading Chapter Four in our textbook on Self-Directed Learning, I find that there are a lot of points that I can relate to. Naturally, being an adult learner returning to post secondary school in an online environment, there will be a lot of self-directed learning (SDL) involved within the structure of our course, but it is my 20 years as a pastry chef running my own business where I feel the affiliation with SDL.
From the opening paragraph of Chapter Four (Merriam & Bierema, 2014, p.61), “your project was [SDL] if you: intentionally sought the learning, planned your learning, took responsibility, controlled your learning, and evaluated the outcome.” All these markers describe my continuous goal of learning how to make gumpaste flowers.
When I started my business, wedding cakes were a major focus as my goal was to become one of the leading bespoke wedding cake artists in Vancouver and to excel in the industry by making all of our cakes 100% from scratch; from baking the cakes to making the fondant and decorations too. But making gumpaste flowers is an advanced cake decorating skill that is barely touched on in cooking school, so I had little experience with them.
“Intentionally sought the learning”
After taking a basic gumpaste flower course at a local cake decorating shop, I decided to fly to Atlanta, Georgia and participate in a 5-day comprehensive gumpaste wedding cake flower course at the International Sugar Arts Collection (https://www.nicholaslodge.com/), a sugar crafting school founded by my mentor, Nicholas Lodge (1961/2022).
(Photo courtesy of https://www.nicholaslodge.com/blog/nicholas-lodge-s-new-blog)
“planned your learning”
After learning the basics of making 10 different flowers and foliage, I had the opportunity to see Nicholas again when he taught a few different classes in Vancouver and as a team building exercise, I brought my entire staff to learn from him as well.
“took responsibility and controlled your learning”
With these basic skills in hand, I would be challenged continually over the past 17 years to create different types of gumpaste flowers at the request of my brides. By contacting Nicholas over the years for instructional sheets and by doing my own research with Google, YouTube and a couple of renowned sugar flower books, I learned how to improvise with the flower cutters I owned and to not spend too much money on every flower cutter and impression mold in existence! As well, I learned to adapt techniques for making one type of flower to new ones.
As per trial and error, the first few flowers would not be that great, but I always make more flowers than needed to be able to choose the best flowers for my wedding cakes and with the positive responses from my brides, I think I have done okay!
With some reflection on methods and looking at the context of my experiences, I know that I can keep improving my techniques and I was able to self-direct my learning into something meaningful that gives me the confidence to continue learning as a pastry chef and evolving my cake decorating skills for the better.
For anyone interested in listening, here is my Cognitive Science podcast assignment on the Testing Effect. The author of the article does some detailed research and study into the effectiveness of the Testing Effect and it's benefits to memory retrieval as I discuss some sample exercises that I could introduce into my future classroom.
Here is the reference to the article in my podcast:
Rivers, Michelle L. (2023). "Test Experience, Direct Instruction, and Their Combination Promote Accurate Beliefs about the Testing Effect". Journal of Intelligence, 11(7),147. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11070147
Being enrolled in at VCC and being an adult learner, learning how to learn again, there are days I wish studying could be this easy….
Anyways, as I couldn’t figure out where to post this link in my other posts, I’m making this special post to let people know where to go to find out more information about our program.
(Photo courtesy of https://www.vcc.ca/about/college-information/careers/careers-at-vcc/)
So far, this introductory course has been interesting, and has given me a lot to think about how I would like to structure my future classroom. There are parts of humanistic learning theory which speaks to me and more specifically, experiential learning and self-directed learning. But coming from a culinary education background where most programs have been structured and taught the same way for hundreds of years, I look forward to learning how best to incorporate these ideas into my classroom.
Blog Post on Chapter Nine: The Brain and Cognitive Functioning – A Quick Thought and an Article on Stress and Learning
(Photo courtesy of https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/FAQ/what-are-social-and-emotional-needs-brain)
The parts of Chapter Nine in our textbook that I initially connect to is the biological aspects of cognitive function and how it relates to learning. As I have a bachelor’s degree in science, the terminology and functions of the different parts of the brain and it systems is familiar to my past studies and evokes a bit of nostalgia. But then I found an article by Susanne Vogel & Lars Schwabe (2016) titled “Learning and memory under stress: implications for the classroom” which discusses the relationship between stress and memory retrieval and memory formation, i.e., learning and how teachers may be able to accommodate that dynamic in the classroom.
Exams, tight deadlines and interpersonal conflicts are just a few examples of the many events that may result in high levels of stress in bo
Their introductory chapters focus on the biology of how different neurotransmitter chemicals released after stress events, affect the brain and as a result, memory formation and retrieval. I found this part fascinating as learning can be studied on such a scientific microcellular level and explained by the activation or blocking of receptors in different parts of the brain and being able to test these hypotheses empirically. They summarize that, “stress affects memory in a time-dependent manner, often enhancing memory formation around the time of the stressful encounter but impairing memory retrieval and the acquisition of information encoded long after the stressful event. These effects depend on interactions between [noradrenalin] and cortisol in the amygdala and are thus often stronger for emotional than for neutral learning material.”
Later, they talk about the implications of stress in the classroom and how both teachers and students are affected by stress. Vogel and Schwabe state that “[c]onsidering this wide range of possible stress effects in educational settings, strategies to deal with stress and its consequences are needed. First and foremost, teachers should be aware of the impact stress may have on memory formation, retrieval and updating. Moreover, students should be educated about the influence of stress on memory to raise awareness for the powerful effects stress may exert and the need for efficient coping strategies.” As a future educator, the fact that stress impacts learning in the classroom raises a lot of questions like “How will I accommodate stress in my classroom to help my students learn better?” or “How do I mitigate circumstances when a highly stressful event occurs during my class?” or “What can I do to not let my own stress affect my classroom?” This is definitely an interesting topic that requires more thought and contemplation.
