Living Lab General Education Seminar Toggle navigation

Hello Everyone, Glad to be a part of these discussions

I agree most heatedly with Ramsey’s call to “embrace the mess.” I often use trial and error and risk taking in my classroom, often allowing time in a session for tangents and experimentation. When I put myself in a risky situation and work out of it, it demonstrates to students how knowledge is applied and that I have control over the subject, earning their trust. It’s a matter of authenticity.

The “practice reflection” part is something I’m just now maturing in my classroom. I’m finding feedback requires seriousness. It should be less playful than the project itself. It’s easy to get self satisfied after a successful project and breeze through the reflection, one has to be reminded to stay focus on the project for a moment longer.

See you on Friday
Jesse

And for students who hesitate to speak or ask questions, or for anyone, I often have the class take 5 minutes to ponder + write down their opinions. This encourages more discussion among the students.
Learning to problem solve is one of the most important benefits of Ramsey’s “3 rules…”.

Looking forward to meeting everyone,
Lynn

I agree with embracing the mess and learning through trial and error. I agree that both learning and teaching is enhanced through a process of reflection. I intentionally leave assignments in solving visual problems a bit ambiguous. The process of learning and embodying these lessons is through trial and error, evaluation (class critiques) and then exploring learned solutions through a similar problem.

At the end of the semester I give a series of reflective questions for the students’ opinion of the semester. In the past, I’ve had a few comments that I could have explained the assignments better, they were not sure what I wanted. Now, on day one and though out the semester I emphasize that the method of learning is through process and practice.

What makes me curious is something that the students ask and I don’t know it! It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, I can’t wait to investigate the answer for them and learn from it as well.

As a culinary educator I find mistakes in the kitchen inspiring, they provide teachable moments and create a platform for true understanding of a concept. I find if you know why something doesn’t work, you will have an easier time with understanding why it does. A mistake gives you, as an educator, an opportunity to slow things down and dig into what is really happening and why it works or doesn’t work.

Hollandaise Sauce is one of my favorite examples of this. I usually can count on at least one student to break it, and I usually thank them for it. We turn a mistake into an opportunity to learn and we are all the better for it. Sometimes it is fixable and other times it is not, but we will know why.

To spark learning I try to give my students a safe space for asking questions as well as for making mistakes.

Thanks, Anna. I follow a process similar to yours, using a “quiz” to invoke deeper thinking and curiosity. Through the process, student’s question their understanding and formulate questions, and thus, think more deeply about the details of the material. Immediately after the quiz, we review with students providing answers, clarifying assumptions, and asking questions. After grading, I return papers and announce an opportunity to improve grades the following week with a repeat quiz. At that point, when reviewing the quiz for the second time, students are much more engaged, asking detailed questions, discussing answers amongst themselves, and taking copious notes. No poker face needed when I return the second quiz, results are markedly better!