Adrian Woodhouse - Tertiary Teaching Excellence Teaching Profile

Catering Lecturer, Otago Polytechnic

Adrian commenced teaching seven years ago following a chance meeting with a previous lecturer. Adrian describes his teaching ambition as being to “inspire, motivate and teach students” in a way that enables him to “light the fire in their minds”. In order to achieve this goal, Adrian takes care to create a learning environment that embraces the diversity of his students and that ensures all students have the opportunity to contribute to and participate in the learning process. He regularly adopts an active, co-operative learning strategy in which students with different experiences and knowledge are paired, thus providing a collaborative learning effort.

A particular strength of Adrian’s is his use of on-line technology that enables him to bring innovative approaches to his teaching thus providing flexibility in workplace learning practices. Remaining attentive and responsive to industry trends is vital in Adrian’s work. He is an active member of the New Zealand Chefs Association and works closely with industry. Adrian draws on feedback from colleagues, students and ITO moderators to reflect on and inform his practice.

Teaching offers me the privilege to be entrusted with the responsibility of ‘lighting the fire’ in the minds of my students. I believe that to be effective as a lecturer, one must create a safe and welcoming environment that is both interactive and collaborative. I see the classroom as a foundation for the promotion of practical industry applications as well as an environment to hone critical thinking skills.

Creating a Learning Environment

My teaching environment accommodates a variety of adult learning styles and encourages students to present their opinions while respecting the opinions of others. Giving all of my students a voice in class provides them with the benefit of peer learning by enriching the course material with personal experiences and knowledge. It also allows them to take responsibility for their own learning and, therefore, enhances the integration of their new knowledge into practice. Because I have to meet diverse industry needs, I teach broad as well as specific skills. As an academic, I teach students with little or no industry experience through to those with considerable experience from many sectors of industry, including restaurants, cafes, hotels, corporate catering, rest-homes and student hostels. Each student brings different perspectives and consequently their needs and desired outcomes differ, depending on their ambitions.

For example, a student who works in a hostel may have an innate interest in the nutritional content and costing of a dish while a student with a restaurant background may be more interested in the creative and visual aspects. I encourage a learning environment where such diversity is valued and utilised.

Learning Styles

Many of my students identify as kinaesthetic learners. While most of my programme is centred on acquisition of practical skills, there is also theory content. One of the strategies I use to accommodate a kinaesthetic learning style during theory based lessons is to require the students to physically simulate the information being taught. One example involves teaching students the theory of how consommé is prepared: minced meat and egg whites are placed in a pot with stock which is unclarified and contains impurities, heat is then applied and the egg whites and meat coagulate, removing the impurities from within the stock.

What results is a mass of coagulated protein and a crystal clear soup. In the practical simulation I allocate roles to students such as heat, meat, egg whites, stock and stock impurities. The ingredient students are placed in the centre of the classroom and mixed up. I then ask the heat-labelled students to work with the group of mixed up ingredient students and show the resulting effect. The heat students get the students labelled as meat, egg white and stock impurities to connect together, leaving only the students labelled as stock free. It is a physical and fun display of what occurs within the soup as heat is applied while addressing the needs of a kinaesthetic learner.

Working Collaboratively

In order to succeed in the hospitality industry, it is imperative to work closely with others and to value team work. To enable me to foster these aspects, I implement a co-operative learning environment as part of my holistic approach to the classroom. Students are provided with opportunities to work collaboratively and to process their learning reflectively which enables them to share experiences and develop a wider appreciation of industry needs. Recently I taught a lesson on the subject of preparing and cooking fish in a commercial kitchen. I devised an exercise in which I placed the students in pairs and asked them to develop a menu based on fish preparation techniques that we had covered earlier. What made the exercise interesting is that I paired students with different industry backgrounds, for example one from a rest-home with one with restaurant experience. I asked them to include the cookery techniques of frying, baking, steaming and poaching. To value the contribution and work histories of my students, I suggested that they not include any of the dishes prepared during class but base them on their own experiences. What resulted was a collaborative learning effort. From their combined experience they created a new dish and learned from each other.

On-line Support

Most of my students are high users of technology and on-line learning allows me to individualise my curriculum and customise it to the needs of my students and local Industry. I make use of on-line tools in my day-to-day teaching practice to create an environment of comfort and familiarity as well as provide an expanded access to resources. I have developed a blog site where students can view movies of dishes they will prepare during the course. The site also contains footage of past students training for and competing in cookery competitions (both local and national) and theme dinners held over previous years. While useful as a flexible learning tool, it also allows students to view practical content that is taught during the course prior to it being formally introduced. Recently I have taken this initiative one step further and converted our practical movie clips to a format that allows students to download them to their iPods. This allows the student to watch a movie clip of a summative assessment without the use of an internet connection. Many students have already commented that they are watching assessments while riding the bus to Polytechnic or on their break at work.

Enriching the Unit Standards

To try and overcome the restriction of working with a unit standards based course, I employ strategies that enable students to develop additional skills that unit standards do not recognise. Perhaps the best example is a component of the course that requires students to work together in a restaurant. The Polytechnic operates a fifty seat restaurant which is open to the public for sixteen weeks of the year. Students are placed in small teams which are responsible for certain sections of the menu (including menu design). In their groups they decide on roles which include Head Chef, Sous Chef, Chef de Partie to Commis Chef, and allocate duties and set timelines. The restaurant provides the students with opportunities to receive formative and summative feedback about the food from paying customers. At the end of each service the “Head Chef” visits each of the tables and thanks the patrons for dining at the restaurant. This interaction provides customers with an opportunity to give direct feedback on their dining experience. In conjunction with this verbal feedback, written feedback is also obtained in the form of a small evaluation that each table completes describing their dining experience. The “Head Chef” collates the feedback from the dining room and reports a summary to the class at the lesson debrief. The majority of feedback is positive and encouraging and the direct effect is that the students continue to build individual confidence and belief in their capability while empowering the class as a whole. The students are asked to reflect upon the suggested improvement comments and implement changes during the following restaurant service which provides students with an opportunity to self assess their performance and implement the required changes. After the changes are implemented the students can collate new formative feedback from the restaurant and track the success of their changes.

The Future

The award will help my plan to continue to upskill as both a culinary practitioner and as an educator. I plan to further develop my expertise in flexible delivery modes, and although I already have a Certificate in Adult Teaching, I will enrol in a Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Learning and Teaching.

I will also upskill in advanced patisserie and further my M-learning work, including the production of podcasts which students can view prior to their face-to-face sessions.

Peer and Student Comments

Throughout my education I have never had a teacher that has offered me the support and inspiration that Adrian did. I think what makes Adrian such a respected tutor is that he not only treats you as a student but also as an individual, who both share in the same dedication and passion for the industry. Not only is he thorough and informative, his door is always open and through motivation encourages you to work to the highest standard.

Morgan Laurence Thacker, Level 4 Cookery graduate 2007

Adrian’s approach to teaching embraces the diversity of his students and he constantly finds ways to utilise the experiences of all students. Adrian creates a positive learning environment where students are able to contribute and participate in the learning process. One of the strengths of Adrian’s teaching is his ability to develop the students’ critical thinking and provide them with a course which is closely linked to the needs of the industry.

Steve Ellwood, Cookery Lecturer, Otago Polytechnic

As a student of Adrian’s I believe he always made student learning a priority. In my opinion Adrian is an incredible teacher with great communication skills and flexible learning options, setting students up for a great future within the hospitality industry. Adrian saw an amazing opportunity within the internet using blogs and youtube.com. He created videos on a daily basis recording practical classes and making them available for students to refer back to for assessment. Not only was this a great opportunity for flexible learning for the students but it still offers assistance now we are in the industry.

Jodi Ball, Level 4 Cookery graduate 2007

Students enjoy how Adrian relates the theory component to real life anecdotes of his industry experience. Students also acknowledge the lengths to which Adrian has gone to make his teaching accessible and inclusive for differing learning styles. Adrian applies an open door policy that allows the students to be dealt with as individuals. Fellow staff members comment on his helpfulness, his mentoring of new lecturers, his positive attitude to his work, and openness to new ideas for teaching

Tony Heptinstall, Programme Manager Cookery, Otago Polytechnic

Adrian is constantly in touch with the hospitality industry through regular Chefs Association meetings. Adrian ensures that local chefs have input into his students’ training through their inclusion in course development, demonstrations, motivational talks and restaurant visits. The students speak highly of him and enjoy him as a teacher. He has inspired many including myself to carry on with a career in hospitality.

Mark Lane, Chef /Owner, High Tide Restaurant