I teach Culinary Arts and my classroom is responsible for putting out weekly buffets so teaching teamwork is extremely important. If the students don't work as a team the buffet will not be able to be put out. They learn team work in a kitchen early on and when they get to my class, one of the limited production classes, they see first hand what happens if they are not part of the team, the entire group fails to put out a complete buffet as customers expect. I used to let students pick partners/groups but have changed to assigning groups so that the students don't rely on always having their "buddy" to work with. In the real world they will have to work with people they may not personlly connect with but in a working environment it is important to build the soft skills to be able to work with any diverse group of people successfully.
I have the syudents use the expierences that each has in there groups to complet their tasks.
Michael,
These experiences are good real examples to use. That will show them some examples that will make it more real for them.
Philip Campbell
I agree, I also teach my students that a kitchen can not succeed with one individual it takes a team effort. This forces all involved to communicate and work together towards a common goal.
open dialoge and communication are essencial to soft skills. Student need to do a project in class that require all endorsement and joint concencious to meet the required outcome
I teach nursing. My students have to work closely with each other. They are taught how to communicate with patients, family members and each other by role playing. They have to demonstrate their communication skills daily.
Donna,
Great examples. Keep up the good work.
Philip Campbell
I teach Culinary Foundations I, the student first class. They are put in groups and learn hopefully to work as a team, preparing the mise en place for the daily demos, cleaning, organizing, etc. We also discuss the first day that will be together as a team for the next 9 months and that it is very important that they work well together.
Teamwork is so important, especially in the healthcare industry. When instructing students, group presentations are one technique that is used to help foster soft skills. With this, Student's might teach each other about a particular pathology and presentation and peer evaluations along with instructor evaluations are used to ascertain final grade for the presentation. And, the individual grade each student receives is based on how the group performed.
Karyn: That is an interesting approach. I like the idea of team members being responsible for one another. Knowing that a team member may not show, or why, and being able to tell me about it. That way there is accountability with each team. Now, sometimes I do not have enough members so I reassign them, but it is usually only for one class.
In today’s world of work, teamwork is vital to the success of many projects. In the majority of the classes I teach the final project include the team concept. In class I strive to explain the concept of being a team player, and how their participation, and work ethic is vital to the success of their project.
We are very fortunate at our school to have faculty that follow through and instilling the teamwork concepts.
Karen,
Sounds like you have a good team there. Unity on your end, will help to make the students preparation even better.
Philip Campbell
Even though these students are together for a short amount of time, I try to incorporate the "family" mentality into the classroom. This plays a role in communication between the instructor and the student. If someone is going to be late, absent, etc usually if I can't get a hold of them, another student relays the message. This on a small scale allows them to practice accountabilty to not only their instructor but to their groups or classmates.
I do not teach culinary arts,But I do talk to my students about baking a cake...Many different ingredients that have different tastes,But blended together delicious...and then you add the Icing...Amazing.
While working and teaching in the culinary field, everything we do is based on teamwork. As part of my students daily production i encourage them to work in teams to achieve the best results possible. However, even though they work as a team the results produced are accessed individually. With that being said the students know that each dish is a reflection of their team but them as well.
Evelyn,
Nice analogy. Sounds it would have many applications.
Philip Campbell
I definately agree that this is a wonderful team-work technique. What happens when the other instructor never reciprocates? I know I 99% of the time will help extra, but when the person I constantly help will not lift a finger to help me I get resentful.
This is a great tool for teaching students how it is in the work-place. Sometimes a student refuses to be a team player. Other students will ask not to have that student on their team. We started having the students grade their team so it does give them a little control, but they are still resentful.
Shirley,
I am glad you liked it. Teamwork is important and sometimes a hard one to teach.
Philip Campbell
Teamwork is stressed in all classes. Especially in lab classes. There is no "I" in team
