Lighting fires in the mind
By anyone’s standards, July 2008 has been a pretty good month for Otago Polytechnic Catering Lecturer Adrian Woodhouse.
Named Hospitality Standards Institute (HSI) of New Zealand’s ‘Hospitality Tutor of the Year’, and Supreme Award Winner for 2008 – the first time the supreme category has been won by an individual not an organisation – Adrian has now been named winner in the prestigious Tertiary Teaching Excellence awards in a ceremony hosted by the Minister for Tertiary Education, Pete Hodgson. In this latest award he receives $20,000 in recognition of his achievements.
Adrian commenced teaching seven years ago, following a chance meeting with a previous lecturer. He 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.
"The secret of good teaching is to teach and not to lecture,” he explains. “It’s called being student focused and student centred. Instead of a lecturer saying ‘well this is everything and anything about cooking’ it’s about asking everyone what they know about cooking – what do you know? What do your friends know? I’ll tell you what I know.
“This means they’re actually involved in the learning process as opposed to just sitting there. Even in a classroom environment it’s important that they’re actively doing something as opposed to passive learning where chances are they won’t learn anything.”
Part of Adrian’s recent work, in collaboration with fellow lecturers has been to introduce innovative filmed demonstrations of cookery techniques to his student’s learning mix using You-Tube and ipods.
“Most of our students are young so they’re what you would call ‘Digital Natives’ which means that they come from a technology background. The students now see we’re doing now actually relevant and embracing their culture. At the same time we’re acknowledging and embracing the fact that their visual learners ‘learning by doing’. Of course, the videos don’t beat a good practical session in the kitchen - they’re just a tool to help students, but they certainly have been effective.”
“It’s great to see the industry recognising innovative methods of teaching. The most rewarding aspect of this career for me is seeing my students grow through encouragement and support,” he says of his recent awards.
Adrian is determined to remain open to ‘reflective practice’ in his work – sourcing and responding to student feedback on his programme.
“A lot of lecturers fear feedback from students, they see it as a criticism but I welcome it. I take that feedback and make changes. I believe that’s a fundamentals of good teaching and that’s where that clicked for me as a teacher. “
“But, even though I’m still a teacher I’ll never ever stop being a chef – ever! It’s in my blood and I think when you’ve got young students and you talk with passion and enthusiasm they know you’re not just here for a pay-check. They know that you’re here to help them and have an interest in their career and helping them out.”
“I felt really proud to get recognition for the work that Otago Polytechnic does. I’m just a reflection of the School as there’s other lecturers just like me here. We offer a really good product and quality training. For me it’s just great that that’s been recognised.”