1.2: History of Experiential Learning

Our review of the literature considers the externship and internship literature as both terms are used to describe experiential learning experiences. The term internship is also used to define more structured forms of experiential learning, which occur in a facility adjacent to the university such as medical internships, and so forth. The externship is, in contrast, an unstructured experiential experience typically with no pre-determined agenda. Nonetheless, the terms externship and internship are interchangeable within the culinary field therefore in conducting a thorough examination of the literature both genres of appropriate theory are included. The externship, experiential, and internship literature represent the primary theoretical underpinning in the culinary arts discipline. Additional relevant theory pertaining to the urban environment as setting of the learning experience the socialization literature to explain how people interact with others and learn things as well as how organizations convey norms.

The review of the literature is organized around the focus of the study. My dissertation is about culinary externships and thus begins with the relevant literature to the culinary field. However, other literatures not part of Culinary Arts are equally germane as externships involve critical thinking on the part of the student as mandated by Higher Education, which compels the student, assess situations, and make judgments about their surroundings. Socialization thought is also included because of its pertinence to the students’ ability to effectively interact and be assertive to some extent in the workplace. Socialization skills are equally important to the externship site itself. Their ability to acclimate student externs into the operation and to convey norms and unacceptable actions is an important of organizational entry. The focus of all of these literatures is occurring in various urban environments, which make urban literature another equally important inclusion in the review of the literature.

Externship Literature

Enhancing programs and finding employment for students

Kiser and Partlow (1999) indicate that the preferred application of experiential learning in hospitality education is the industry work-study experience known by the terms externship or internship. They state that regardless of the term used, the objective is still the same - to enhance student learning by integrating practical work experience and classroom instruction. The externship is rooted in cooperative education conceived by John Dewey who first proposed bringing together the reality of the workplace and the theory of the classroom for vocational training shortly after World War II (Herrick, 1997). This connection to vocational training is evident in Varty’s (2000) argument that cooperative education, properly practiced, is an excellent strategy for future employees to develop the reflective behavior that will help them become contextual learners. The cooperative perspective reasons that programs (external conditions), what is inherent in the student (internal conditions), and what has been learned prior to or during the cooperative education experience (learning outcomes) may all interact to affect each other and/or may separately contribute to more of the variance in educational outcomes (Ricks, Van Gyn, Branton, Cut, Loken, and Ney, 1990).

The balance between theory and practical experience in the various curricula of programs in hospitality studies is a continuing subject of debate in both academia and in practice. Some academicians believe that a hands-on course of study is not appropriate or necessary in program curriculum that culminates in a bachelor’s degree from a liberal arts institution (DiMicelli, 1998). However others state that externships, as a form of experiential education, can also enhance stakeholder competency development through active learning as a cursory benefit (Wildes & Mount, 1997). Reich & De Franco (1994: 34) state that “people learn in three ways- by hearing, seeing, and doing.” Ross (1989) adds and defines reflection as a way of thinking about professional matters that involve the ability to make rational choices and to have ownership in those choices. However, constructing progressive learning experiences by matching practice with preaching [lecturing] is an ongoing struggle (Titz and Wollin, 2002).

Many employers and cooperative education centers report that externships can provide entry to employment in many organizations. To the degree that their externships are relevant to their professional education, students gain practical knowledge about their field of study and this added experience makes students more employable and enhances program reputations for student placement (Inkster & Ross, 1995).

Experiential Literature

The development of critical thinking skills – still a new process

Feinstein, Mann and Corson (2002) describe experiential learning (real-world learning) as a participatory method of learning that involves a variety of a person’s mental capabilities and exists when a learner processes information in an active and immersive learning environment. Experiential learning has been advocated as a powerful tool in education (Daily, 2001; Kennedy, Lawton, & Walker, 2001), used in a variety of disciplines such as medicine, social studies, and management which require a high degree of skill application. This approach focuses on “doing” in addition to the “hearing” and “seeing” that occurs in traditional classroom learning formats where students must rely heavily on laboratory activities, role playing activities, gaming, and computer simulation scenarios, as modes of instruction (Feinstein et al., 2002; and Specht & Sandlin, 1991). The educational benefits of experiential learning approaches have been found to include: the development of creative and critical thinking skills, practical experience for career development, the integration of various coursework elements and improved interpersonal skills and self-confidence (Papamarcos, 2002). Additionally, experiential learning has been credited with increasing a learners’ capacity to evoke higher-order cognitive abilities in terms of problem-solving skills and judgment (Feinstein et al., 2002).

Culinary Arts degree programs with experiential learning courses are now offered at a number of universities around the world, and both undergraduates and postgraduates in ever- increasing numbers are studying in these areas to fill the needs of a growing industry (Busby & Fiedel, 2001; Tribe, 2002). Cooper and Shepherd (1997) claim that employers seek practical and generally transferable kitchen skills, however, educators emphasize the conceptualization of restaurant operations theories and materials specific to the discipline resulting in disparities. Yet despite such disparities, they further indicate that the employment trend shows an increase in university graduates required in this sector. The restaurant operation of old consistently continues to give way to technological advances in restaurant equipment; the customer order pad has been replaced with powerful point-of-sale technology; the Internet is now available for purchasing food and other services and is also an integral part of a restaurant’s social media marketing efforts. Thus despite its traditional associations with a predominantly low-skilled, service-based labor force, Culinary Arts, as a field, continues to advance technically and competitively requiring greater thinking skills in addition to cooking ability. Experiential learning is the most popular way to bridge the disparities between and needs of both educational institution and employer (Busby, Brunt, & Baber, 1997; Cooper & Shepherd, 1997; and Leslies & Richardson, 2000).

The literature also supports the notion that such learning approaches do encourage students to engage in deeper learning behaviors. Hamer (2000) states that students become involved with their learning by applying theory to real-life situations and rather than passively listening and taking notes, students’ are encouraged to engage in higher-order thinking as they personalize the subject matter to develop a deeper understanding.

The concepts of synthesis, concentrating on what the topic is about, grasping main points, and drawing conclusions, and surface learning, simply concentrating on the topic have been discussed and documented at length in the educational literature (Biggs, 1999; Cannon & Newble, 2000; Ramsden, 1988; Schon, 1983; and Brockbank and McGill (1998). A shift towards deep learning can be seen with the increasing popularity and application of incorporating experiential learning with classroom theory to further meaningful education (Bobbitt, Inks, Kemp, & Mayo, 2000). Ball (1995) and Becket (1996) argue that all students in higher education need to acquire extensive technical skills along with the associated skills needed to apply their knowledge within a profession or academic discipline, as well as the skills that required for the world of work and the to be attractive to employers. Moscardo and Norris (2003) claim that this challenge is particularly acute for tourism and hospitality as it is a relative new area of study within academic institutions and is primarily applied in orientation highlighting the need for devising new ways to improve the education of students in this field. Barron and Henderson (2000) also identify a need to utilize teaching and learning methods that encourage and facilitate deeper learning in tourism and hospitality education.

Moscardo & Norris (2003) found that many students reported feelings of satisfaction and pride associated with completing complex and challenging experiential activity. However, students experience variable outcomes as argued by McDonald and McDonald (2000) who state that while there were a number of beneficial learning outcomes for students, the exercise was risky and not all students were prepared for it. They found that student’s responses to experiential activities ranged from “excitement, involvement and appreciation, to apathy, withdrawal and confusion.” Barron and Henderson (2000) posit that there is a need to improve the education of students and develop new teaching methods to enhance knowledge retention.

Internship Literature

Focus on higher education – the student becomes the teacher

Gardner (1964) asserts that the ultimate goal of the education system is to shift to the individual the burden of pursuing his or her own learning as education most certainly extends beyond the university setting. Learning theorists claim that internships contribute to students’ intellectual growth by providing a sustained opportunity to apply classroom knowledge in a complex, challenging setting. Internships are a natural setting in which students can integrate thinking and doing (Ruhanen, 2005). They also provide students with the opportunity to make an intellectual leap between what Smith (1999) calls dualism [a view of the world in terms of black and white, right and wrong] and commitment [the ability to see tensions and oppositions in oneself and the world and still maintain one’s integrity].

Inkster and Ross (1995) devised a learning approach to ensure that the pragmatic benefits of the internships do not reduce their educational value; first, students’ employers must write a letter formally acknowledging that the student is working to learn more about his or her major and report that the assigned job duties encourage such learning. Second, a faculty member is assigned to advise student interns, verify the quality of the working experience, verify the number of hours students will spend in the internship during the semester or term they are seeking credit, mentor students as necessary, and determine whether academic assignments completed in tandem with the internship are of passing quality. They state specific internship objectives as follows: (1) understanding one’s self, job, colleagues, and working environment in order to build professional skills demonstrated via journalized dialogue between theory and practice, and (2) increase employability after graduation by gathering concrete evidence of experience gained.

Critical Reflection

Developing a capacity for critical reflection has been recognized as essential for students in higher education (Barnett, 1997), and adult education in general, especially where “transformative learning” is the explicit goal (Brookfield, 1998; Mezirow, 1990). Reynolds (1998) argued that critical reflection promotes the questioning of assumptions, the “taken-for-granteds,” the rendering visible of otherwise invisible power relations, and the promotion of emancipation, democracy, and social and individual transformation.

Writers such as Cope (2003) and Reynolds (1998) have pointed out that an issue arises with the use of the term ‘critical reflection’ by those in the adult education tradition such as Bound, Keogh, and Walker (1987), and Mezirow (1990, 1991) whose focus lies more with personal rather than social transformation. For these theorists, critical reflection should acknowledge the historical, social, and political aspects of experience. Reynolds, (1998) agreed that the socially situated nature of experience must be taken into account for reflection to have any meaning. Mezirow (1991) recognized that learning occurs when one reviews and changes misconstrued meanings arising from uncritical acceptance of the status quo.

Carson and Fisher (2006) explored explicit strategies to support the critically reflective internship grading process: Students were required to keep personal journals (McNiff, 1990; Bound, 2001; Hiemstra, 2001; and Cunliffe, 2004); students were encouraged to form critical- friend partnerships (Brockbank & McGill, 1998, Hatton & Smith, 1995; and Smith, 1999); examples of critical reflection from students in other courses were used as the basis of a group activity and were freely available outside of the class. Further, Carson and Fisher offered guiding questions for students’ reflection, before and after their placement. The authors posit that the main features that should be present in student reflective writing to demonstrate that genuine critical reflection and transformative learning had occurred are: identifying values, beliefs, and assumptions; changing and/or reassessing values, beliefs, and assumptions; making connections with cultural, social, and political realities; and acting differently from habituated responses and /or taking on new behaviors.

Educators in the critical tradition know that the task of critical reflection, especially questioning fundamental premises and assumptions, is one that students frequently resist (Barnett, 1997; Hatton & smith, 1995). Shining a questioning and inquiring light on their work and lives is demanding and can take an emotional toll and leave people disoriented and confused (Reynolds, 1998). The process demands more than the usual intellectual tasks of analysis and synthesis required in academic work. It is a skill that requires higher order functioning, often associated with adulthood (Mezirow, 1991), so it is unrealistic to expect that all students enter the learning environment with similar capacities.

With regard to teaching and learning deficiencies, Fisher (2000, 2003) noted that students were not always clear about the differences between critical analysis and critical self-reflection, or about how to differentiate values, beliefs, and assumption. Students often demonstrated confusion, particularly in relation to distinguishing values and beliefs from the “taken-for-granteds.” The literature according to Fisher rarely makes these distinctions explicit, compounding the confusion for students. Carson and Fisher (2006) assisted students through a process of reasoning out the differences between values, beliefs, and assumptions, with key questions encapsulating the constructs such as: “what is important to me in this situation?” to determine what values the students’ held: “what do I think is true about this situation?” to derive beliefs; and “what do I take for granted about this situation?” to expose assumptions and presuppositions that we take for granted that are the basis for how we act in the world.

Although much of the literature emphasizes the difficulties, challenges, and risks associated with students’ undertaking critical reflection (Barnett, 1997; Beyer, 1989; Ecclestone, 1996; Hatton & Smith, 1995; Ixer, 1999; Yost, Sentner, and Forlenza-Bailey, 2000), very little guidance is offered on how to teach it (Fisher, 2003). Cunliffe (2004) argued that it is important to build up to critical reflexivity and to situate it in practical circumstances. However, few studies demonstrate the way students actually approach critical reflection or the impact of doing so on their learning. St. Amant (2003) speaks to the importance of communicating interactively, arguing that educators and internship providers need to find ways to revise internship experiences so that educators, internship providers, and student externs can use internship experiences in a way that benefits all three parties.

Summary of the Experiential Literature

In viewing the literature collectively, it becomes clear that the ways of thinking about students working in industry have been evolutionary with overlapping occurring between theoretical camps. The externship literature closely associates with its historical roots in cooperative education as vocational training. This theoretical literature links: seeing, hearing, and doing, collectively as a necessity for employment. True to its vocational roots, this literature appears to value experiential learning as surface learning [simply learning tasks] useful for providing work experience, obtaining employment for students, and enhancing its program reputation for doing so. The experiential theory is more learner-centered and associated with medicine, social studies, and disciplines that require a high degree of skill, such as culinary arts. The experiential literature discusses “doing” as an addition to “seeing and hearing” then coupled with reflection.

The collective overarching values expressed in experiential scholarly writings were the student’s critical thinking, course integration, and improved interpersonal skills. The internship literature extends the experiential work with more extensive discussion of critical thinking and analysis, and the distinguishing of values and beliefs. Further this literature centers objectives in critical reflection. Learning approaches and objectives are suggested and the acknowledgment of the historical, social, and political aspects of learning experiences expands the critical thinking theme of the experiential work.

The field of Culinary Arts is relatively new as a higher education discipline, and the primary literature, as a collective, displays a progression in ways of thinking and valorizing experiential learning. The externship literature highlights the struggle within the theoretical community to bridge the more critical aspects of higher education with the practical aspects of getting experience to enter the work force. The experiential literature has made the jump, indicating a theoretical perspective embracing critical thinking although it still attempts to deal with the university’s need for critical learning from the vocational point of view. The internship literature show a shift toward deeper thinking, and critical reflection, elements valued in higher educational settings and represents the current theoretical position from which experiential learning in culinary arts is grappled. Culinary Arts is a young discipline which remains under-theorized in relation to other established fields such as the social sciences, business, and medicine as exemplars. Obvious gaps central to my study emerge clearly. When viewed collectively, the literature is not void of elements that should be valued. A gap lies in the discipline’s ability to construct methodology that teaches externs how to frame and consider what should be valued as a synthesis of knowledge. Pedagogical instruction strategies to drive learning objectives and outcome evaluation aligned with the student’s background knowledge, experience, and environment are not evident. The environment as urban setting, or work setting, equally receives no consideration thus physical, social, and cultural settings where externships occur receives no acknowledgement.

The largest gap is the discipline’s failure to view the externship process beyond program goals as evidenced by the lack of discuss of how to construct critical learning into an experiential endeavor. Values, beliefs, assumptions, and critical thinking and reflection are important elements for students consideration in experiential learning as expressed by the theory, but research is lacking into how externships may or do move beyond program goals, by failing to ask how should program goals be strategized to achieve what the literature posits is important knowledge for students’ to acquire. The literature states that critical learning does occur, but by providing no posited methodology for its construction, one must conclude that the student bears the burden of method.

Further, the literature fails to acknowledge that students, externship sites in distinct urban environments, and educators may view these elements differently. Students cannot consistently reflect critically on these elements because they remain unexplored and are not framed in a contextual sense by educators. My study seeks to bridge this gap by exploring what each stakeholder in the externship process considers to be valuable and important to educational ownership.

A common thread in the literature is the need for improved experiential teaching and learning method. How can educators make sense of the externship process to students without first understanding, in definable ways, how all elements of the externship process interrelate among the various stakeholders with different ways of thinking and valuing - each existing in their own unique context? This is the gap and lacking essential theme not expressed in the literature that my study will attempt to fill.

Critical Reflection

Critical reflection leads to personal transformation, which presents a challenge to the individual's accepted beliefs. It is a process wherein an individual's cultural sensibilities as well as life, professional, and social skills are in the process of continual expansion and growth.

Developing a capacity for critical reflection has been recognized as essential for students in higher education (Barnett, 1997), and adult education in general, especially where “transformative learning” is the explicit goal (Brookfield, 1998; Mezirow, 1990). Reynolds (1998) argued that critical reflection promotes the questioning of assumptions, the “taken-for-granteds,” the rendering visible of otherwise invisible power relations, and the promotion of emancipation, democracy, and social and individual transformation.

Writers such as Cope (2003) and Reynolds (1998) have pointed out that an issue arises with the use of the term ‘critical reflection’ by those in the adult education tradition such as Bound, Keogh, and Walker (1987), and Mezirow (1990, 1991) whose focus lies more with personal rather than social transformation. For these theorists, critical reflection should acknowledge the historical, social, and political aspects of experience. Reynolds, (1998) agreed that the socially situated nature of experience must be taken into account for reflection to have any meaning. Mezirow (1991) recognized that learning occurs when one reviews and changes misconstrued meanings arising from uncritical acceptance of the status quo.

Remember, your historical perspective, your life as you know it to be, will be different from the ‘historical context’ of the work place – the way they have come to know and do things. To become a part of their context – listen, ask, and learn how things are done there.

Carson and Fisher (2006) explored explicit strategies to support the critically reflective internship grading process: Students were required to keep personal journals (McNiff, 1990; Bound, 2001; Hiemstra, 2001; and Cunliffe, 2004); students were encouraged to form critical- friend partnerships (Brockbank & McGill, 1998, Hatton & Smith, 1995; and Smith, 1999); examples of critical reflection from students in other courses were used as the basis of a group activity and were freely available outside of the class. Further, Carson and Fisher offered guiding questions for students’ reflection, before and after their placement. The authors posit that the main features that should be present in student reflective writing to demonstrate that genuine critical reflection and transformative learning had occurred are: identifying values, beliefs, and assumptions; changing and/or reassessing values, beliefs, and assumptions; making connections with cultural, social, and political realities; and acting differently from habituated responses and /or taking on new behaviors.

Educators in the critical tradition know that the task of critical reflection, especially questioning fundamental premises and assumptions, is one that students frequently resist (Barnett, 1997; Hatton & smith, 1995). Shining a questioning and inquiring light on their work and lives is demanding and can take an emotional toll and leave people disoriented and confused (Reynolds, 1998). The process demands more than the usual intellectual tasks of analysis and synthesis required in academic work. It is a skill that requires higher order functioning, often associated with adulthood (Mezirow, 1991), so it is unrealistic to expect that all students enter the learning environment with similar capacities.

With regard to teaching and learning deficiencies, Fisher (2000, 2003) noted that students were not always clear about the differences between critical analysis and critical self-reflection, or about how to differentiate values, beliefs, and assumption. Students often demonstrated confusion, particularly in relation to distinguishing values and beliefs from the “taken-for-granteds.” The literature according to Fisher rarely makes these distinctions explicit, compounding the confusion for students. Carson and Fisher (2006) assisted students through a process of reasoning out the differences between values, beliefs, and assumptions, with key
questions encapsulating the constructs such as: “what is important to me in this situation?” to determine what values the students’ held: “what do I think is true about this situation?” to derive beliefs; and “what do I take for granted about this situation?” to expose assumptions and presuppositions that we take for granted that are the basis for how we act in the world.

Although much of the literature emphasizes the difficulties, challenges, and risks associated with students’ undertaking critical reflection (Barnett, 1997; Beyer, 1989; Ecclestone, 1996; Hatton & Smith, 1995; Ixer, 1999; Yost, Sentner, and Forlenza-Bailey, 2000), very little guidance is offered on how to teach it (Fisher, 2003). Cunliffe (2004) argued that it is important to build up to critical reflexivity and to situate it in practical circumstances. However, few studies demonstrate the way students actually approach critical reflection or the impact of doing so on their learning. St. Amant (2003) speaks to the importance of communicating interactively, arguing that educators and internship providers need to find ways to revise internship experiences so that educators, internship providers, and student externs can use internship experiences in a way that benefits all three parties.