A few years ago at the behest of a friend, I enrolled into a cake decorating class. The opportunity to learn something totally disconnected to what I did for a living made it exciting. Visions of me baking scrumptious cakes and making them look oh-so-beautiful made me say yes almost too soon.
The course was due to begin in a couple of days, so I did not have too long to change my mind. I signed up for the course and was duly informed of supplies to be bought to practice skills at home. There would be homework!
Classes got going. Students were all women, from various walks of life. Each of us had varying experiences with baking but were newbies at decorating. A level playing field! The teacher was fun and put us at ease as we worked our way through confectioners’ sugar, meringue powder and what have you. At the end of two hours, we had iced our cupcakes. Over the next few sessions we learnt to make icing, sugar roses, piped flowers and borders. It was a whole new art.
There was homework to do as well. So weekends were spent creating the perfect rose, creating great looking icing etc. Smells of crisco and sugar pervaded my kitchen, relegating smells of curry powder for a change.
What made the experience memorable for me? It was very hands-on and practical. We learnt by observing, trying it ourselves and then practicing at home. Soon our skills and confidence grew. Learning was fun as there was a lot of humor - we laughed easily at our mistakes. While we had to demonstrate that we could replicate our learning outside the classroom, there was no pegging our creations to predefined criteria. There was a sense of accomplishment of having learnt. The teacher was a facilitator, sharing her experiences and knowledge. This made it a very learner centered experience.
This leaves me with a question. Should we be having more courses in academia where the objective is to learn and not be measured?
The course was due to begin in a couple of days, so I did not have too long to change my mind. I signed up for the course and was duly informed of supplies to be bought to practice skills at home. There would be homework!
Classes got going. Students were all women, from various walks of life. Each of us had varying experiences with baking but were newbies at decorating. A level playing field! The teacher was fun and put us at ease as we worked our way through confectioners’ sugar, meringue powder and what have you. At the end of two hours, we had iced our cupcakes. Over the next few sessions we learnt to make icing, sugar roses, piped flowers and borders. It was a whole new art.
There was homework to do as well. So weekends were spent creating the perfect rose, creating great looking icing etc. Smells of crisco and sugar pervaded my kitchen, relegating smells of curry powder for a change.
What made the experience memorable for me? It was very hands-on and practical. We learnt by observing, trying it ourselves and then practicing at home. Soon our skills and confidence grew. Learning was fun as there was a lot of humor - we laughed easily at our mistakes. While we had to demonstrate that we could replicate our learning outside the classroom, there was no pegging our creations to predefined criteria. There was a sense of accomplishment of having learnt. The teacher was a facilitator, sharing her experiences and knowledge. This made it a very learner centered experience.
This leaves me with a question. Should we be having more courses in academia where the objective is to learn and not be measured?
Hello Sharmila,
ReplyDeleteFor me, there are two aspects of your cake making experience that I find interesting and they tie in with my experience of teaching English. The first is that learning should be enjoyable, that it's OK to have fun and to laugh and that this can improve the learning experience. The second is related to this, that it is part of the learning experience to make mistakes and that making mistakes should not be a source of shame but can be a sign that learning is taking place because it is through taking risks, trying new activities and then reflecting upon them that we expand our knowledge.
Thanks Sharmila,
ReplyDeletedo you still bake cakes? Unfortunately Academia is an environment where measurement matters. The reason people pay to go to college is to get the qualification that will serve them well in life. Hopefully they will get an education too! T'was ever thus!