Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
The world of hospitality is often a very diverse environment. We have guests come from around the world to experience a "memorable and world-class" stay at the Wickaninnish Inn and we have a worldwide team to facilitate that.
But having a worldwide team to serve our guests means that we have a worldwide team to teach, and as Felder and Brent (2005) put it, The problem is that no two students are alike. They have different backgrounds, strengths and weaknesses, interests, ambitions, senses of responsibility, levels of motivation, and approaches to studying" (p.57). So, when it comes to our staff training, what are some of the principles that Brookfield (2015) suggests, and how do we achieve them?
In chapter 8 of The Skillful Teacher, Brookfield (2015) mentions "Team Teaching" as a method to reach a wider variety of learners. Brookfield suggests, "No matter how much [they] might strive to empathize with different learning needs, racial traditions, and personality types, any individual teacher is inevitably limited by the boundaries of [their] own personality, learning preferences, racial group membership, and experience" (p.102) so having a more diverse teaching team will reach more learners. One way that this is practiced at the Wick is by having the managers rotate through as presenters of our Meet The Team seminar. This allows them to bring their unique perspectives to the content as well as allowing the attendees to, "be taught by someone whose learning style, personality, cultural background, and communicative preferences match their own" (p.102).
Brookfield also offers "Mixing Modalities" to create diversity in teaching. There are a wide variety of options such as "oral or visual, silent speech-filled or speech-filled, emphasize instructor demonstration or student experimentation, focus on abstract conceptualization or practical implementation, favor teacher talk or student talk, rely on teacher direction or student self-direction, be kinetic or static, and prefer independent study or group projects" (p.105). It may never be possible to incorporate every single one into every single lesson, but, "With some creativity it is possible to work toward incorporating two or three different learning modalities into many of our lessons" (p.105). This takes conscious effort from the instructor and is often reliant on feedback gathered from attendees. One way that I have put this into practice is to vary the delivery method of information, such as showing a video or having the group work together to solve problems, or having attendees share their experiences with a certain topic.
One of Brookfield's final thoughts on this subject is that we will always fall short as our learners bring such variety to our classrooms. And as such we must be ready to adapt. "If your purpose is to help people learn, then you must be open to constantly varying your activities in response to what we find out about the range of students we work with" (p.108). Taylor and Sobel (2011) suggest, "Teachers who make themselves aware of the learners’ backgrounds and life experiences are better prepared to adapt instruction in responsive ways and demonstrate that they can teach like their students’ lives really do matter" (p.3). This resonates with me as one of our service philosophies here at the Wick is, "We treat each guest as an individual and personalize our service in the appropriate way possible for each and every guest" (p7) and this must be applied to all the team members that I train too.
So to quote myself from my last blog post (which you can find here, once you've finished reading this one), "Our responsibility as teachers is to learn what we can about our students and do our very best to mix and match our approach in the hope that we can cater to each student. So take some time to get to know your students. Learn what motivates them, how they like to learn, what approaches have worked (and not worked) in the past, etc. Then use that information to adapt your approach!"
How do you tailor your instruction to your students? Share in the comments!
References
Brookfield, S. (2015) The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom (3rd ed.). Jossey-Bass
Corbett, D. (2023) Reflecting on “The Core Assumptions of Skillful Teaching.” [Blog] https://tuffcityjitsu.wixsite.com/exceedingexpectation/post/reflecting-on-the-core-assumptions-of-skillful-teaching
Felder, R. Brent, R. (2005) Understanding Student Differences. Journal of Engineering Education 94(1), p57-72. DOI:10.1002/j.2168-9830.2005.tb00829.x
Taylor, S., Sobel, D. (2011) Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: Teaching Like Our Student’s Lives Matter. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Wickaninnish Inn (2023) Employee Handbook – Service Philosophies.
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