Like my students in Home Economics, I was captivated by the television phenomenon that is MasterChef Australia. Millions of viewers watched amateur cooks demonstrate their culinary skills when competing for the title of Australia’s first MasterChef. This pervaded the classroom and provided a platform for discussion with students about how to create the perfect macaroon biscuit, how to identify the ingredients in an unfamiliar pasta sauce, and where to find equipment to create your own croquembouche. In the staff room over coffee, last night’s episode of MasterChef would dominate the conversation. The television series has been instrumental in getting more people interested in cooking, evidenced by increased enrolments in cooking classes both within my school and society, and the frequent use of ingredients and equipment by home cooks that were used by the chefs and contestants on the show.

My colleagues and I used the concept of MasterChef to design a new subject for our Year 9 curriculum called, Master[L]Chef, for those young cooking enthusiasts wanting to learn how to be a MasterChef. The draft proposal outlined a curriculum that transferred the structure from the series to a secondary school setting. Key concepts include sensory assessment, master classes, guest chefs to demonstrate specialised skills, mystery boxes and invention tests. The proposal was endorsed by the Director of Curriculum and the Head of Middle School and now affords us twelve months to write the course material. I feel fortunate to be given the opportunity to participate in the Stories of Learning Project because it will allow me to trial strategies and reflect on my practice when transforming the ideas used in MasterChef to an educational setting in preparation for the implementation of our new program in 2012. The area that I am most interested in exploring is the use of mystery boxes and invention tests to develop the creative solutions of students during food production. Through this research, I hope to unravel the question - “How can I use a thinking routine to encourage creative solutions to a design problem?”

The integrated use of technology is in the tool kit of many teachers who teach practical subjects: photography, textiles, art, ceramics, metalwork, woodwork to name a few. For me, the technology process is used extensively in my teaching to senior students in VCE Food and Technology (VCAA, 2010) and will use the design stage of the process to focus my writing for this article. The technology process is also embedded in the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VCAA, 2009) and I use it as part of teaching of Home Economics in Years 8-10. I believe in all my students and what they can achieve. Through my passion for food, I hope to engage them in learning so that they gain new experiences and appreciate food as both a form of artistic expression and a science. The shift in my values has resulted in teaching for understanding and developing lifelong learners who are the ‘masters’ of their own learning - not just masters in my classroom.

I feel privileged to have been employed in two schools that promote thinking and learning. Tintern Schools gave me the opportunity to work with an educational consultant, Colleen Abbott, to help redesign our curriculum and make thinking skills more explicit. The learning culture at Methodist Ladies’ College further enriches my journey as a teacher and learner through exposure to ITHAKA conferences, the College project of Sharing Classrooms, biannual meetings with individual teaching staff to set their own professional learning plans and the Understanding by Design framework to develop courses and write meaningful curriculum.

In teaching for the present and the future, I am mindful of the challenges. Students seek immediate gratification from their learning, and it takes considerable thought and expertise to hook and engage them when beginning a unit of work. Higher order thinking skills are becoming less developed, particularly in critical analysis that is needed when reflecting on the technology process. I see it as my role to demonstrate how to analyse information through the exploration of ideas and the structure of writing. Anecdotally, it seems that students are less prepared to explore creative ideas because of the immediate gratification that they seek and their fear of failure in exploring the unknown. Therefore, I need to consider how I can develop their creativity skills. How can I encourage students to take calculated risks?

How is success measured on MasterChef Australia?

Before I begin to further explore the notion of creativity, I thought it might be worthwhile to look at the attributes of the first two winners of MasterChef Australia that contributed to their success. I thought it might be possible to foster some of these qualities in my students so that the outcomes from the show are replicated in the classroom.

Julie Goodwin was Australia’s first MasterChef and her book, Our Family Table, has become one of the biggest sellers in Australia. As noted by Margaret Fulton in the Foreword ‘Julie was happiest when cooking for family and friends but was keen to try new skills’ (Goodwin, J., 2010, Foreword). I vividly recall having a conversation with one of my students about Julie Goodwin having all the qualities of a good learner – she is enthusiastic, works hard at making her dishes taste good, has a flair for plating and presenting food in a professional way - but most of all she learns from her successes and failures. Julie was taught the basics of cooking as a child by her mother and after leaving the family home, experimented with food by trying to recreate what she had tasted and enjoyed elsewhere. She observed the kinship that occurred naturally over a shared meal, stating ‘that if you make nice food for people, they love you’. (Goodwin, J., 2010, Introduction) Julie was certainly prepared to take risks as a learner and used her experiences to produce food of increasing quality. Towards the end of the program, she took pleasure in preparing food for the judges.

Adam Liaw left the legal profession to participate in Series 2, where he became Australia’s second MasterChef. He is now working on opening his own restaurant in Surrey Hills between television appearances, and has just released a new book entitled Two Asian Kitchens. The purpose of his book is to understand old and new ways of Asian cooking, to explore how culture and identity meet on a plate. He recites a Confucian proverb that translates to “consider old things to understand new things. It’s the tension between understanding tradition and why things come to be and making that your own.” He advises that “you shouldn’t try to make food you don’t have a connection with” and indeed this could be interesting advice to pass onto my students. The competition gave him the opportunity to learn what food he did well and why he did it well through constantly having his food critiqued on an objective basis (Liaw, A., 2011). Masterchef clarified his thinking about how he approaches food, and I hope to do this with my students.

How is creativity embedded in thinking?

Hugh Mackay is a social researcher and ethicist, and in his book “What Makes Us Tick? The Ten Desires That Drive Us” he writes about how being creative makes for a better life.  According to Mackay (Mackay, H., 2010, p11), when we’re creative:

•We narrow our focus and distractions are shut out.

•We are able to represent our thoughts (inner self)

•Sometimes we don’t know where the idea comes from, it just emerges

•Ritual and setting up structures that get you to commit are important.

If, according to Mackay, being creative is one of the desires that drive us then how do we define it and what are the factors that promote its development? In its simplest form, being creative is the application of what students know to an unfamiliar situation. So a vegemite pizza might be considered creative for one of my international students, who would have little knowledge about Australian cuisine. Ron Ritchhart cites many instances of students who are creative in their everyday lives: ‘wherever it is important to think of new ways of doing things, to look at things through new eyes, to go beyond conventional ways of thinking, to stretch beyond the obvious’. (www.pz.harvard.edu, accessed 14.5.2011) For me, it is the student who is able to go beyond conventional ways of thinking that stands her apart from the rest of the class. To paraphrase Ritchhart, you can view creativity as the big C and the little c. For the international student who is impressed by her effort to create a vegemite pizza, the creativity is relative to her experiences (little c). If we shift the creation of the vegemite pizza to the larger community (the big C), then it may not be viewed as creative.

Everyone has their own food experiences and has an opinion about the way food tastes and how it is presented. It therefore becomes a challenge for students to work with an ingredient they may not be familiar with, to try an unusual preparation or cooking technique or change the form in which food is traditionally presented. Creativity is embedded in thinking and it is impossible for the learner to ‘know everything.’ The development of inspirational ideas requires time to research and experiment with new thoughts to bring them to fruition. Furthermore, it is the application of creative solutions in recipes that is recognised in the wider community to judge the world’s greatest chefs.

Ferran Adria is arguably the world’s greatest chef and has combined creativity and food in relation to his new ‘restaurant’ venture. Having reached the top and stayed there for so long, Adria is closing his renowned elBulli restaurant and is turning it into a research foundation that will reach out to the masses by publishing menus daily on the internet. He is planning on spending hours in his workshop, developing ideas for the menu and one of the members of his new team, a journalist, will serve daily revelations from his experimental kitchen. Although he has represented Spain at art shows, Adria rejects the idea of cuisine as art “The umbrella is not art but creativity” he says (Tremlett, G., 2011, p15). He will bring other creators into the foundation’s kitchen. “They will be able to see how we create and we can study how they do it.” Adria will teach creativity at Harvard University for two weeks a year. His systematic approach to invention will include “teaching how to become an efficient creator”. I admire the fact that Adria is consistent in his approach to creativity and that it is the notion of being creative with food that has led to much of his success.

Without enrolling them in Adria’s course, how can I encourage my students to be self-aware and to make more conscious creative choices? I believe that part of the answer lies in students having a state of ‘mindfulness’. I became more aware about the notion of mindfulness after reading Lesley Ryder’s paper for the Stories of Learning Project on ‘Wondering about Thinking and Seeing: Moving Beyond Meta-Cognition’ (http://storiesoflearning.com/Secondary_Stories/Entries/2010/10/10_Wondering_about_Thinking_%26_Seeing__Moving_Beyond_Metacognition.html). Ryder explored the question What is Mindfulness? and suggests that mindfulness is a facilitative state that promotes creativity and the use of information, as well as memory and retention. Stressed and anxious students cannot make use of their abilities, cannot think clearly and effectively. (Ryder, L., 2011, p33). A mindful meditation teacher, Janet Ethy-Leal, spoke about mindfulness recently. She stated that

“mindfulness is not just the activity of the brain; you don’t just find the mind in the brain. The brain is an activity of the nervous system. A student’s attention can focus on the past (memory), the present or future. The key is to get students to manage their attention to focus on the present. If thinking is distorted by memory or students have fears about the future, then this can hinder their creativity. Students can create their own minds, moment by moment if they remain calm and have clear thought patterns.” (Ethy-Leal, J., 2011)

The timing of a mystery box to foster creativity

In achieving a state of mindfulness in order to create optimal conditions for creativity to flourish, the timing of a mystery box will be crucial to experiencing success when deriving creative solutions. How will students feel if I surprise them with a mystery box task where they need to develop their own dish using a limited number of ingredients that are presented to them? In a mixed ability classroom, will all students feel comfortable if they are put on the spot and have to instantly generate their ideas? Research from Ryder suggests that some students will become anxious and will not be able to develop their thinking. On the Masterchef program, we did not see uncomfortable pauses where contestants were stumbling for ideas because it would not make for light entertainment, and one has to wonder how much time they were given to plan their recipes in advance.

I decided to test this idea with my Year 9 Home Economics students in preparation for their living away from home experience at our remote site, Marshmead. I told the students that they would have a mystery box of ingredients for one of their practical classes, but that if they wanted to know the ingredients then they could email me in advance so that they could plan their dish. Approximately one third of the class sought out the ingredients, whilst the others were happy to take risks and design their product without very much planning. It is noteworthy that the outcome was not assessed, and this took away the pressure of having work graded. The experience, however, will assist them in helping to use up ‘left over’ ingredients in their fridge and pantry whilst at Marshmead and it allowed me to collect valuable evidence about the proportion of the class who needed time to think about the task.

I have one other reservation about the concept of a mystery box task. Creativity is relative to the experiences of the student. Do students have the food knowledge and the skills to carry out ideas that they might have or that I am expecting? What happens when this is mismatched? Part of my role is to minimise failure and to guide students in their thinking, but how much direction do I give so that they do not lose ownership of their ideas? Ultimately, I want my students to experience success, develop confidence in their abilities, command the content and apply skills to unfamiliar situations whilst enjoying what they are doing and improving their self-esteem. The role of a facilitator has never been more important than in the implementation of a design exercise that promotes creativity.

Task one – to design a breakfast food for the front cover of Donna Hay magazine

I decided to work with my Year 11 VCE Food and Technology students to promote creative solutions as the focus of my reflective practice. In 2011, there is a new study design in Victoria which involves using the design process in practical outcomes. I compiled two design tasks in Term 1. The first did not have a thinking routine embedded in it but instead would allow me to ascertain how students go about solving design briefs and what they are thinking when trying to derive suitable creative, options. In the second task, I will spend some time on a ‘thinking routine’ after the requirements of the task are disseminated to develop their thinking in an attempt to foster creative solutions. Both tasks involve the concept of a mystery box in alignment with what I am trying to achieve in developing a new curriculum.

The design brief for task one was given to the students in the following format:

Figure 2: design brief on breakfast food for the front cover of a food magazine

In addition to the brief, they were given a mystery box and a large range of pantry and fridge ingredients.

Mystery Box – eggs, Roma tomatoes, cream cheese, short crust pastry, oranges, chocolate (eggs must be included, along with two other ingredients)

Pantry items - packet of plain flour, packet of SR flour, packet of A1 white sugar, packet of caster sugar, oats, salt, pepper, baking powder bicarbonate of soda, vegetable oil, olive oil,   sliced white bread, shelled almonds, box of dried yeast, box of cornflour, container of arrowroot, bottle of balsamic vinegar, squeeze bottle of honey, squeeze bottle of golden syrup, jar of coffee granules,

Fridge - block of butter, block of unsalted butter, eggs, cream, milk, block tasty cheese, bacon, coliban potatoes, brown onions, lemons, fresh parsley, fresh chives, bottle of lime juice, bottle of lemon juice, jar of chilli paste (sambal oelek), tub of natural yoghurt

The class was given the task at the beginning of the week, and the practical lesson was at the end of the week. This allowed students time to think, construct a food order to have the correct resources and to trial the dish at home if they wanted. I directed students to where they might look for ideas to find out about the functional properties of eggs and the cooking techniques that can be used. The emphasis was on presentation and the students knew I was going to photograph the dish and comment on the different elements. A selection of student work can be seen below:

Figures 3 – 7: food images on breakfast

Overall, students had given thought to how to make their breakfast food look attractive and suitable for Donna Hay magazine with simple and clean presentation techniques. However, the most valuable part of the process transpired in the following lesson where these images were put on a data projector and I highlighted the strengths of each dish and suggested possible recommendations for improvement. Each student provided insight about where they got their ideas from for their dish. Overwhelmingly, students produced what they knew and had experienced before. Having students design a breakfast food was a safe option because they all have experiences about eating breakfast. However, I was surprised that even with the diversity of different cultures within the classroom the dishes were all traditionally English in origin and were lacking in innovation. This was a valuable learning experience to focus on presentation and not over-plate, but importantly it gave me the knowledge that they weren’t thinking very deeply about what to produce. The students had a lot of fun with the design task but felt quite restricted by the ingredients in the brief. Each student wrote a reflective piece on how their dish satisfied the requirements of the task so that they were able to internalise the thinking that had taken place, or lack of it.

Task two – to design a lunch item for a resort in Koh Samui (Thailand)

With repeated exposure to a mystery box and familiarity with the structure of the task, I expected that my Year 11 students would perform at a higher level the second time. I attempted to replicate the timing in which the design brief was given and the lapse between this and the production lesson. However, there was deliberate intervention in order to apply a thinking routine at the design stage. The emphasis of the problem was on the flavour of the dish, rather than the appearance.

The following design brief was given to the students:

Figure 8: design brief on lunch in a resort in Thailand

The mystery box ingredients were also specified, but I decided to eliminate pantry and fridge food items to select from with the intention of giving them more scope.

Mystery Box – prawns, white fish fillets, chicken thigh fillets, duck breasts, white long grain rice, soy sauce, carrots, lemon grass, bok choy (four of the mystery box ingredients should be used)

The evaluation criteria were given at the outset. The purpose of the criteria was for students to design their option with the specifications in mind, knowing that they are required to write responses to each question at the conclusion of the task in the form of reflective writing. The criteria are listed here:

1.What are the characteristics of the dish that make it suitable to serve as a light, healthy lunch item at a resort in Thailand?

2.Which aspects of the dish make it appealing (flavour, texture, aroma, appearance)?

3.How did I make use of the fish/seafood, poultry and fresh vegetables at my disposal?

4.Was the time allocation of 40 minutes used efficiently?

5.How were the Thai flavours of sweet, sour, spicy and salty achieved in the dish?

6.How were four of the mystery box ingredients prepared so that they were key components?

A thinking routine was then introduced and was the key difference between the two tasks. Connect-Extend-Challenge is a routine for connecting new ideas to prior knowledge. It also encourages students to take stock of ongoing questions, puzzles and difficulties as they reflect on what they are learning. (http://pzweb.harvard.edu/vt/VisibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03b_Introduction.html, accessed 14.5.2011)The ‘prior knowledge’ that I was aiming to tap into was the notion that Thai dishes typically have the four flavours of salty, sweet, spicy and sour. If students understand this concept and how Thai recipes are constructed, then theoretically they should be able to modify existing recipes or design a recipe of their own. To keep students’ thinking visible, the routine was completed with the entire class and their thoughts were recorded. A transcript can be found below:

Figure 9: connect-extend-challenge

At the conclusion of this lesson, I talked to each student about what they were thinking in relation to their design. The majority had a preference for a generic dish. It was pleasing to note that they did not have definite ideas for a solution because they wanted to experiment with different designs or at the very least, analyse existing recipes to see if they contained a balance of the four flavour elements. In the previous section How is Creativity Embedded in Thinking?, I argued that it is the student who goes beyond conventional ways of thinking that sets her apart from the rest. I have one such student and when I questioned her, she would not commit to a definite idea because she felt that she needed to further investigate her options because ‘she wanted to do something that was different to the others’. After having time to complete their research, I wanted students to consolidate their understanding, and they were then required to provide a visual image of their dish with brief annotations to reflect the specifications that were given to them at the beginning. The work below is an example of a student’s thinking about her dish, remembering that the emphasis is on flavour, and not presentation.

Figure 10: annotated design option

Were students able to transfer their knowledge to this unfamiliar situation in a production lesson? The thinking routine allowed them to see how to think creatively about how ingredients can be put together differently by focussing on the key concept of flavour. I observed some students as creative agents, attempting to think outside the box, stretching beyond the obvious to look at situations in new ways. (www.pz.harvard.edu, accessed 14.5.2011) A selection of student work can be seen below, along with a reflection on the process.

Images 12-16: food images

As can be seen above, a range of recipes was designed: soups, curries, salads and noodles dishes. Every student had her dish photographed and tasted during the production lesson. When discussing the flavour of the product as part of their assessment, each student explained how that flavour was achieved through the use of the key ingredients. All students had considered the four taste components, although it was surprising that some of them did not taste a sample of their product before coming out the front to be assessed. This is an area for future improvement because the flavour could have been modified and improved; some dishes were too spicy (although subjective), too sour or lacking salt and intensity of flavour.

The student who made the greatest improvement struggled to understand the considerations and structure of the first task. Compounding the situation was the fact that she has Asperger’s Syndrome and it became difficult to shift her thinking once the problem had been given; she made a breakfast muffin that did not utilise all of the mystery box ingredients or use eggs in an integral way. In the second task, however, she was able to make a beautifully tasting prawn curry that had all of the required flavour elements. It was clear that she was able to transfer her ideas to what she knew about Thai food after completing the thinking routine with the rest of the class. The highest achieving student (who was referred to earlier in this section as wanting more time for her planning) was able to put together her own recipe for a Sweet and Sour soup that reflected the four flavour components. It was creative because it went beyond the obvious, connected to past experience and extended her thinking to an unfamiliar situation.

Recommendations for new curriculum design and implementation

In light of the results, conclusions can be drawn about creativity and its usefulness in helping students derive solutions to mystery boxes and invention tests.

About creativity

•Experimenting with food in an attempt to recreate individual experiences is key to being able to transfer knowledge and key skills. The more opportunities that we give to students to ‘experiment with food’ to create their own products, the more familiar they become with this pattern of thinking.

•To learn new things, we need to be able to understand old things. It is difficult to design new food ideas if the preparer does not have a connection with the food. I believe that it is the role of the teacher to help students to see that connection.

•Creativity is embedded in thinking and can be viewed as the application of knowledge and skills to a new situation, but it is the ability to go beyond conventional ways of thinking that produces high quality outcomes.

•Mindfulness is a facilitative state that promotes creative thought and the use of information, as well as memory and retention. Stressed and anxious students cannot make use of their abilities, cannot think clearly and effectively. It is important to focus a student’s attention on the present, without being too distracted by past memories in relation to the task or fears about the future.

The design of the task

•The timing of a mystery box task is crucial in allowing students to achieve a state of mindfulness. One week appeared to be sufficient time for students to generate ideas, plan how they might achieve the outcome, prepare the food and evaluate the process.

•Creativity output is relative to a student’s own personal experiences, but the teacher can widen the experience by introducing him/her to different ingredients, techniques, equipment or types of cuisine. There is an opportunity to model creative ideas and explore options that are viewed by the majority as innovative.

•The design brief should have a degree of familiarity for all. Four mystery box ingredients for inclusion in the dish appeared to be achievable for most, but too many pantry/fridge ingredients overcomplicates the design and places too many restrictions.

•A recommendation for consideration is to not assess the final outcome for some mystery box tasks, but to assess the thinking behind the design options in the form of student reflection. This might allow students to take greater risks in their designing. However, one could equally argue that design ideas need to be realistic and have appealing sensory properties.

•Assessment rubrics could be developed to assess the creativity element.

•There is value in peer assessment at the completion of making the product. This feedback could then be used in the student’s reflective writing about their product and the processes or thinking employed to make it.

Practical suggestions during implementation

•The teacher might consider the students giving the instructor a mystery box to observe the teacher demonstrating the qualities that she is expecting from her students. If time was restricting the implementation of this activity, the teacher might work parallel to the students in the classroom during the completion of a practical task to reflect on another outcome or solution.

•The use of digital photography provides evidence for students about their achievements and provides an opportunity to discuss their thinking.

•Repeated exposure to mystery box tasks and thinking routines allows students to have a familiar structure within which to develop their creative ideas.

Opportunities for deeper thinking

•Connect-Extend-Challenge is a routine that allows students to connect new ideas with prior knowledge. This can be done collectively as a class to develop students’ thinking, in small groups or individually. In this instance, the routine provided connection and transference of student knowledge about flavours typically used in Thai food.

•Students should be encouraged to critically analyse their work at all stages of the design process. This allows for repeated learning opportunities and encourages students to justify and modify their ideas in alignment with the evaluation criteria. In practical classes with a food focus, this includes adjusting their plated dish prior to assessment.

•Student self-evaluations about their learning allow them to comment on their success and reflect on areas for improvement. This is an opportunity to document their thinking and provides an insight to the teacher about the class and how to move forward with future ideas for teaching and learning.

Conclusion

I can clearly state that the thinking routine Connect-Extend-Challenge did encourage creativity when developing a solution to a design problem that revolved around taste. Students were able to transfer knowledge to an unfamiliar situation about Thai cuisine after we had discussed what they knew about flavour components and how recipes could be developed and/or modified. A key factor in facilitating creative solutions is the timing of the design task so that a state of mindfulness is achieved. This narrows the focus of students and reduces levels of anxiety so that they can achieve to their potential. Design based tasks are open ended and therefore cater for a mixed ability classroom, achieving the optimum outcome – deeper thinking, varying degrees of success and increased self-esteem for my students. The teacher has a key role in facilitating creative ideas through the design of the task, modelling creative solutions and providing students with the opportunities to verbalise and extend their thinking.

Bibliography

Ethy-Leal, JanetMindful Meditation Teacher

28 April, 2011, Lecture at Methodist Ladies’ College to Year 10 students, Melbourne

Goodwin, Julie, 2010, Our Family Table, Foreword by Margaret Fulton, Introduction, Australia, Random House Australia Pty Ltd

Liaw, Adam2011, Two Asian Kitchens

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Mackay, Hugh2010 as seen in The Age Sunday Life p11

What Makes Us Tick?: The Ten Desires That Drive Us,

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Visible Thinking Website

http://www.pz.harvard.edu/vt/VisibleThinking_html_files/04_ThinkingIdeals/04f_CreativityIdeal.html Website accessed 14.5.2011

http://pzweb.harvard.edu/vt/VisibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03d_UnderstandingRoutines/ConnectExtendChallenge/ConnectExtend_Routine.html  Website accessed 4.5.2011

Ryder, LesleyOctober 2010, Wondering About Thinking and Seeing: Moving Beyond Metacognition Telling Our Stories of Learning, p33, Melbourne

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The Age Epicure, p15, Melbourne, The Age Company Pty Ltd

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