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Running head: PERKINS PRINCIPLES WITH APPLICATIONS 1

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Perkins Principles of Teaching with Applications of Mental Representations
Elisabeth Clapp
EDU510.90 The Cognitive Science of Teaching & Learning
Dr. Parker













PERKINS PRINCIPLES WITH APPLICATIONS 2

Perkins Principles of Teaching with Applications of Mental Representations
Imagine being a chef contestant on The Food Networks Chopped. The chaotic adrena-
line rush as each chef eagerly tears open the basket to discover what is inside. With the same
enthusiasm, culinary arts instructors open the mystery baskets of their students minds and sift
through the ingredients. Mental Representations such as logic, rules, concepts, analogies and
imagery are the ingredients of the mind in which the human brain processes information. The
principles of teaching, described by Perkins (2009), provide an explanation and evaluation of
how learning takes place. Rather than learning a topic piece by piece, creating gaps, Perkins
(2009) discusses the idea of realistic instruction, making the classroom an engaging and produc-
tive environment.
Analysis and Application of the Game
A lesson plan is a strategy for learning. Quality planning produces quality results. Effec-
tive instructors devote time to plan and prepare each lesson. To facilitate the greatest amount of
learning, teachers must select and arrange activities that will produce desired learning outcomes.
Only with consideration to planning are teachers certain to include all necessary information and
have lesson plans properly organized to achieve the learning objectives. Perkins (2009) discuss-
es ideas and describes an approach to develop and achieve these desired outcomes using the met-
aphor of baseball to illustrate, but it is possible to use other metaphors such as a culinary arts
program.
Play the Whole Game Logically
The lesson in teaching students the five mother sauces is an excellent example of an ap-
plication for this principle. As a culinary student and future chef, it is necessary to understand
PERKINS PRINCIPLES WITH APPLICATIONS 3

the importance of the five mother sauces and proper utilization of these sauces are essential in
teaching students the whole game of cooking.
The lesson begins with the distribution of recipes to the students for all five sauces and
numerous small sauces, in order for the students to become familiar with the sauces as a whole,
rather than bits and pieces of fragmented information. A myth when working with food is as-
suming that all recipes are correct and that a thin and grainy Hollandaise sauce is always the fault
of the chef. For culinary students, it is important for them to learn that if a recipe fails it is not
necessarily a reflection of their skills. Instructors require students to read the recipe they are us-
ing twice. Once for an understanding of the finished product as a whole and a second reading to
infer if the recipe is logical and reaches a conclusion concerning it (Barbey & Barsalou, 2009).
There are thousands of recipes for a Hollandaise sauce. There is an abundance of infor-
mation not always included in the recipe. A Hollandaise sauce requires an emulsion to occur,
which recipes do not always accurately explain. Understanding the logic behind the methods
and techniques in creating an emulsion, allows culinary students to be successful at producing a
Hollandaise sauce. Once a student knows what makes a recipe work, they are able to determine
if the recipe will have positive results. The use of the KWL strategy organizes what the students
know, want to know and have learned about each sauce. The five mother sauces are foundation-
al to all sauces and serve as the basis from which small sauces originate. Many chefs consider a
good sauce as the pinnacle of all cooking. Master the sauce and the chef masters the whole
game. The appeal of Chopped is not in a chefs individual skill set but in the chefs ability to
effectively discern and logically apply their skills into the best possible use of the ingredients.


PERKINS PRINCIPLES WITH APPLICATIONS 4

Conceptually Making the Game Worth Playing
Why are we learning this needs a better explanation than It will be on the exam.
Students need concrete understanding of the information in order to build on that knowledge and
fit it together to apply to the bigger picture. When the focus is on the exam rather than on devel-
oping the desire to learn, students lose enthusiasm to play the game. Escoffier believed the
soup was the one item on the menu the most difficult to perfect (Escoffier, 1907). In order for a
student to be proficient at making soup, they must first know the mother sauces, Is the answer
to the question, Why are we learning this?
Worthwhile knowledge is intrinsically motivating to students. Knowles states (as cited
by Hourde, 2006, p. 91), the most potent motivators are internal pressures such as self-esteem.
Houdes self-determination theory corresponds with Knowles in that intrinsic motivations are
more effective motivators (2006, p. 91). As stated by Wlodkowski, an instructor must attempt
to understand the students emotions and culture for learning to occur. Approaching the student
as a whole is a method to increase intrinsic motivation (1999, p. 15). Specific teaching practices
support and encourage intrinsic motivation (Deci, Eghrari, Patrick, & Leone, 1994) and loss of
intrinsic motivation is a problem for society as a whole (Lepper, Corpus & Iyengar, 2005).
Emotions were once considered an unessential part of the decision making process
(Thagard, 2005). According to Demetriou and Wilson (2008) teachers, too often still ignore the
emotional aspects of teaching and learning. Psychologists are now recognizing the significance
of emotions in motivation and insist that educators examine and understand the motivation to
make the game worth playing for their students (Perkins, 2009). Teachers, who solicit emo-
tion and expression in their teaching, make the material more appealing and hold the interest of
their students (Demetriou & Wilson, 2008). Emotions can determine how information is re-
PERKINS PRINCIPLES WITH APPLICATIONS 5

membered and processed (Pessoa, 2009), which can prove beneficial to students. Perkins states,
Playing the whole game clarifies what makes the game worth playing because you see right
away how things fit together (2009, p. 10). The responsibility of the teacher is to design lessons
and units of study that will actively engage students while keeping them interested and motivated
to learn.
The concept of mise en place encourages intrinsic motivation by assembling all the
equipment and ingredients prior to incorporating them together. Mise en place allows easy ac-
cess to the materials and an opportunity to visualize the entire process occurring in the recipe,
which brings purpose to the task. The instructor introduces the concept of mise en place as the
unit on the mother sauces and the brigade system continues. This lesson allows the students to
connect and retain the information they learn (Thagard, 2005) and apply it to the role of Saucier
in the brigade system. Students learn the idea of mise en place when practiced, and reinforced
when continually practiced. Mise en place is a French term meaning "everything in place
(Glissen, 2011, p. 137). For example, when baking part of mise en place is to set the oven to the
correct temperature and prepare the pans. The incorporation of wet and dry ingredients produces
a chemical reaction. If a student has not observed mise in place, the cake, for instance may not
rise, because the blended ingredients are sitting in the bowl while the student is quickly preparing
the pans.
In preparation of the mother sauces demonstration, students assist with mise en place
followed by the preparation of each of the sauces and afterwards, the students are encouraged to
taste a sample of each on French bread. The instructor uses a writing strategy for a journal as-
signment. Students are to begin making journal entries of each sauce. The teacher again em-
ploys the KWL strategy as a gauge in determining the students knowledge. Both strategies are
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ongoing until the completion of the mother sauce unit. After the lesson, students have a better
understanding of the concept of mise en place and begin to understand a sauce is not simply a
component of luxury cuisine. Ketchup is tomato sauce and tomato sauce is tomato soup. Just as
the Saucier is a part of the brigade system, sauces are a vital part of cooking and mise en place is
the concept that brings it all together as a whole.
The Playing Out of Town Analogy
According to Perkins (2009) good shepherding fosters, the transfer of student learning
that is the purpose of a formal culinary arts education; to transfer the skills learned in the class-
room to a professional setting. Transfer does not happen without assistance and only if learning
facilitates it. A learning activity that involves transfer is the analogy of baking a cake and writ-
ing a paper. The analogy provides a parallel relationship between baking a cake and composing
a research paper. Learning transfers when the student understands the importance of the ele-
ments contained in the cake is similar to the importance of the elements contained in the paper.
The analogy creates a visual representation making it easier for the students to understand
(Thagard, 2005) the assignment and transfer their knowledge.
The lesson begins with a discussion on the importance of ingredients in both the cake and
the paper. The assignment is relevant as the students are researching specific ingredients con-
tained in cakes as the topic of their papers and presentations. An explanation of how the omis-
sion of ingredients or elements will not produce the same results takes place. Once the cake
comes out of the oven or the paper reaches the instructor, the addition of ingredients is not possi-
ble. The analogy concludes with the discovery that the chef forgot to add the eggs and a conver-
sation begins, whether or not it is advisable to crack them open and smear them all over the cake.
All culinary students understand that this does not work when baking a cake and no amount of
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frosting will hide the taste and texture of raw egg. A poorly written paper cannot be covered up
with a Power Point presentation either.
Uncover the Hidden Games with Images
Determining the underlying factors within a concept reveals the inner concepts or hid-
den games. Understanding the hidden game allows for complete understanding of the whole
and according to Perkins, can be the most difficult part, but learning how to find the hidden
game is a strategy for life (2009, p. 133). Instructors can fail to notice, hidden games and
take them for granted. Many times an angel food cake will fail to rise properly. The pan was
improperly prepared (greased), or the cake was not allowed to cool in the proper position (upside
down). If the instructor is not thoroughly demonstrating this or the students are not performing
the preparation themselves, they will not understand how an angel food cake can fail to rise, how
to avoid an angel food cake from falling and what to do if this happens. The recipe does not al-
ways include these steps, but are tacit knowledge acquired by actively participating in the pro-
cess of baking an angel food cake. The science of baking allows students to appreciate the learn-
ing process and think as a scientist and uncover the hidden game (Perkins, 2005, p. 133) of
preparing an angel food cake.
Images are mental visual representations of objects and experiences in the mind. Images
are a very important part of human thought, just as words are. Visual representations can also be
in the form of other sensory stimuli such as taste, touch, and emotion (Morgan, 2007). Images
are mental representations of visual information.
Mental imagery is critically important to a chef and culinary students immerse them-
selves in production to create these images (Kaufmann, 2010). The student must understand and
know the correct presentation of an angel food cake, but also, the taste, smell and what the tex-
PERKINS PRINCIPLES WITH APPLICATIONS 8

ture or crumb ought to be, as initial inspection does not reveal these concepts. Not all mental
imagery takes place in the kitchen. Students enter the program with prior experiences or memo-
ries, and these, as well as ones acquired during production combine as the students mental im-
ages, which serve to detect a hidden game.
While the cake is still in the oven, the student performs a visual examination to determine
the doneness of the cake and any underlying factors if it is not. After the cake is out of the oven,
it is felt on the top by hand and a toothpick inserts into the cake. All three are ways to create a
mental image of how a cake should appear when properly baked. The smell is also noted and
finally the taste. Students create a portfolio for the duration of the program and photograph their
participation in each course. This serves as a reference for visual images of their work, a strate-
gy involving students in the assessment process (Reid, 2012), and as a reference for inner con-
cepts contained in their work, such as when a cake fails to rise. The student photographs and
notes what concepts they failed to understand and execute properly.
According to Mayer, People learn more deeply from words and pictures than from
words alone (2005, p. 31). Sheckley and Bell suggest strategies that bring the teachers to the
students work environment, rather than the students to the classroom (2006, p. 50). Outcomes,
as a result, of this strategy are improved student performance and enhanced learning, along with
increased cognitive development and metacognition, which exceeded those in traditional class-
rooms taught on campus (Sheckley and Bell, 2006, p. 51). The culinary arts curriculum attempts
to replicate a work environment, which provides students with many opportunities to discover
the hidden games.


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Learning the Rules from the Team

Learning from the team allows students to work collaboratively with others and benefit
from those that have a higher level of understanding, which is an example of Vygotskys social
scaffolding (Perkins, 2009, p. 172). Too much of learning is completed in isolation (Perkins,
2009). In the bigger picture, students learn the whole game with others collectively. Vygot-
sky's theories of collaborative learning have led to the development of communities of practice
(CoPs) and the exchange of ideas (Darling-Hammond, Austin, Orcutt, & Martin, 2003). Vygot-
sky believed that cognition is the result of interactions with others and forms according to the
values of a particular culture (Darling-Hammond et al., 2003) and that social mores or rules ab-
sorb through observation. Rules are standards observed based on actions, conduct, and proce-
dures to ensure safe, consistent, and fair results (Thagard, 2005). When students work collabora-
tively as a team, rules are an essential part of group dynamics.
Students divided into groups, prepare a bchamel, espagnole, vloute, tomato or hollan-
daise and from the mother sauce they create, they will prepare a small sauce based on the ingre-
dients available in the groups basket. The teacher establishes participation structures (Per-
kins, 2009, p. 170) with communities of practice used to facilitate student involvement. Scaf-
folding can help students with less experience preparing sauces, to perform just above their de-
velopmental level by participating as apprentices that gradually become more involved in the
preparations.
The students thrive in a collaborative learning environment while performing real tasks or
whole games (Perkins, 2009). A group within the group works on the hard part of determin-
ing which small sauce the students can prepare, only using the ingredients included in their bas-
ket and the steps of each recipe. The assignment is challenging for most students. It requires
PERKINS PRINCIPLES WITH APPLICATIONS 10

students to be able to manipulate a recipe backwards and forwards by following procedures, un-
derstanding the standards and achieving consistent results when preparing a type of sauce deter-
mined by the ingredients. Demonstrations, sharing ideas, critiques of each other's work and ob-
servations of standards are other means of learning collaboratively. This class session builds a
community of practice where students actively share and talk about what they know, want to
learn and what they have learned (KWL strategy). The situation ideally prepares students for
what occurs in a professional kitchen, the rules they must follow and the game as a whole.
Reflecting on the Hard Parts of Learning the Game of Learning
The culinary arts program is the perfect platform to apply Perkins principals. Instructors
can make the game [confusing]," rather than worth playing (Perkins, 2009) as chef instructors
are trained in culinary arts, not necessarily education. They can become afflicted with
elementitis and aboutitis and neglect to put the elements together and only teach about con-
cepts instead of teaching how to do something. This approach to teaching skims over the hard
parts, which Perkins (2009) describes as aspects of learning that cannot be mastered without
anticipation, deliberate practice, and actionable feedback (p. 107). Perkins advises in-
structors to create tudes or specific exercises that strengthen the hard parts (Perkins, 2009,
p. 105). Mastering the hard parts enables students to get better at playing the game.
According to Novella (2011), attention cannot be diverted in multiple directions at the
same time, without decreasing performance in both activities. Most individuals are not effective
at multi-tasking (Novella, 2011) and concentration should focus on the immediate topic or hard
part while suppressing other stimuli (Perkins, 2009). Fougnie elaborates by stating attention de-
termines what will be encoded or placed in working memory. The division of attention while
encoding, may hamper the contents of working memory (2008, p. 9). Mastering the hard parts
PERKINS PRINCIPLES WITH APPLICATIONS 11

requires students to focus their attention and for educators to recognize that working memory and
attention over-lap and performing complex tasks depends on the ability to retain and retrieve in-
formation (Fougnie, 2011). There is value in the hard parts and instructors need to stop when
they realize a student is practicing [their] mistakes (Perkins, 2009, p. 79) rather than practicing
the hard parts.
Whether cooking or teaching, it is important for an educator to remain mindful that they
were once a student and still are which enables the instructor to evolve into a masterful educator
and a cook to transform into an Iron Chef. As Perkins states, The reality is that when we step
off the platform with degrees in hand, most of what we need to learn still lies ahead (2009, p.
211) which leads to the conclusion that Who dares to teach must never cease to learn (Dana,
n.d.).
Connect, Synthesize, and Reflect
As I have learned in The Cognitive Science of Teaching and Learning, mental representa-
tions (logic, rules, concepts, analogies, images) in the brain are what process data and the atten-
tion (emotions, motivation, memory) we give to that data allows us to transfer and connect it to a
dynamic system within a social context. The principles of teaching, described by Perkins (2009)
provide an explanation and evaluation of how learning takes place. Rather than learning a topic
piece by piece, creating gaps, Perkins discusses the idea of realistic instruction and making the
classroom an engaging and productive environment while alluding to cognitive abilities when
demonstrating this.
I was only able to apply the teachings of this course to culinary arts, as a result, of my
training with Chef Carol Calder-Deinzer, CEPC, at Washtenaw Community College. Her meth-
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od of instruction and the strategies she implemented provided me with countless examples to in-
corporate into this paper.
A demonstration by Chef Carol never left students wondering why? The whole
game and its purpose are always apparent during a demonstration using all mental representa-
tions to facilitate meaningful and insightful learning. Chef Carol was always five steps ahead
when instructing students of the hidden games in preparing a caramel sauce as she pulls the
hard parts from her lectures and embraces them in the kitchen as her students practice the pro-
cess of baking bread. It was imperative to her, that she logically explain and demonstrate the
rules of the kitchen, and the standards in baking and pastry to provide students with the resources
they needed to produce quality products. Chef Carol is responsible for students learning to read
their recipes twice. For her, making the game worth playing was all about watching her stu-
dents play out of town and students were encouraged to list her as a reference when applying
for professional positions.
The same is true of Chef Sharyl Politi and Chef Cheryl Hanewich. Chef Sharyls exper-
tise provided me with the confidence to decorate a cake successfully. Chef Cheryl inspired me
to use the quote by John Cotton Dana as she repeatedly told students that she is continually
learning. I once asked Chef Alan Merhar if he was a personal trainer in his spare time. He is the
chef responsible for my successful completion of a Hollandaise sauce to a mousseline small
sauce. Faster, faster, faster, is all he said while I whisked the whip by hand as fast as I could,
while another student exclaimed, Cant we just buy this stuff! They are all exceptionally tal-
ented instructors in the program that follow Chef Carols example of exemplary instruction. It is
with deepest appreciation that I thank them as well as all the chef instructors in the program, for
requiring me to practice the hard parts and making my culinary arts experience whole.
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