What are we cooking today? Learning...

My career as a student teacher has taught me of all the ways I can capitalize on these luxuries to benefit the learning in the classroom. However, it is only upon my reflection of Malawi that I have been reminded of the fundamentals of effective teaching. Teaching is comparable to that of a cooking demonstration, just as the chef needs ingredients, so too does the teacher, namely; access to the children and themselves.
 

During the cooking demonstration the chef enthuses the audience, capturing their attention from the outset and indeed with open dialogue both of a verbal and physical nature throughout the performance. This metaphor serves to mirror that of the role of the teacher to create a curiosity in the classroom and moreover, foster and nurture this eagerness for learning through collaborative, multisensory and experiential learning. The most poignant element of this metaphor is that of the over-arching goal of the endeavour is to teach the recipe to the audience. This learning goal was not achieved with the end product of the cooked meal, nor does this plate bear any reflection on the quality of learning achieved, instead the effectiveness of the demonstration lays solely on the process which lead to its end.