ENJOY A VIDEO INTRODUCTION

Welcome to “A Happy Challah-Day: a case study of round challah baking,” studied and written by me, Liz Paushter.  

When I think of this case study, I think of a bike chain. When you look at a bike chain, you see dozens of chain links. You need each link, or you’d have no chain. But, without all of the links attached together, the chain won’t work. 

Dan Tress, my husband, ventured into the world of bread baking. As someone who rarely turns on an oven, he decided to bake a complicated loaf of challah bread, a food with deep cultural values to his (and my) family. And, a skill that I secretly hope he learns to master--for our benefits of eating delicious bread. 

At the heart of my case is this question: what is the relationship between self-directed, and self-regulated, learning and social cognitive theory? How can a learner benefit from being both? When we think of the bike chain, a learner may, perhaps, need to be confident in their individual link--seeing their use and learning their role--but also be open to connecting with other links in order to fully experience learning--to make the bike move. 

We all have students who prefer working alone, and we all have students who prefer working as a group. I am interested in how the merging of the two operate to create positive learning experiences. Dan is an interesting test subject because he is a fiercely independent learner. What you will see in the study is how even though his self-directed approach worked well for part of the process, he needed to add multimedia to his experience in order to learn well. And, you will see that I recommend a more social environment of observation for him to enhance his learning more. 

And here is, in time lapse, discovering the importance of using multimedia in this learning experience: the complicated braiding. 

I am drawn to many learning theories present in this case. The work of Mayers, particularly his research on learning with multimedia and his segmenting and modality principles, provides a framework for my observations. Knowles’ (1998) and Jarvis’ (2010) discussions of self-directed learning and Beishuizen and Steffens’ (2011) theories on self-regulation helped me identify Dan’s strengths. And, Wlodkowski’s (2008) findings about the significance of motivation coupled with Sheckley’s (2006) connections between personal and positive experiences allowed me to see an important context to Dan’s approach. 

As Dan pedaled through a learning experience, I could see the chain links reacting to each other, and he did ultimately complete his ride, producing a beautiful and delicious braided round challah.