Not So Fast! Exploring Fast Food Influence on Italian

Culture through PBLL By Dr. Daniela Busciglio

University of Oklahoma

Kean University

2016 NFLRC Intensive Summer Institute Participant

A peak into today’s presentation

u  Interculturality as underlying theme

u  Overview of project design

u  Strands in PBLL design through flexible design templates

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Interculturality & PBLL

u  Culture as organism: it’s alive!

u  dynamic, evolving, morphing

u  mutable, nuanced, textured

u  Focus on interplay of culture over/through time and space

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Interculturality as Autopoietic Journey

“Autopoietic structures have definite boundaries, such as a semipermeable membrane, but the boundaries are open and connect the system with almost unimaginable complexity to the world around it.” -John Briggs and F. David Peat, Turbulent Mirror: An Illustrated Guide to Chaos Theory and the Science of Wholeness, 1989

Awareness of Other ! Self-Awareness ! Tolerance ! Sympathy ! Empathy ! Personal Transformation

Attitudes Self-awareness on the personal level; empathy (or, minimally, suspension of disbelief) on the social level; potential for transformation/reconstruction of one’s own identity.

Knowledge Not mere information, but information structured relationally. Comparison (C1/C2) is a strong driver for gaining this.

Skills of interpreting and relating Ability to explain texts/artifacts/events from C2 and relate them to texts/artifacts/events from C1.

Skills of discovery and interaction New knowledge, attitudes and skills are deployed under constraints of real-time communication and interaction.

Critical cultural awareness Learner demonstrates cultural analysis that transcends both cultures, a skill applicable to any cultural setting.

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PBLL, Italian Style

u  …but how to get away from the (stereo)typical treatments of food?

u  Making the global local

u  Project designed for flexibility supportive of authenticity as well as student voice & choice

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Interplay of food cultures

6 /13 u  Eating Regionally in Italy: “There’s No Such Thing As Italian Food” (!!)

Entry Event: McDonald’s v. Neapolitan Pizza

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Challenging Questions

u  Q1: What are some the effects of American fast food chains and processed food products in Italy and how might the influx of American fast food chains in Italy be affecting Italian food culture, rates of obesity, and even modern Italian family values?

u  Q2: Why do we eat fast food if it’s so bad for us?

u  Q3: How can we critically examine our attraction to certain kinds of food, and gain control over our own eating choices?

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What a PBL Unit looks like

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Project Phases & Tasks u  Phase 1: Launching the Project

u  Students begin initial research and reflection on local and global food culture and keep a food log to observe their own eating and health habits in and around their community in a tracker app such as MyFitnessPal with languages settings in Italian.

u  Fast Food Research and Comparison with Italy & home country: investigate how fast food culture is different and similar to their home country (fostering interdisciplinary explorations of geography, math and statistics, art/design, sociology, including in depth grammar usage and order of question words.)

u  Phase 2: Managing the Project

u  Interview Protocol and Data Collection

u  Data Results Processing and Summarizing

u  Comparing and contrasting food diaries with data results; hypothesizing and extrapolating potential cultural differences and similarities

u  Phase 3: Interview or Presentation

u  Conduct (semi) structured interviews with partner school OR creation of infographics for audience to interact with on social media OR another public product

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Public Products: “Strands”

u  Novice: Social Media campaigns with infographics

u  Intermediate/Advanced: Facebook group page conversations

u  Intermediate/Advanced: Instagram video posts and video responses

u  Intermediate/Advanced: 8-10 minute long podcasts

u  Intermediate/Advanced: Skype interviews with partner school (synchronous)

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A Few Tips

u  Think Global, Act Local

u  There’s no perfect PBL

u  Fail forward! F.A.I.L. = First Attempt In Learning

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u  busciglio@ou.edu

u  PBLL project info: http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/pebbles/prototype/175/

Thank you! Questions?

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