Integral Tasks

While in the coffee shop, students were engaged in activities for a clear purpose; that is, they contributed to the operation of the coffee shop through the completion of integral tasks, such as preparing baked goods, serving customers, and operating the cash register. Their active involvement in these integral tasks impacted them in two ways: it helped students to work together, and it gave students a taste of the realities and pressures of an actual employment setting. Hannah and Marion described how the activities of the coffee shop supported and in fact demanded collaboration and interaction amongst the students. "In the coffee shop we are all… How can I explain? But we are, we have more time to do things, talking because everything… We are looking at recipes. We are…" Marion finished her sentence and added, "…asking questions." Hannah then continued and explained, "If we work together to make the muffins, you have to ask the question: 'I think that's not right' or something like that [or] 'What does that mean?'" In this way, she said, the students must get to know each, work together, and overcome their apprehensions.

Hannah then explained how this kind of communication occurred only in the coffee shop and not the classroom.

[The coffee shop] is different from other classes because when you are in class, when we are in the class, or other students are in the class, there's not a lot of time to talk. Everybody is busy for learning. But our class, we go to the kitchen, we work together. We talk. We help each other.

Rouda who was actively involved in her placement at the time of her interview, saw the link between the integral activities she did in the coffee shop and the activities she did in her placement. Despite the fact that they were two very different settings, she felt that she was prepared to work in the childcare after being in the coffee shop.

The cafeteria [coffee shop], is like a real job because you are doing everything as work. You are not thinking about doing it for nothing. this is your job and you have to do it.