Monitoring and Support

In the coffee shop there was a distinct difference between the classroom regarding how students monitored each other and offered support or feedback. In the classroom, explained Suzanne, students who were focused on an activity might say something like, "Oh, you got that one." But the high level of personal feedback, in which one student once told another that she's "amazing", didn't occur in the classroom. Suzanne felt that this kind of personally affirming feedback from a peer was more influential than anything an instructor might say. Suzanne described an exchange she once witnessed in the coffee shop.

Hannah had just come in and she was talking to Stacey who was a busy bee working around there, just doing everything. Hannah didn't know I was there and she said, 'I saw you the last time.' She said, 'Yesterday when everyone was gone you were just doing everything. You worked so hard. You did this job and this job. You're just amazing.' Stacey was just beaming and she said, 'Yep I was doing all of that.' That was a really nice thing initiated by Hannah towards Stacey, and I thought wow—this is good. It made me feel very good to hear that.

Fran suggested that the coffee shop might be one of the only settings outside of family in which students received positive feedback and affirmation from peers.

Students not only supported each other's learning through feedback but they also analysed their own work and learned to self–correct. Fran said they pushed themselves to do well and wanted to determine where and how an error had been made. She said,

They're really great at that actually. You see how sincerely interested they are in looking at that cookie, and seeing and realizing why it didn't work. They go back many extra steps, evaluating the results.

This ability may be related to Carrie's instructional approach, suggested Fran. She explained how Carrie set clear expectations and modeled the behaviours that she wanted to encourage in the coffee shop.