Are Quickfires the New Way to Learn?

 Over the course of my MAET hybrid experience, I have come to know and love the concept of Quickfires. Quickfires are a remix of the show Top Chef where "in each episode, the chefs are challenged to cook a dish with certain constraints (i.e. ingredients, themes) within a tight time frame" (Graves Wolf, 2009). This concept inspired the former MAET director, Leigh Graves Wolf, to remix the Top Chef competition and create chaos for the MAET students. An example of this is my Cooking with TPACK video. In my experience, when a Quickfire was challenged, you had 30 minutes (or less) to complete a challenge related to our learning experiences. For the instructors, this seemed like a playful challenge; for the students, it felt more like this:

After taking a step back and reflecting on my Quickfire experience, I have realized what a powerful pedagogy move quickfires are. In order for students to successfully participate in a Quickfire, they need to go through the five phases of design thinking (Plattner, n.d.) in a rapid amount of time. This helps students to organize their thoughts quickly and to act on what limited knowledge they have on a concept to help solve a problem.

The 5 phases of design thinking.

When Quickfires are done successfully, students organize their ideas around concepts to form schemas. This allows for the retention of this information because new shortcuts are being created to easily retrieve information in the student's working memories (Cherry, 2019). No educator that I know does not want their students to remember the information that they teach. The Quickfire method may be a quick and easy way for students to retain this information. However, educators need to make time for reflection afterward to clear up any possible misunderstandings that may have been formed throughout the learning process.

References:

Cherry, K. (2019, September 23). The role of a schema in psychology. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-schema-2795873

Graves Wolf, L. (2009, August 19). Quickfires explained [Blog Post]. LeighGravesWolf.com. http://www.leighgraveswolf.com/2009/08/19/quickfires-explained/

Plattner, H. (n.d.). An Introduction to Design Thinking Process Guide. Institute Design at Stanford. https://web.stanford.edu/~mshanks/MichaelShanks/files/509554.pdf

Robertson, C., Boltz, L. & Dillman, B. (2021, July 13). MAET Quickfire [Blog Post]. Michigan State University. https://education.msu.edu/maet/2021/07/13/maet-quickfire/

Image Credits:

GraysonMarlette [u/GraysonMarlette]. (2018). This is Fine GIF. Giphy. https://media.giphy.com/media/2UCt7zbmsLoCXybx6t/giphy.gif

Terrar, D. (2018). What is Design Thinking?. Agile Thinking. http://www.theagileelephant.com/what-is-design-thinking/