ABSTRACT
The story of this approach to learning and assessment began in a highly structured professional degree program in Food Science and Technology at a university in Sydney, Australia. In 1995, the program was, surprisingly, very traditionally academic. Year 1 was filled completely with foundation courses in biology, chemistry and physics. Students felt little connection with the discipline or the program until Year 2. Further, while some upper-level food courses addressed more professionally relevant aspects of industry, such as management, courses were largely technical in their treatment of food science and technology, and assessment by technical assignment and examination was pervasive. There was little focus on the communicative versus technical aspects of written work and, similarly, little if any explicit attention given to many generic skills, such as oral and interpersonal communication and teamwork.
