Situated learning: Food safety among Chinese food vendors

Abstract

A situated learning exercise was employed to teach food safety content in agribusiness management classes at Renmin University in China. Pedagogical objectives included proficiency at identification and assessment of food safety risk factors, source causation factors, and risk mitigation strategies. Identified themes emerging from student ex-post questionnaire responses suggest these objectives were successfully met as students reflected on the process of observing and participating in street food markets and their instinctive reaction to stimuli encountered (affective interpretation), resulting changes in their attitudes and perceptions (cognitive response), and changes in behaviors. Additional learning objectives were defined as an outcome of the learning exercise including identifying and assessing the impact of stimuli and the resulting emotions on attitudes and perceptions; attributing source of food safety concerns to various actors and processes in street food markets; and identifying potential solutions to the environments and practices that generate food safety concerns.