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An examination of teachers' proficiency in incorporating soft skills into instructions to culinary students at Kai Ping Culinary School: a gap analysis

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An examination of teachers' proficiency in incorporating soft skills into instructions to culinary students at Kai Ping Culinary School: a gap analysis

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Content Running head: INCORPORATING SOFT SKILLS INTO INSTRUCTION 1

AN EXAMINATION OF TEACHERS’ PROFICIENCY IN INCORPORATING SOFT SKILLS
INTO INSTRUCTIONS TO CULINARY STUDENTS AT KAI PING CULINARY SCHOOL:
A GAP ANALYSIS

by

Howard Hao-Chun Hsia

________________________________________________________________________

A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

December 2014

Copyright 2014 Howard Hao-Chun Hsia

INCORPORATING SOFT SKILLS INTO INSTRUCTION

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DEDICATION
The past two years have been a life changing experience, where I have pivoted my
professional life towards education through the eye-opening journey of this global education
program. I dedicate this amazing journey of intellectual and professional growth to two
individuals whom supported me throughout difficult times, and motivated me to overcome
challenges.
My father, Dr. Hsia, Hui-Wen, an expert in Chinese philosophy and Post-Modern
educational philosophy, has given his full support, spiritually and financially, for my completion
of study. As the founder of Kai Ping culinary school, he believes that learning comes from
within. Successfully navigating relationships of self and with others is the key to a happy and
spiritually and physically balanced life. My father’s visions and values have inspired me dearly
and allowed me to pursue my dreams and goals. During his times as acting principal, he devoted
his life to foster change in the Taiwan education structure. Stripping down organizational
bureaucracy, decentralizing and increasing autonomy to teachers, he successfully turned Kai
Ping Culinary School into one of the top senior vocational high schools in Taiwan. His efforts
have proven that determination can overcome any obstacle in life.
Secondly, I dedicate this work to my wife, Yvonne Yu-Yu Wu, who motivated me
throughout my program of study. My wife took care of all the housework, urged me in
progressing through my academic studies, and provided comfort when I ran into difficulties.
During this time, I was preoccupied with work and study, and did not have the chance to spend
quality time with her. But I want to thank her for her spiritual support and numerous
motivational speeches that kept me on track to complete my doctoral degree.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Being a part of the University of Southern California inaugural cohort for the Global
Educational doctoral program was one of the greatest decisions that I have made and committed
to. There are many individuals whom deserve special appreciation that made this experience
unique. First and foremost, I want to thank my dissertation chair and committee members, Dr.
Rudy Castruita, Dr. Rob Filback, Dr. Kenneth Yates, and Dr. Cathy Krop for their leadership,
guidance and support.
Dr. Rudy Castruita has been a motivational leader who has continuously inspired me to
drive for excellence. He has been a mentor of knowledge, shared conceptual understanding and
made available at all times when guidance and counsels requires. Dr. Rob Filback is a wonderful
listener to concerns, and ideas and provided many counsels on the methods to approach my
dissertation topic. I am grateful to Dr. Kenneth Yates who presented the Gap Analysis
framework and took the time to explain the model in detail with clarity in guidelines and
expectations. Dr. Kathy Crop shined lights to education policy and administration that have
facilitated and deepened my learning in global education.
I would like to extend my special thanks to our program director Dr. Nadine Singh for
providing the access to learning resources as well as her efforts making arrangements to create
meaningful learning experience during our sessions in Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Doha, and Abu
Dhabi. Thank you for creating such an invaluable experience for myself and for our cohort.
Thirdly, I want to devote my highest appreciation to my colleagues at Kai Ping Culinary
School. They have been very supportive, eager to offer assistance at work, and were open to
contribute towards my study. I especially want to thank my secretaries, the director of culinary
INCORPORATING SOFT SKILLS INTO INSTRUCTION

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arts, and all the Chefs and food and beverage teachers for being so considerate and supportive,
and preparing all the amazing meals for me as I studied late at night in my office.
My dear family Sherry Hsia, Jennifer Yuan-I Hsia, and my mother Liu, Shu-Fen
constantly provided support, encouragements, laughter and counsel for me to accomplish this
challenging academic journey. I could not have accomplished this much without your support.
During this challenging journey, as my focus was solely on work and study, I appreciate
that my friends understood the difficult times that I was experiencing and provided silent support.
Often times they would come by and drop off a red bull beverage and give a pat on the back. I
want to thank you for always being there.
Last but not least, I want to thank my colleagues in this program. We have gone a long
way together and fought through difficult times. I enjoyed your company through this amazing
and unique experience. Your diverse backgrounds and professional expertise have deepened my
understanding of education around the globe. I enjoyed the times we studied, read, worked on
projects together and went on tours with each other. We were a cohesive group that not only
learned together, but also had fun during our in-person sessions. I appreciate the late night
motivational chats and how each of us selflessly helped each other in our academic studies.
Thank you for all your support and guidance, I would not have been able to achieve and
accomplish this undertaking alone. This is one fun and challenging intellectual journey that will
be memorable for a lifetime.

INCORPORATING SOFT SKILLS INTO INSTRUCTION

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication 2
Acknowledgement 3
List of Tables 6
List of Figures 8
Abstract 9
Chapter 1: Introduction 10
Chapter 2: Review of the Literature 22
Chapter 3: Methodology 45
Chapter 4: Results and Findings 76
Chapter 5: Solutions 127
Chapter 6: Discussions and Evaluations 151
References 167

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Organizational Mission, Global Goal, and Stakeholder Goals 48
Table 2. Aggregated Level of Soft Skill Competencies for Hospitality and 50
Foodservice Industries
Table 3. Soft Skill Competencies Given Through Instruction 52
Table 4. Summary of Assumed Causes for Knowledge, Motivation, and Organization 60
Table 5. Survey Builder Worksheet for Knowledge 66
Table 6. Survey Builder Worksheet for Motivation 67
Table 7. Survey Builder Worksheet for Organization 69
Table 8. Interview Builder Worksheet for Knowledge 71
Table 9. Interview Builder Worksheet for Motivation 72
Table 10. Interview Builder Worksheet for Organization 73
Table 11. Survey: Stakeholders Demographic Information 78
Table 12. Interview: Stakeholder Demographic Information 80
Table 13. General Overview Knowledge Survey Results: Directional Response 82
in Percentages
Table 14. Analysis of Knowledge Survey Results: Descriptive Statistics 85
Table 15. Survey Question: Identifying Valuable Soft Skills 87
Table 16. Summary of Validated Knowledge Causes 98
Table 17. General Overview of Motivation Survey Results: Directional Response 100
in Percentages
Table 18. Analysis of Motivational Survey Results: Descriptive Statistics 102
Table 19. Survey Motivation Questions 46 and 48 104
Table 20. Summary of Validated Motivational Causes 112

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Table 21. General Overview of Organizational Survey Results: Directional Response 114
in Percentages
Table 22. Analysis of Organizational Survey Results: Descriptive Statistics 116
Table 23. Survey Organization Question 45 118
Table 24. Summary of Validated Organizational Causes 124
Table 25. Validated Knowledge, Motivation, and Organization Causes 125
Table 26. Summary of Causes, Solutions, and Implementation of the Integrated 145
Solution
Table 27. Summary of Organization’s Main Goal, Cascading Goals and Performance 147
Goals
Table 28. Summary of Performance Goals, Timeline and Measurement of Performance 148
Goals

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. The gap analysis process 46

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ABSTRACT
Hard Skills are technical skills or foundational skills that allow one entry to perform on a job
while soft skills are the human skills that serve as a competitive advantage for fostering a career
success. Hospitality and culinary educational programs that focus curriculums on hard skill
training alone can no longer satisfy the market needs in preparing talents for the service industry.
Therefore, to close the industry-education gap, this case study served two purposes: (1) to define
the “soft skills” with competencies valuable to the service industry at all employment levels, and
(2) to examine the amount of soft skills teachers incorporated into instruction at Kai Ping
Culinary School. Competencies identified to define “soft skills” were extracted through a review
of literature, and to assess the current levels of teachers’ performance in incorporating soft skills
into instruction. Guided by the Gap Analysis Framework, this study adopted a mixed-method
research design to seek causes to the performance gap. Presumed causes were organized into
knowledge, motivation, and organization themes. To gather quantitative results, a survey, filled
by 26 teachers, were analyzed through descriptive statistics. Using a snowball sampling and
criterion selection method, six teachers were interviewed for qualitative analysis. Results and
findings showed a grand mean of 66% of the soft skill competencies were incorporated into
instruction, and a 34% gap exists. Six validated causes were identified and a three-part
integrated solution was proposed. The proposed solution suggested Kai Ping Culinary School to
provide soft skills knowledge workshops, institute a mentor-coaching program, and establish an
evaluation system for formalize feedback and to increase growth and accountability. An
implementation and evaluation plan was structured for practical implications.

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Statement of the Problem
The impact of globalization and technology advancements increased competition of
business operations that shaped the 21
st
century workplace by demanding employees practice
more soft skills than ever (Bunker & Wakerfield, 2004; Dede, 2010; Robles, 2012). Hard skills,
also known as technical skills, gets one an interview or entry to employment; however, it is the
soft skills, also known as the intangible skills, that empower individuals for a successful career
(Bancino & Zevalkink, 2007; Bailly & Lene, 2013; Cook & Macaulay, 1997; John, 2009; Robles,
2012).
Most time spent in education is focused on learning hard skills: the how-to procedural
knowledge and skills that can be put on a resume to explain education, work experience, and
levels of expertise (Johanson, Ghiselli, Shea & Roberts, 2010; Robles, 2012) and which can be
measured and correlated with employment wages. The more technical skills one possesses, the
higher the wages one receives; on the other hand, social skills, a component of soft skills, has not
been analyzed in correlation with wages (Korzynski, 2005).
The 21
st
century workplace places more emphasis on soft skills. Robles (2012) surveyed
business executives’ perspectives regarding skills essential for individuals to be successful and
reported that integrity and communication skills were extremely important. In retail settings,
employers are more concerned with the soft skill competencies employees have, as it is the
personality, appearance, attitudes and relational skills that influences customer’s perception in
service quality (Bally & Lene, 2013; Nickson, Warhurst, Commander, Hurrell & Cullen, 2012;
Nickson, Warhurst, Duttom, 2005). In the foodservice industry, DiPietro, Murphy, Rivera and
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Muller (2007) suggested the most essential skills for single and multi-unit managers in restaurant
operations are soft skills in leadership and human resource skills.
Particularly in the service sector, in which competition is intensifying, the 21
st
century
workplace demands soft skills in addition to hard skills (Bharwani & Butt, 2012; Bailly & Lene,
2013; Nickson et al., 2012). One of the major concerns of the hospitality and foodservice
industry is the attraction and retention of labor (Bharwani & Butt, 2012; Davidson, McPhail &
Barry, 2010). Most culinary programs focus on training students with culinary technical skills,
but hospitality and culinary programs should adapt to the market needs by revising curricula
(Johanson et al., 2010). Therefore, to close industry-educational gaps, hospitality and culinary
programs should focus on fostering soft skills, the integration and application skills, in addition
to hard skill trainings (Blum 1996, 1997; Weber, Finley, Crawford & Rivera, 2009; Yup Chung,
2000).
Context of the Problem
Taiwan is becoming a service-oriented country, as approximately 70% of its Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) comes from the service industry (Directorate-General of Budget,
Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan, 2012). Tourism is one of the largest industries
worldwide, especially in countries with advanced economies (United Nations World Tourism
Organization [UNWTO], 2012). Hotel and restaurant businesses constantly search for new talent
to meet increasingly competitive demands. Hospitality and culinary degree-granting programs
have grown tremendously worldwide to prepare quality graduates for employability (Johanson et
al., 2010).
There are 155 secondary vocational and tertiary culinary programs in Taiwan
(Department of Statistics, n.d.). Kai Ping Culinary School, previously known as Kai Ping Senior
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Vocational High School, is a private-nonprofit secondary senior vocational high school
established in 1953. With sixty years of history, it was not until 1991 that culinary education
was first introduced to Kai Ping’s curriculum (Kai Ping Culinary School, 2013c). For the past
two decades, Kai Ping has enjoyed a strong reputation as one of the leading culinary programs in
Taiwan, and its educational achievements and outcomes are often compared to tertiary culinary
programs.
Servicing a total student population of 1500 student with a three-year curriculum, Kai
Ping grants a high school diploma to its graduates and offers culinary training in the fields of
Chinese cuisine, Western cuisine, bakery and pastry, and food and beverage service (Kai Ping
Culinary School Website, 2013b). The goal is to prepare students with the necessary knowledge,
skills and abilities to be employed in the hospitality and foodservice industries in both the service
and chef professions. Therefore, all students undergo training of service and culinary skills in all
fields of food and beverage, Chinese and Western cuisine, and bakery and pastry, during their
first year of the program. In the second year of the program, students choose to specialize on a
particular field of interest.
In 1992, Kai Ping was the first culinary school to construct a “sandwich styled
curriculum” in which a student participates in a yearlong internship in the hospitality and
foodservice industry as part of the educational experience (Kai Ping Culinary School, 2013).
The aim was to make practical application of the skills learned at school and gain real-time
workplace perception and experience of the professions. During the last year of the program,
students return from their internships to finish their education and train in additional advanced
skills.
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Aside from the technical skills trainings, Kai Ping teaches general preparatory courses,
such as language, history, mathematics, science, and physical education to meet the demands of
the Ministry of Education in granting high school diploma. Thus, Kai Ping’s culinary education
is centered on two main areas: competencies training in the field of service and culinary arts and
general preparatory courses. Hospitality and foodservice industry professionals, at the levels of
general managers and executive chefs, were hired as full-time teachers in competency training,
and educationally certified teachers are responsible for teaching students general knowledge
through thematic courses.
To integrate both competency training with general knowledge courses, Kai Ping stages
its education through a “trans-disciplinary integration curriculum structure” (Lin, 2002). In other
words, meaningful learning is fostered through thirteen thematic courses. Hosting culinary
competition is an example of a theme in which students learn how to plan, market, promote and
execute a culinary challenge. Mathematics teachers will teach calculations in related themes,
such as calculating for food ingredients, to help students prepare for the competition. Therefore,
through thirteen thematic courses and a yearlong internship, students are prepared with
confidence and the knowledge and skills to enter hospitality and foodservice industries and
related fields.
Mission and Organizational Problem
The Kai Ping Culinary School’s mission is to provide a meaningful learning environment
that fosters students’ development in both hard and soft skills and to equip students with the
necessary knowledge, skills and abilities for the service industry. To prepare students to become
future leaders in the hospitality and foodservice industry, Kai Ping focuses on three main areas:
technical skills, human skills and cognitive skills and knowledge. Through the thematic course
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design, students are prepared with appropriate knowledge and technical skills to allow them to
achieve directed goals. Students develop human skills through a collaborative learning process
and dialogue.
Understanding the importance of soft skills and placing emphasis on soft skills in
addition to hard skills brings Kai Ping to its leadership status in Taiwan culinary education.
However, to maintain the leadership position, Kai Ping seeks self-improvements in its
curriculum design and delivery of quality instruction. In addition, the competitive landscape of
the hospitality and foodservice operation demands quality graduates acquire knowledge, skills
and abilities that lead to superior performance in meeting service demands (Johanson et al., 2010;
Yup Chung, 2000; Zopiatis, 2010). Therefore, an examination of the current level of
performance of Kai Ping’s education is meaningful in providing insight to the effectiveness of
the curriculum design and areas that need improvement. The discrepancy gap analysis
framework best suits the case study in undertaking an in-depth review of the problem.
Organizational Goal
Although the thematic courses place emphasis on students’ development of soft skills, it
is unclear whether the soft skills competencies focused on align with what industry professionals
value. It is Kai Ping’s goal to have its teachers effectively integrate 100% of the soft skill
competencies into instruction and foster meaningful learning. Therefore, to close the industry-
education skill gaps and prepare graduates with skills that make them employable, a critical first
step is to elevate Kai Ping’s culinary education quality through defining the term “soft skills.”
Soft skill should be clearly defined through competencies that industry professionals emphasize
in the 21
st
century workplace.
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The identified soft skill competencies will serve as a baseline model for Kai Ping in
examining its curriculum and evaluating teachers’ proficiency in integrating soft skills into
instruction. To determine whether goals are achieved, evaluation should measure the amount of
competencies teachers incorporate into instruction.
Stakeholders
The stakeholders at Kai Ping culinary school are students and their parents, teachers, and
school administration. Each stakeholder contributes to and benefits from fostering students’ soft
skills competencies. Students benefit from the their development of soft skills competencies as it
differentiates them from others and provides a competitive edge through knowledge, skills and
abilities that foster success in employment and career advancement.
Parents work closely with the teachers since both parents and teachers bear accountability
for student learning. Education that takes place in the home plays an influential role in learning.
Through students’ development of soft skills competencies, personality, character, values and
beliefs are shaped. Parents are fulfilled when their child can achieve and accomplish goals and
tasks, and, furthermore, when their child gains a competitive advantage.
Most teachers at Kai Ping culinary school are young graduates from teachers college in
the age group of 24 to 30 years. Two of the major concerns are the lack of teaching experience
and a high turnover rate. Teachers’ employment span with Kai Ping culinary school is an
average of 3 years. However, Kai Ping prefers to train teachers who are new graduates of
teachers college, as they can be more open-minded and likely to take on challenges in teaching
thematic course design instead of conforming to traditional teaching methodologies.
Every summer and winter breaks, all teachers attend professional development sessions
on the topic of increasing proficiency in teaching thematic courses to ensure positive and
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productive instruction. Teachers benefit from learning new strategies by sharing their
experiences and supporting each other through a collaborative process. Fostering soft skills can
be challenging, as these are intangible and, therefore, less measureable. Nonetheless, teachers
contribute their efforts in enhancing students’ development of soft skills.
The school administration plays an indirect role in fostering the development of students’
soft skill competencies. The school administration leaders and staff support teachers with the
resources necessary to achieve goals. One of the major resources administration brings in
consists of real- time projects from the market, such as planning and catering banquets for the
Deaf Olympics in 2009 (Kai Ping Culinary School, 2013c), and allowing the project to become
one of the thematic courses. The administration benefits from students’ development of soft skill
competencies when industry professionals recognize the Kai Ping brand through students’
performances.
Stakeholder for the Study
Although joint efforts and active participation of all stakeholders will be required to
effectively integrate 100% of soft skills competencies into instruction, the primary stakeholder
for this study was identified as the cohort of teachers at Kai Ping culinary school. Teachers,
serving as the frontline educators, directly affect student motivation, interest in learning, and they
are most influential in shaping values and personality. Teaching methodologies enforce he
effectiveness the curriculum and benefit student development of soft skills. Examining the
underlying causes of barriers to fostering the development of soft skills is critical. If learning
goals are unmet and teachers lack effective teaching methodologies, students will not meet
market needs or gain a competitive advantage, and Kai Ping will not fulfill its mission; thus,
maintain its leadership position and reputation may prove challenging. As a result, enrollment
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and graduates’ employment rates may be affected and cause future problems such as
sustainability issues.
Background of the Study
The competitive landscape of today’s workplace, across industries and nations, values
soft skills more than hard skills (Bancino & Zevalkink, 2007; Nickson et al., 2012; Robles, 2012;
Schulz, 2008; Weber, Finley, Crawford & Rivera, 2009). Soft skills empower long-term success
in careers and provide students a competitive edge (Bancino & Zevalkink, 2007; Bailly & Lene,
2013; Cook & Macaulay, 1997; John, 2009; Robles, 2012). In the hospitality and foodservice
industries, shortage of labor and retention of labor are two of the main limitations to expansion
of business operations. For operations to remain viable in the competitive landscape, the
hospitality and foodservice operation relies heavily on human labor. Difficulties attracting and
retaining labor often relate to unusual working hours, low wages, poor working conditions, lack
of career planning, and lack of training, which may all lead to low motivation and job
satisfaction (Korczynski, 2005; Pratten, 2003).
Service jobs are often seen as low-skilled low-status, and therefore, poorly paid.
However, providing quality service and obtaining customer satisfaction means direct interaction
with the customer (Korczynski, 2005). It is the perception of the customer, or the receiver of
service, that determines the level of quality in service that is provided. Thus, service employees
have great autonomy and face great complexity in dealing with customer needs. As service jobs
require more social aspects and skills to deal with complex situations, social skills are often not
recognized as skills that could easily equate to level of wages (Korczynski, 2005.).
Chefs can be seen as holders of the most difficult jobs. Chefs are expected to master both
scientific and artistic innovative competencies (Zopiatis, 2010). Hu (2010) indicated that
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creative and aesthetic skills, technical skills, and service and management competencies are
essential competencies and skills to chefs in demonstrating superior performance in the 21
st

century workplace. The profession of chefs requires a set of technical skills that allows them to
prepare extraordinary cuisine, but chefs are also referred to as service employees, providing
service to customers through creativity in the cuisine they prepare. Chefs of the 21
st
century are
expected to understand customer needs and handle customer complaints first-hand (Hu, 2010).
On the other hand, Murry-Gibbons and Gibbons (2007) investigated the contributing
factors that cause stress to chefs. The study surveyed 40 chefs in Ireland and found that chefs
have a large amount of stress mainly due to poor communication, threats of violence, and
bullying at work. The authors suggest that communication skills are critical for chefs, and
having appraisal processes from management helps motivate and support them while also being
an important factor in reducing occupational stress. Once stress is reduced, retention rate may
increase.
Pratten (2003) indicated that lack of training causes the departure of employees, but
employers often do not provide much training for low-skilled jobs. Schools train graduates with
a focus on culinary technical skills, but neglect to foster the development in communication,
management, and leadership skills. Muller, VanLeeuwen, Mandabach and Harrington (2009)
investigated the industry satisfaction rates of culinary graduates in eastern Canada. They found
that 80% of students and graduates were satisfied with the culinary curricula. However, the
industry reported a lower satisfaction rate for communication and comprehension skills,
particularly among graduates.
In general, employers complain that educational institutions do not prepare graduates
with real perceptions of the workplace (Zopiatis, 2010), and students lack the soft skills that
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enhance productive performance (Schulz, 2008). Researches indicated that hospitality and
culinary programs need to be revised and reformed to meet industry needs (Blum, 1996;
Johanson et al., 2010; Muller et al, 2009; Yup Chung, 2000; Zopiatis, 2010). As hard skills lay
the foundation for entry to employment, education institutions should incorporate soft skills
learning to foster students’ career success and achievement, particularly for the hospitality and
foodservice industry.
Understanding the importance and the need of soft skills in the preparation of future
graduates for the 21
st
century workplace, research suggested a diverse definition of soft skills and
a context-specific valuation of soft skills. Most commonly, soft skills were defined as
communication skills, interpersonal skills, human skills, people skills, relational skills,
employability skills, emotional intelligence skills, personality traits and characteristics, and 21
st

century skills (Bancino & Zevalkink, 2007; Bunker & Wakerfield, 2004; Paulson, 2001; Riggs &
Hughey, 2011; Robles, 2012;Weber et al., 2009). This study adopted Sandwith’s (1993) model
of competency analysis to define soft skills and was intended to help close industry-education
skill gaps for the hospitality and foodservice industry.
Importance of the Problem
As one of the major concerns for the hospitality and foodservice industry is the shortage
of labor, closing industry-education skill gaps in preparing quality individuals for the 21
st
century
workforce is a priority (Bharwani & Butt, 2012; Wang & Wang, 2009). Difficulties in the
retention of quality chefs in restaurant operations raise concerns of a skills shortage (Pratten,
2003). It is the mission of Kai Ping Culinary School to prepare its graduates for the 21
st
century
workplace and to prepare students to become future leaders in the hospitality and foodservice
industries. By fostering an environment of meaningful learning of both hard and soft skills, the
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20
goal is to receive a 100% satisfactory rating from industry professionals in the evaluation of
students’ performance. To achieve the goals, teachers will need to incorporate 100% of the soft
skill competencies into teaching instructions.
For Kai Ping to maintain its reputation and status in culinary education, preparing quality
individuals for the industry and closing the industry-education skill gaps are essential.
Understanding the competencies industry professionals seek and integrating these into
instruction is the first step to achieving the goal. Kai Ping should re-evaluate its curriculum and
determine whether it serves its purpose. It is critical that Kai Ping improves its organizational
performance, as its reputation may be at stake when goals are unmet. Students will be less likely
to find employment after graduation, and, as a result, Kai Ping may face lower admission and
enrollment along with becoming less likely to remain competitive in the field of culinary
education.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was twofold, (1) define “soft skill” with competencies that the
hospitality and foodservice industry professionals find valuable and (2) use the identified soft
skill competencies as a baseline model to perform an evaluation of teachers’ proficiency in
incorporating them into instruction. The primary stakeholder of analysis was the cohort of
teachers, as teachers are the most influential in the delivery of instructional quality. The study
intends to examine the underlying knowledge, motivation and organizational causes preventing
teachers from accomplishing the goal of integrating 100% of soft skill competencies into
instruction. The study sought to provide research-based solutions along with an implementation
and evaluation plan. The research questions that guide this study are presented below.
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Research Questions
1. What are the necessary levels of soft skill competencies the hospitality and
foodservice industry values?
2. What are the current levels of soft skill competencies Kai Ping teachers incorporate
into their instructions?
3. What barriers in knowledge, motivation, and organization prevent teachers from
successfully incorporating 100% of the soft skill competencies into the curriculum?
4. What are the recommended solutions to close the knowledge, motivation,
organization gaps that prevent the teachers from incorporating soft skills into the
curriculum?
Methodological Framework
A mixed-methods approach of qualitative and quantitative analysis was used to research
the potential causes and address potential solutions to increase teachers’ proficiency in delivering
soft skill instruction. Clark and Estes’ (2008) gap analysis, a systematic, analytical process that
helped to clarify organizational goals and identify the gap between the actual performance level
and the preferred performance level within an organization, was selected as the framework to
guide this study. Assumed causes for the performance gap were generated based on personal
knowledge, scanning interviews, and a review of literature. Presumed causes were validated
through surveys and interviews. Research-based solutions were proposed with an
implementation and evaluation plan.
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22
CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
A review of literature related to this case study yields a clear overview of the trends and
demands within the hospitality and tourism industry and may provide insight and guidance to
understand the reasons behind the need for soft skill competencies. To close the industry-
education skill gaps, it is essential to first understand hospitality and foodservice industry trends
and transformation. In an exploration of the current industry needs for talents, defining
competencies and identifying valuable soft skill competencies is inevitable. Guided by the
research questions proposed, an analysis and synthesis of literature in the themes of (1) tourism
and hospitality trends, (2) skills and competency, (3) soft skill competencies, and
(4) effectiveness of training in soft skills seeks to support Kai Ping teachers in teaching soft skills
proficiently in order to foster students learning.
Tourism and Hospitality Trends
The economic scale of tourism is significant, as it is one of the fastest growing industries
and largest employer in the world (Davidson, McPhail & Barry, 2011; UNWTO, 2012). The
service industry is at the very core of the globalized economic transformation (Bharwani & Butt,
2012). Tourism accounts for 5% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and provides
6% to 7% of worldwide employments (UNWTO, 2012). Among the predominant fields of
tourism are the service-oriented, people-centric hospitality and foodservice industry. The nature
of both industries focuses on the fundamental values of service quality (Bharwani & Butt, 2012).
As globalization increases, the competitive landscape of the hospitality and foodservice
industry intensifies for organizations to gain a competitive advantage. Businesses compete
through improving quality of service or by lowering prices (Wang & Wang, 2009). Both the
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hospitality and foodservice industries have many commonalities in terms of past, current and
future issues at stake (Blum, 1996, 1997). As both industries’ core in providing quality service
to meet customers’ demands and expectations, the hospitality and foodservice industries can be
referred to, collectively, as the service industry. A review of the past, current and future trends
of the hospitality industry can provide insight as to the development of the industry and its future
needs for establishing a competitive advantage in the global market.
The trends of the hospitality and foodservice industry have been analyzed through much
research, and its development and future challenges lie mainly in the themes of economics,
marketing, and operational and educational perspectives (Blum 1996, 1997; Davidson et al.,
2010; Dev et al., 2010; Wang & Wang, 2009; Yoo, Lee, & Bai, 2010).
Economic Perspective
The economic trend of the service industry lies within the global and local context
depending on the progress of a nation’s economy (UNWTO, 2012). A worldwide trend
demonstrates that, when the economy is in good shape, business in the service industry increases,
resulting in higher profits (Wang & Wang, 2009). Tourism grows consistently as countries
advance economically, and economically advanced countries transform from manufacturing-
oriented to service-oriented. Furthermore, tourism is forecast to sustain continuous growth
through the year 2030 (UNWTO, 2012; Wang & Wang, 2009).
UNWTO (2012) indicated that, from 2010 to 2011, international tourist arrivals grew
from 940 million to 983 million, which represents a 4.6% increase within one year. The growth
continued in 2012 and was estimated to reach 1 billion people for the first time in history,
marking a 4% increase. At a consistent yearly growth rate of 4%, international tourism will
reach 1.8 billion in 2030. In addition, developing countries, such as China and India, are
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growing exponentially (Bharwani & Butt, 2012), with an average growth rate higher than 4% per
year (UNWTO, 2012). To gain a competitive advantage in the industry, hospitality and
foodservice organizations needs to pay closer attention to the changes in economic trends in
terms of the overall environment and a competitive landscape.
Marketing Perspective
Under the influence of the global tourism trend, the service industry puts forth much
effort to expand and remain competitive (Dev et al., 2010; Blum, 1996; Yoo, Lee & Bai, 2010).
Through the perspective of marketing, Dev et al. (2010) and Yoo et al. (2010) reviewed
numerous published articles and found the marketing trend for the service industry primarily
focused on two main aspects: methods of attracting consumers and revenue management.
Since the 1960’s, the era of inventions in technology and globalization triggered a period
of rapid change. Increases in competition set standards of service for organizations to compete
in drawing customers through marketing promotion and providing better quality of service (Dev
et al., 2010). Later, in the 1980’s, the increase of service quality and price cuts from competitors
forced managers to operate more effectively without degradation of service quality (Dev et al.,
2010; Wang & Wang, 2009). Organizations began to focus on revenue management and
branding: how to maximize profit and create customer loyalty through brand recognition (Dev et
al., 2010).
Advancements in technology, such as the development of the Internet 1995, enhanced
communication and information processing. Organizations shifted attention to the retention of
consumers through sustaining a relationship on an individual basis. Yoo et al. (2010) note that,
as consumer need constantly changes, a key success factor for businesses is to understand and
predict consumer behavior.
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The future trends of the service industry lie in customizing service and a more
personalized service through the rise of social media, which is predicted to be next focus of
marketing in the data-mining era of 2010 to 2020 (Dev et al., 2010; Wang & Wang, 2009; Yoo et
al., 2010). Businesses will seek to understand customers on a personal basis and predict
consumer behavior through preference and individual needs (Yoo et al., 2010). Moreover,
businesses will be encouraged to assess profits generated per customer as a key indicator, rather
than overall revenue (Dev et al., 2010). Thus, in order to capture each customer, businesses set
new standards by improving service quality and offering consumers lifetime value through a
(Dev et al., 2010).
As the main function of the service industry is to provide quality service, competition
raised the standards to attract customers. Through promotion, branding, developing customer
loyalty, building a relationship with customers, and predicting consumer behavior through social
media, organizations have exerted much effort to compete. Improving service quality relies
heavily on the efforts of the service employees. A closer look at the operational and educational
issues through a human resource perspective helps to understand the trends of hospitality and
foodservice organizations from within.
Operational Perspective
Service personnel have become a part of the service product and a factor of service
quality, customer loyalty, and customer satisfaction (Bharwani & Butt, 2012; Korczynski, 2005).
Bove and Johnson (2000) discuss, through the framework of the customer-service worker
relationship model, that a strong relationship between service personnel and customers leads the
customer to perceive a higher value of quality and fosters true customer loyalty that can be
directly translated from the service personnel to the company and brand.
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Strong relationships are developed through interactions with customers. Employees need
to have the intangible elements, known as soft skills, such as interpersonal, social, and emotional
skills along with cultural sensitivity and awareness, and a service attitude to build a relationship
with customers and improve quality of service (Bharwani & Butt, 2012; Bove & Johnson, 2000;
Korczynski, 2005; Nickson et al., 2006).
To maintain a competitive advantage through service quality, one of the major global
challenges in the operations of the service industry is the shortage of human labor (Bharwani &
Butt, 2012; Wang & Wang, 2009). The expansion of the hospitality industry is not restricted by
monetary issues or the physical space, but by limited talents due to the low status of the
employment itself, the difficult working hours, and the wage levels (Korczynski, 2005; Pattern,
2003; Wang & Wang, 2009). Therefore, one major issue is attracting and retaining talent in the
service industry.
The 21
st
century workplace focuses on strategic human resource management emphasizes
management by knowledge and value (Bharwani & Butt, 2012), which means changing
organizational structures to empower employees, foster engagement and provide training and
development of needed competencies. Blum (1996, 1997) reviewed 135 published articles from
1989 to 1995 and 109 in 1996 from numerous hospitality research journals. The author found
that employee empowerment, relations, work balance, training and development are critical
aspects to consider for businesses to attract and retain talent and remain competitive in the future.
Bharwani and Butt (2012) concurred with previous research in the same aspects.
Employee engagement is involvement and commitment towards the organizational goal, and
employee’s personal goal should be aligned with the organizational goal to foster engagement.
Once there is a consistency in values, a positive environment empowers employees and increases
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employee engagement. This environment, in turn, enriches service quality through customer and
service worker relations and can increase employment satisfaction.
Davidson et al. (2012) point out that, due to generational differences in attitudes and
values towards service employment, there remains a need for quality employees and training. To
meet the high standards of quality service, employees need more than hard skills; they need the
soft aspects of understanding cultural diversity and awareness and competencies that foster
employee engagement and building customer relationships (Bharwani & Butt, 2012).
Educational Perspective
Moving into the 21
st
century, globalization and technology advancement changed the
hospitality and foodservice industry dramatically (Blum, 1996, 1997; UNWTO, 2012; Wang &
Wang, 2009). To keep up with the growing demands of both industries and provide a quality
workforce, hospitality and culinary-degree granting programs increased (Johanson et al., 2010).
As one of the major problems the industry faces is the shortage of labor, the root cause was
identified as a lack of well-trained and engaging employees (Bharwani & Butt, 2012) and the
retention of labor. Therefore, other than improving the status, benefits and working conditions
of the hospitality and foodservice industry, organizations turn to spending billions of dollars to
training and develop employees to meet service standards for organizations to remain viable.
The hospitality and foodservice organizations are expect educational institutions to
prepare quality labor. Research indicates that the 21
st
century workplace demands educational
institutions to revise hospitality and culinary curricula, as there is an industry-education gap
(Muller et al., 2009; Reynold, Ryan and Halsell, 2009; Smith & Kemmis, 2010; Riggs & Hughey,
2011). Hospitality recruiters place heavier emphasis on recruiting individuals who have
emotional intelligence (Reynold et al., 2009). Riggs and Hughey (2011) indicated graduates
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from hospitality programs have skill-gaps in leadership and management competencies.
Education should provide opportunities for practicing leadership and management skills.
Yup Chung (2000) surveyed 800 alumni of a hospitality program in Korea and found the
most influential competencies that lead to career success are the intangible skills of leadership,
management, and professionalism as represented by appearance and poise. The research
suggests that hospitality programs should focus on management, communication, and marketing
courses in the fields of service and sales (Yup Chung, 2000). Muller et al. (2009) suggest
improving communication skills for students in culinary programs is essential to foster future
career development. Smith and Kemmis (2010) specified that current curricula are deficient.
Despite the importance of technical skills, attitude is a preferred attribute in the industry.
Hospitality and culinary education needs to adjust curriculum from a technical focus to fostering
intangible skills in the areas of leadership, management, emotional intelligence, appearance,
attitude and poise (Muller et al., 2009; Nickson, 2006; Reynold, Ryan and Halsell, 2009; Smith
& Kemmis, 2010; Riggs & Hughey, 2011).
Paulson (2001) suggests that education is increasingly responsive to industry needs.
Curricula designed for learning are competency- and performance-based, but, as hospitality and
foodservice professionals value the intangible skills more than the tangible skills, the skills
graduates need have changed. The 21
st
century skills are the newly proposed standards based on
the environment of the 21
st
century workplace, and educational institutions should prepare
graduates to transition into this type of workplace (Paulson, 2001). In addition, industry
professionals also focus on the employability skills that students acquire to demonstrate superior
performance (Robinson, 2000). Competency is another way to evaluate future employees in
terms of their knowledge, abilities, and skills demanded (Gayeski et al., 2007). Thus, a
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discussion of the competencies and skills in demand for the 21
st
century workplace is critical
from both an educational and an industry standpoint.
Skills and Competencies
21
st
Century Skills
There are many definitions of 21
st
Century skills, but Silva (2009) indicates that the
essence of 21
st
century skills is the application of knowledge rather than acquisition and
understanding of knowledge. Although the century-specific name may be deceptive, 21
st
century
skills are not so different from skills that taught in the 20
th
century (Dede, 2010). These same
sets of skills are just newly important, as work that required routine skills is replaced by
computers (Silva, 2009) and individuals are required to deal with massive information through
the internet (Dede, 2010).
Dede (2010) reviewed the 21
st
century skills framework provided by various
organizations and institutions and suggested consistent descriptions of common skills were
present. However, different frameworks emphasized various aspects in the sets of skills. The
commonality among these frameworks supported Silva’s (2009) description of 21
st
century skills,
as the essence them relates directly to the application and integration of knowledge. Some
common skills listed are (1) critical-thinking and problem solving skills, (2) communication
skills, (3) creativity and innovative skills, (4) collaborative skills, (5) information and media
literacy skills, and (6) life skills.
In Convergence, Wagner (2008) identified 7 survival skills for students to face the 21
st

century workplace. The skills are listed as (1) Critical thinking and problem solving skills,
(2) Collaboration and leadership, (3) Agility and Adaptability, (4) Initiative and
Entrepreneurialism, (5) Effective oral and written communication, (6) Accessing and Analyzing,
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and (7) curiosity and imagination. The survival skills are meant to prepare students for the 21
st

century marketplace, where, due to globalization and technology advancement, the market is
changing rapidly and employees are pressured to improve products, processes and services and
to create unique products and services. Individuals need to become flexible to change and be
able to adapt to new technology.
Employability Skills
The 21
st
century skills are general skills that students need to survive in the workplace
across industries. Businesses, organizations, and students are concerned with the skills that
allow employees to perform well in. Thus, the term employability skills focus on the skills that
are transferable to the workplace. Although employability skills are complex and hard to define,
employability skills are, in essence, the “basic skills necessary for getting, keeping and doing
well on a job” (Robinson, 2000, p.1).
Robinson (2000) suggested that employability skills are generally divided into three main
categories: (1) basic academic skills, (2) higher-order thinking, and (3) personal qualities. Basic
academic skills are the fundamental reading, writing, listening and speaking skills that imply if
an individual can follow procedures and can comprehend and carry out plans. Higher-order
thinking refers to critical thinking, problem solving, and reasoning skills. Personal qualities deal
with personality, confidence, integrity, attitude and among other attributes. Andrews and Higson
(2008) identified employability skills through a synthesis of literature. Employability skills
identified were (1) professionalism, (2) reliability, (3) creativity and self-confidence, (4) self-
management and time management, (5) communication and interaction with others,
(6) teamwork, (7) networking, (8) technology skills, (9) ability to work under pressure,
(10) ability to plan and think strategically, and (11) the ability to cope with uncertainty.
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Employability skills and 21
st
Century skills have a high degree of similarity. In fact, both
sets of skills emphasize the intangible skills, or the soft skills, needed in the workplace.
Research suggested that the hospitality and culinary programs should shift focus from hard skills
towards the development of soft skills, a convergent theme across all educational programs
(Muller et al., 2009; Reynold, Ryan and Halsell, 2009; Smith & Kemmis, 2010; Riggs & Hughey,
2011). On the other hand, hospitality and foodservice industry professions demand quality
graduates who demonstrate a high performance levels to deliver quality service in the
competitive environment. Therefore, in order to close the industry-education gaps and graduates’
skill gaps in terms of employment, many researchers identified the competencies deemed
important by hospitality and foodservice industry professionals (Agut, Grau, & Peiro, 2003;
Birdir & Pearson, 2000; Horng, Hsu, Liu, Lin, & Tsai, 2011; Kay & Russette, 2000; Raybould &
Wilkins, 2006; Weber et al., 2009; Yup Chung, 2000; Zopiatis, 2010). Before a review of
current literature on the identification of competencies valued by hospitality and foodservice
professionals, the competencies must first be defined.
Competency
The term competency is often been misused or confused with abilities, skills, or traits,
and researchers often develop a long list of so-called competencies that are really not (Parry,
1998). Mirabile (1997) defined competency as the “knowledge, skills, and abilities or
characteristics associated with high performance on a job,” wherein knowledge is further defined
as “a body of information relevant to job performance” (p. 75). Abilities are defined as “talents
that can be learned, taught or enhanced” (p. 74). Skills are referred to the “demonstration of a
particular talent” (p. 75). On the other hand, traits are defined as one’s “physical quality or
behavior tendency” (p. 75). Therefore, traits are not considered as part of the competency, since
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competency is associated with performance. The rationale is that performance can be learned,
taught to and enhanced (Hoffmann, 1999).
Woodruffe (1993) indicates that competency is a facet that concerns individual behavior
towards performance. On the contrary, Parry (1998) denotes that competency is a mix of skills,
personality traits, and other attributes correlated to job performance. The key to the explanation
of competency is the underlying characteristic and attributes of knowledge, skills and abilities
that can be learned, taught, and enhanced. Motivation, beliefs, values, and attitudes are
characteristics that can be taught, learned or altered, and, therefore, are considered the underlying
attributes or characteristics that affect behavior and lead to performance (Mirabile, 1997;
Woodruffe, 1993). In support of previous literature, Boyatzis (2007) reveals that competency
refers to the capabilities and abilities of an individual, and emotional intelligence, social
intelligence and cognitive intelligence are inclusive dimensions of competency. Therefore,
competency should be best explained as a cluster of knowledge, skills, abilities and other
underlying attributes such as emotion, motivation, values, beliefs and attitudes concerned with
individual behavior towards performance that can be learned, taught, altered and enhanced.
Woodruffe (1993) further pointed out the differences between competency framework
and the generic competency framework, wherein generic competencies are referred to as
competencies that are universal and can be generalized across industry and positions. Literature
diverted attention to identify competencies of positions in the hospitality and foodservice through
a competency model or a generic competency framework (Agut, et al., 2003; Raybould &
Wilkins, 2006). The purpose of this study was to take account of both models and seek to
identify a list of competencies deemed important to the hospitality and foodservice industry.
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The definition of competency itself may not merit much importance, but the cause of
behavior that affects performance are do need to be specified (Woodruffe, 1993). Therefore, it is
in the context that best fits the purpose that it becomes important to identify competencies
(Hoffmann, 1999; Woodruffe, 1993). On the other hand, defining competency can eliminate
confusion among traits, attitudes, and characteristics, and provide a direct and clear focus (Parry,
1998). Competency can be used to describe the abilities of one person, an organization, or a
team of staff members who can demonstrate their performance (Hoffmann, 1999). When
assessing performance outcomes of a corporation or organization, the term “core competency” is
used. Core competency is defined as the “organizational capabilities or strength of what a
company does best” (Mirabile, 1997, p.75). Managerial competencies are used to assess a mid-
level manager’s performance, while individual competencies may be referred as professional
competencies. For this study, the aim was to define competencies within the managerial and
professional premises.
Competency can be used to assess and evaluate the associated characteristic with
individual performance, corporate outcomes, or a standard performance (Hoffmann, 1999).
Competency is used as an indicator in assessing individual performance on the job, or as an
indicator to set criteria of a job profile (Hoffmann, 1999; Mirabile, 1997). Education institutions,
businesses and organizations seek to identify competencies in order to direct education and
training of employees and set standards to enhance performance (Hoffmann, 1999). Once
individual and managerial performance increases, organizational goals can be achieved and, in
turn, increase profit and return. Identification of competencies aids human resource management
in determining the knowledge, abilities and skills required for a particular job or position, which
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34
allows organizations to enhance selection of potential employees (Gayeski, Golden, Andrade &
Mason, 2007; Hoffmann, 1999; Mirabile, 1997).
Given the definition of competency as the knowledge, skills, abilities and underlying
attributes that affect behavior leading to performance that can be taught, learned, altered and
enhanced, Sandwith (1993) provided a framework of categorization of competencies that lists
five dimensions derived from the three dimensions framework suggested by Robert Katz work in
1955. Katz (1955) suggested that all skills needed by supervisors and executives are in the
framework of three fundamental competencies: technical, human and conceptual competencies.
Sandwith (1993) points out that human competencies cover a board scope that deals with various
themes, such as leadership, interpersonal, and administrative. Therefore, segmenting the human
competencies into three dimensions, leading to a five-dimension competency framework,
provides clarity and a more in-depth understanding of competency. The five dimensions of
competency are presented below.
Sandwith’s (1993) five dimension of competency:
1. Conceptual/Creativity (Cognitive): the cognitive skills associated with
comprehending important elements of the job.
2. Leadership: the ability to turn thought into productive action.
3. Interpersonal: the skills for effective interaction with others.
4. Administrative: the personnel management and financial management aspects of
organizational life.
5. Technical: the actual work that the organization does involving knowledge and skills
(p. 45-52).
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Definition of Hard and Soft Skills
Hard skills. The above framework shows that competencies include both hard and soft
skills or, in other words, the tangible and intangible themes needed for superior performance in
the workplace. To be clear, hard skills are the technical skills that relate to knowledge, skills and
abilities, task-oriented skills which can be measured through the effect on performance
(Ashbaugh, 2003). In other words, these are the technical skills to perform a job (Schulz, 2008).
The rationale behind technical skills is the how-to knowledge, skills and abilities that require
performing a task to achieve goals.
Soft skills. Soft skills, on the other hand, are the soft aspects that aid the use of hard
skills, such as emotion, intuition, and enthusiasm (Cook & Macaulay, 1997). Ashbaugh (2003)
defines soft skills as “the interpersonal and emotional skills that are generally measured by the
effects produced in others” (p. 59). Schulz (2008) indicates that soft skills are the personal
qualities, interpersonal skills and additional knowledge and skills that increase employability.
Moreover, Moss and Tilly (1996) define soft skills as “skills, abilities and traits that pertain to
personality, attitude and behavior rather than to formal or technical knowledge” (p. 256). From
the synthesis of literature, this study defines soft skills as the knowledge, skills, abilities and
attitudes pertain to personality, emotions and behavior in the performance of a job. By adopting
Sandwith’s framework of competencies, soft skills include the dimensions of the cognitive,
leadership, interpersonal, and administrative competencies. Technical competencies are hard
skills that are intentionally excluded for the purpose of this research.
Soft Skill Competencies
Much literature compiled a list of competencies based on Sandwith’s framework and
other models to identify those needed in the hospitality and foodservice profession (Agut et al.,
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36
2003; Birdir & Pearson, 2000; Horng et al., 2011; Horng & Wang, 2003; Johanson et al., 2010;
Kay & Russette, 2000; Raybould & Wilkins, 2006; Tas, 1988; Weber et al., 2009; Yup Chung,
2000; Zopiatis, 2003). Johanson et al. (2010) reviewed the past 25 years of literature published
and revealed major competencies are repeatedly discussed in the hospitality, foodservice and
leisure industries. Given the majority of participants in the studies reviewed were human
resource directors or food and beverage operational managers, the common themes emerged in
the areas of management. Themes related to the importance of communication skills, customer-
relations-focused competencies, computer-related skills, security and safety. The knowledge,
skills, and abilities described in the literature were noted and compiled into the soft skill
competency table (Table 2). To further identify the knowledge, skills and abilities within a
competency, an extended review of literature is necessary in the fields of hospitality and
foodservice.
Soft Skill Competencies for Hospitality
Tas (1988) was one of the first to identify the most important competencies required for
hotel general manager trainees. The author compiled a survey with 36 item levels of
competencies for 75 hotel general managers to rate their importance on a Likert scale from 1 to 5.
The skills and abilities with a rating of 5 indicate the essential skills and abilities, while those
rated 1 were the ones deemed unimportant. The findings suggest that 6 levels of competencies
were rated as essential with an average of 4.5, 18 levels of competencies were considerably
important (3.50 to 4.49), and 12 levels of competencies were given a rating of 2.50 to 3.49,
indicating moderate importance. Levels of competencies with an average rating of 4 and above
were identified as human-rated skills. Moreover, these mostly fall into the category of
leadership-management competencies.
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Furthermore, Kay and Russette (2000) investigated the competencies needed for entry-
level and mid-level managers among all 3 functional operations of food and beverage, front desk
and sales. The competencies common to all were 12 levels in Leadership, 4 levels in
interpersonal, 1 technical, and 1 conceptual for a total of 18 levels of competencies in the five
dimensions of Sandwith’s framework. Findings indicate that food and beverage entry-level
managers were expected to perform their abilities at the level of mid-level managers for front
desk and sales. There was no specific difference among competencies deemed important in and
of themselves. The rankings of the competency dimension were expressed in the following order:
Leadership, Technical, Interpersonal, Administrative and Cognitive Competencies. The results
aligned with all three previous studies in assessing competencies among service personnel and
chefs’ competencies.
Weber et al. (2009) confirmed that the most important skills were soft skills for hotel
entry-level managers. The study compiled a list of skills and abilities to survey human resources
directors. A total of 108 levels of competencies were identified as important; however, a factor
loading analysis reduced the abilities and skills into 20 main levels of competencies, which were
extracted into the soft skill competencies table for this study. The abilities with the highest
factor loading were “turn negative situation into a positive learning situation,” and “handle
objects, sees big picture as well as details, and the ability to show a vision” (p. 359). The highest
levels of competencies were mainly leadership competencies, though the author did not
categorize abilities and skills listed into dimensions of competencies.
After a detailed review of literature, competencies were categorized into technical and
generic competency dimensions. Many sub-themes of generic competencies were identified,
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such as problem solving, crisis management, culture, self-management, attitude, creativity, and
foreign luggage.
The results ranked the top 10 important generic competencies as leadership, crisis
management, problem-solving, communication, personal relationship, implementation, attitude,
strategic management self-management and creativity as. The top five technical competencies
were financial management, business and marketing field management, human resources and
information. Abilities and skills listed in the top 10 generic competencies were extracted into the
soft skill competency table.
In summary, all studies pointed in the same direction regardless of level of management,
functional operation, professional perspectives, or culture in that leadership is the most important
competency followed by management and interpersonal competency (Birdir & Pearson, 2000;
Horng et al., 2011; Horng & Wang, 2003; Kay & Russette, 2000; Tas, 1988; Weber et al., 2009;
Zopiatis, 2003). Although, for the profession of chefs, technical skills were valued as the most
important, it is reasonable, as the main job profiles for chef is food preparation and service is
performed in an indirect manner.
Soft Skill Competencies for the Food and Beverage Industry
Birdir and Pearson (2000) present key research to identify competencies in the profession
of chefs. The authors identified basic competencies needed for research chefs, and sampled 25
research chefs. Among research chefs, a different set of competencies was identified between
research-focused chefs and management-focused chefs. Research focused chefs predominantly
engage in the creative and innovative aspects of the job in product development. Management-
focused chefs represent the company, manage product sales and presentation, and set goals for
strategic planning.
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39
Although the authors compiled a separate list of competencies identified for both
positions, aggregated lists of competencies were identified as needed for both management and
research-focused chefs. The aggregated list showed 35 levels of competencies, and only 16 were
considered as soft skills. The top five levels of competencies were (1) knowledge of flavors,
(2) knowledge of food sanitation, (3) abilities to distinguish levels of quality in food products, (4)
general communication skills and (5) the ability to make decisions.
Adopting the five-dimension competency framework provided by Sandwith (1993),
Zopiatis (2010) gathered a list of competencies through a focus group of 8 chefs in Cyrus and
assessed the rank of importance. The study found results similar to those of Birdir and Pearson
(2000) in that technical skills were ranked as most important, followed by management skills
under the leadership dimension, leadership, personal administrative skills under administrative
dimension, and interpersonal competency. Cognitive competencies were ranked as the least
important. As for the profession of chefs, it can be concluded that technical skills or hard skills
are the fundamental employability skills. However, leadership competency, a soft skill
competency, complements the hard skills (Schulz, 2008).
Horng and Wang (2003) assessed the importance of competencies needed for food and
beverage managers in Taiwan. The study found that leadership and interpersonal competencies
were ranked as the most important. Also similar to Birdir and Pearson (2000) and Zopiatis
(2010), leadership competency was ranked highly, even for service personnel. On the contrary,
interpersonal competency was ranked fifth in Zopiatis’ (2010) findings. The rationale is that the
essence of F&B managers’ job profile is to interact with customers while chefs have less contact
with them.
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In summary, for the chefs’ profession, technical skills were ranked as highest in
importance and complimented by soft skills like the leadership-management competencies
(Birdir & Pearson 2000; Zopiatis, 2010). For service managers and personnel, leadership and
interpersonal competencies were valued as most important (Horng & Wang, 2003). Curriculum
revision should focus on leadership, management and interpersonal skills for culinary and
hospitality programs (Birdir & Pearson 2000; Horng & Wang, 2003; Zopiatis, 2010).
A New Competency Dimension: Personal Competency
Through a review of previous hospitality and food and beverage literature in the
investigation of competencies, leadership/management and interpersonal competency dimensions
were identified and ranked as the most in-demand competencies individuals should acquire for a
successful career. However, research suggests that there are generic competencies that affect
individual performance and were not addressed in previous literature (Agut et al., 2003; Boyztais,
2007; Raybould & Wilkins, 2006).
Agut et al (2003) and Raybould and Wilkins (2006) took a different approach and
proposed that efficacy, motivation, belief, values and attitudes are generic competencies that
affect individual performance. Boyztais (2007) further identified emotional and social
intelligence as competencies that should be reviewed. Therefore, in addition to Sandwith’s
(1993) five, a sixth competency dimension should be incorporated: the “Personal” competency
dimension. Competencies in this dimension are self-directed, as opposed to other- or task-
oriented, and address efficacy, motivational and emotional qualities in individual’s knowledge,
skills and abilities.
Agut et al. (2003) categorized levels of competencies into dimensions of job performance
efficacy, self-control and social relationship, and proactive behavior. Similarly, Raybould and
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41
Wilkins (2006) identified skills and abilities in regards to attitude, beliefs, values and motivation.
The levels of competencies were then clustered with sub themes such as problem solving,
interpersonal, team and leader and self-management. The results showed that interpersonal,
problem solving and self-management were the most important generic competencies for
graduates entering the hospitality workforce.
On the other hand, Agut et al., (2003) determined there is a deficit of the most needed
competencies of self-control, social relationship and job performance efficacy. Furthermore,
“control of hasty reactions in highly emotive situations” was identified as the most absent
competency. Boyatzis (2007) pointed out that emotional and social intelligence are part of
competency. Emotional intelligence is the meta-cognition of self-emotions that leads to and
affects superior performance. Social intelligence refers to the meta-cognition of others’
emotions that directs and affects self-performance.
Motivation, beliefs, values, and attitudes are the underlying characteristics that direct and
affect individual performance (Agut et al., 2003; Raybould & Wilkins, 2006). Emotional and
social intelligence are competencies that lead to superior performance (Boyatzis, 2007). The
personal competency dimension is identified as the sixth dimension to address self-directed
competencies that affects individual performance.
Levels of Soft Skill Competency
Globalization and technology advancement brought tourism to a peak in 2012, and the
growth of tourism is projected with a steady increase in the near future. The growth of tourism
intensified competition in hospitality, foodservice and leisure businesses. For businesses to
remain viable, higher service quality standards require quality employees. Although companies
and businesses spends billions of dollars in the development of training programs, educational
INCORPORATING SOFT SKILLS INTO INSTRUCTION

42
institutions, particularly the hospitality and culinary programs, seek to review curricula to meet
the new demands.
The 21
st
century workplace demands skills that were a “nice to have” in the past, but are a
“must have” in the present. Soft skills are highly valued, although these skills are not new. They
are just newly important for the 21
st
century hospitality and foodservice industry.
Soft skill competencies were reviewed through the framework of leadership/management,
interpersonal, cognitive, administrative and personal dimensions. The leadership/management
competency dimension was ranked as the most important in the hospitality and foodservice
industry. Through a synthesis of literature, the descriptors of the knowledge, skills, and abilities
in each dimension were noted and compiled into levels of competencies in each dimension. The
levels of competencies in each soft skill dimension provide a clear scope to pinpoint the
knowledge, skills and abilities that the hospitality and foodservice industry seeks in quality
individuals.
Effective Training in Soft Skills
Georges (1988) suggested that soft skills are not real skills, and education, businesses and
organizations train students in soft skills, but it is a “hit and miss” approach. Hard skills, on the
other hand, are the how-to knowledge. In fact, the author suggests that 90 percent of learners
master 90 percent of the skills. Only 20 percent learn soft skills, and the other 80 percent reverts
to old patterns. Laker and Powell (2011) suggested otherwise, stating that the reasons soft skills
training fails to transfer the failure to distinguish among hard skills, soft skills and other aspects
of poor training. Bancio and Zevalkink (2007) concurred by stating that, effective training in
soft skills requires buy-in from audiences that are willing to learn. Training in soft skills requires
more of the learner’s prior experience and learning in order for him/her to make connections to
INCORPORATING SOFT SKILLS INTO INSTRUCTION

43
(Laker & Powell, 2011). To foster soft skills, resistance from the learner, managers and
organizations must be minimized and substituted with support. A successful training program
must provide clear goals and objectives and foster self-efficacy in the learner (Laker & Powell,
2011).
John (2009) conducted an experiment that held a control group and an experimental
group of MBA students who participated in a management soft skills training program. The
objectives were to improve communication, interpersonal and leadership-team management
skills. Using a soft skill scale, individuals in the experimental group rated having higher soft
skill values. Students showed improvement in the aspects of honesty, communication skills,
teamwork, and time management. There were statistically significant differences between the
experimental group and control group in the areas of self-motivation, critical thinking, research
and problem-solving skills. The author implies that the results can be generalized and that, by
providing training to students, their management soft skills can be significantly improved.
In support of the effective training of soft skills, Crosbie (2005) provided methodologies
to foster soft skills. Research suggest that expert facilitation, contextual awareness, formal and
informal support, opportunities to practice new skills, self-awareness, stress management and
celebration of accomplishments in acquiring the new skills are determinants of fostering soft
skills (Crosbie, 2005). Moreover, self-training through books, the Internet, and socialization
with friends, relatives, and coworkers are ways to acquire soft skills (Schulz, 2008). Training for
active listening is one approach to training communication skills, and role-playing is one other
technique to set up learning of soft skills (Bancino & Zevalkink, 2007).
In summary, soft skills can be successfully fostered through training programs and
appropriate methodologies (Bancino, Zevalkink, 2007; Crosbie, 2005; John, 2009). To
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44
effectively foster soft skills, prior experience and learning are critical as compared to training of
hard skills (Laker & Powell, 2011). The goal of education is to prepare quality graduates with
necessary employability skills, 21
st
century skills, or, in other words, soft skills that foster career
success (Andrews & Higson, 2008; Bancino & Zevalkink, 2007; John, 2009; Paulson, 2001;
Silva, 2009). However, the first step is to foster productive change, an underlying fundamental
characteristic of education (Mayer, 2011).

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45
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) define soft skill competencies through a
review of literature in understanding competencies hospitality and foodservice industry
professionals render valuable and important, and (2) use the identified soft skill competencies as
a baseline model to assess teacher’s proficiency in incorporating them into instruction at Kai
Ping Culinary School. Adopting the Clark and Estes (2008) gap analysis framework as a guide,
the study identified the knowledge, motivation and organization barriers teachers face in order to
provide research-based recommendation to minimize the performance gaps.
Research Questions
1. What are the necessary levels of soft skill competencies, hospitality and foodservice
industry values?
2. What are the current levels of soft skill competencies Kai Ping teachers are
incorporating into their instructions?
3. What barriers in knowledge, motivation, and organization that prevent teachers from
successfully incorporating 100% of the soft skill competencies into the curriculum?
4. What are the recommended solutions to close the knowledge, motivation,
organization gaps that prevent the teachers from incorporating soft skills into the
curriculum?
Research Approach
The focus of the study was an analysis of the knowledge, motivation and organizational
issues that serve as barriers achieving organizational goals. The gap analysis model is a
systematic, analytic method that clarifies organizational goals and identifies the gap between the
INCORPORATING SOFT SKILLS INTO INSTRUCTION

46
actual performance level and the preferred performance level within an organization. The study
adopted Anderson and Krathwohl’s (2001) knowledge taxonomy framework and Pintrich’s
(2003) motivational principles as a guide to identify teachers’ knowledge and motivation gaps
that hinders achievement of the expected level of performance. Organizational gaps were
assessed through topics in policy and practice and in culture model and settings. This study
sought to provide research-based solutions to close performance gaps and to present an
evaluation plan adopted through Kirkpatrick’s (2006) model of four levels of evaluation to
review the effectiveness of the solutions proposed.

Figure 1. The gap analysis process

A mixed-methods approach was adopted to determine the underlying causes and address
potential solutions to the effectiveness of teachers in delivering soft skill instructions. Personal
knowledge and scanned interviews generated presumed causes for the performance gap. These
INCORPORATING SOFT SKILLS INTO INSTRUCTION

47
causes were validated through surveys and informal interviews as well as content analysis and
literature review. Research-based solutions were recommended and evaluated in a
comprehensive synthesized manner (Figure 1).
Step 1: Identify Multilevel Goals
The vision, mission and goals of Kai Ping Culinary School were developed through a
collaborative process that brought all faculty and administrative staff together in the summer of
2004. The vision and goals called for Kai Ping to transform from delivering traditional
instructional teaching methods to developing a “trans-disciplinary integration curriculum,” an
instructional method that teaches through a thematic approach (Lin, 2002, p. 5, p.6). It is not
until recently that Kai Ping sought to review and evaluate whether there was a discrepancy gap
between student performance and the expectations of industry professionals. Kai Ping is at the
stage of modifying its curriculum, re-structuring its organization and its mission and goals, if
needed.
The current organizational mission is to provide a meaningful learning environment that
fosters students’ development of both hard and soft skills and to equip students with the
necessary cognitive knowledge, skills and abilities for the service industry. The organizational
global goal states that, by August 2015, service industry professionals will give a 100%
satisfaction rating to Kai Ping students’ proficiency in all levels of soft skill competencies.
As there were three stakeholders identified for this study, students, teachers and
administration, the primary stakeholders for the unit of analysis are the teachers. Teachers are the
frontline educators who have most direct influence on students’ development of soft skills. The
quality of instruction and planned lessons directly account for fostering soft skills. Therefore,
teachers are the main unit of analysis and the goal for teachers was to incorporate 100% of the
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48
soft skill competencies into their instruction. Table 1 shows the organizational mission, global
goal, and stakeholder goals for each stakeholder group.

Table 1
Organizational Mission, Global Goal, and Stakeholder Goals
Organizational Mission
The Kai Ping Culinary School’s mission is to provide a meaningful learning environment that
fosters students’ development in both hard and soft skills, and to equip students with the
necessary cognitive knowledge, skills and abilities for the preparation of the service industry.
Organizational Global Goal
By August 2015, service industry professionals will give a 100% satisfaction rating to Kai Ping
students’ proficiency in level of soft skill competencies
Students Goal
By August 2015, all students
will demonstrate proficiency
in soft skill competencies and
receive a 100% satisfaction
rate in their evaluation from
the teachers
Teachers
By August 2015, all teachers
will integrate 100% levels of
soft skill competencies into
their instruction.
Administrative Staff
By August 2015, the
administrative team will
provide all teachers the
knowledge and skills
necessary to prepare students
to perform proficiently in the
context of soft skills.

Step 2: Quantify the Current Performance
In order to quantify the current teacher performance levels in terms of incorporating soft
skill competencies into the curriculum, it is critical to define “soft skills,” and competencies
related to soft skills. After reviewing and synthesizing nine published journal articles that
discuss the knowledge, skills and abilities that managers and executives of hospitality and
foodservice determined to be important, a table was compiled with a list of soft skill for each
article (Table 2). The articles covered a well-rounded perspective in determining soft skill
INCORPORATING SOFT SKILLS INTO INSTRUCTION

49
competencies that focused on different professions and positions for both service personnel and
chefs. In addition, the articles explored the soft skill competencies required for different levels
of management positions, from entry-level managers and mid-managers to general managers in
the hospitality and foodservice industry. Soft skill competencies were categorized under a total
of four main dimensions of competencies: Leadership/management, Interpersonal, Conceptual,
and Personal. Through a synthesis of literature, the personal competency dimension was
proposed by this study as a new layer to the Sandwith (1993) competency framework. The
highly rated knowledge, skills and abilities under each dimension from each of the nine journal
articles were sought out and compiled into an aggregated list. Redundancy of knowledge, skills
and abilities listed was eliminated and re-ordered in the form of general to specific. The list
includes the levels of soft skill competencies with the description of abilities, shown in Table 2.
The identified list of soft skill competencies was used as a baseline model to evaluate the current
level of teachers’ performance in incorporating soft skill competencies into instructions

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Table 2
Aggregated Level of Soft Skill Competencies for Hospitality and Foodservice Industries
Leadership Competency
• Ability to show a vision
• See big pictures as well as details
• Ability to set goals
• Show accessibility/ approachability
• Leading by personal example
• Admits mistakes
• Ability to take criticism
• Ability to cultivate climate of trust
• Hold self and others accountable for actions
• Motivate staff, individually and in teams, to achieve desired outcome
• Empower employees to make decisions
• Ability to mentor (helping) others
• Ability to handle objections / complaints effectively
• Ability to compromise
• Ability to adjust message to audience
• Ability to turns negative situation into positive learning situation
• Provide opportunities for employees to improve.
• Ability to delegate, coordinate and organize tasks and employees
• Conduct staff appraisals
• Effectively prevent and manage crisis situations
Interpersonal Competency
• Demonstrate cultural awareness in dealing sensitively with staff and guests
• Ability to establish and maintain positive public relationships based on perceptions of
employee/customer interactions.
• Ability to express thoughts, opinions and feelings to others freely
• Ability to communicate effectively in both writing and orally
• Demonstrate rapport and empathy in dealing with customer and staff
• Ability of listening skills: listen to concerns and opinions
• Ability to argue and persuade your opinions in decision making process
• Effectively manage guest problems with understanding and sensitivity
• Ability to anticipate client needs

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Table 2, continued
Conceptual Competency
• Ability to identify problems
• Ability to make decisions
• Ability to find solutions and implement solutions to problems
• Ability to analyze and interpret
• Ability to evaluate the effects of solutions.
• Ability to adapt and change to difficult circumstances
• Act decisively
• Ability to Prioritize tasks/projects
• Objectivity in exercising judgment
• Ability to be creative and innovative
• Ability to differentiate
Personal Competency
• Ability to operate effectively, efficiently, and calmly under pressure
• Ability to balance pressure and time
• Positive Vision, Proactive Attitude
• Self-confidence in ability to achieve objectives
• Maintain Professional and ethical standards in work environments
• Work without close supervision
• Ability to manage time
• Being responsible for decisions and behaviors
• Control of emotions
• Flexibility to change
• Ability to go beyond barriers or limitations
• Maintain Professional in language, behavior and appearance
• Ability to work under pressure in multi-task environments.

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After defining the competencies within the four domains through a review of literature,
the method to assess the current level of teachers’ proficiency in incorporating soft skills into
instruction was determined through a self-reported survey question. The survey question asked
teachers to select each soft skill competency they taught in class. Results showed that all
teachers have checked some of competencies within each of the four domains. None of the
teachers reported teaching all soft skill competencies. Since teachers marked different
competencies, it is difficult to determine a single competency not taught in class. Therefore, a
mean value of soft skills competencies under each domain was calculated and a grand mean of
the four domains was identified (Table 3) shows the percentage of soft skill competencies taught
in the classroom under each domain, and the value of the grand mean among the four domains.

Table 3
Soft Skill Competencies Given Through Instruction
Question Results
From the Table below, please indicate that knowledge, skills and abilities that you
are have been teaching in your classroom:

Leadership 67%
Interpersonal 64%
Cognitive 62%
Personal 73%
Grand Mean 66.5%

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A grand mean of 66% of soft skill competencies were taught, as all of the teachers taught
certain soft skills to different degrees. In addition, to triangulate the assessment of teachers’
current performance, content analysis of the thirteen thematic course lesson plans validates
teachers self-reports of soft skill competencies taught. Therefore, the current level of teachers’
performance in incorporating soft skill competencies into instruction was determined to be 66%.
Step 3: Determine the Gap in the Current Performance
The goal was to have all teachers to incorporate 100% of all levels of soft skill
competencies into instruction. After subtracting the current performance level of 66% from the
goal of 100%, a gap of 34% was found. With a 34% performance gap, this study investigated the
causes of knowledge, motivation, and organization barriers that prevented teachers to reach the
organizational goal.
Step 4: Hypothesize and Empirically Validate Causes
When expectations are unmet or goals not are reached, a performance gap occurs, and,
often times, actions are taken to purchasing equipment and tools, training and development, and
to implementing solutions without validating the assumed causes of the performance gap.
Institutions and corporations spend time and money on solutions that may not solve the actual
issue at stake. As a result, people often overlook the causes of performance gaps. To adequately
close performance gaps, a thorough investigation confirming personal knowledge and gathering
information through informal interviews with stakeholders was conducted. A review of
literature on the performance causes and the application of learning, motivation,
organization/culture theories helped to identify and validate the performance causes.
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54
Personal Knowledge and Scanning Interviews
Based on personal knowledge and informal interviews with the students, teachers and
administrators at Kai Ping Culinary School, the following presumed causes were identified, and
discussed through the categorized themes of knowledge and skills, motivation and organization.
Knowledge. Soft skills include a variety of multi-dimensional competencies. Soft skills
need to be valued much more and teachers should pay serious attention to how each level of
competencies may play a significant role in fostering students’ career success. Although some
soft skills were difficult to be categorized within a competency in that abilities such as handling
crisis effectively can be viewed as a management competency or a leadership competency, there
are no fine lines in the interpretation of competencies. Teachers may face difficulty in
acknowledging and understanding the levels of competencies that the service industry values
most. Therefore, teachers lack instructional techniques to incorporate soft skills into the
curriculum effectively. Teachers should first understand the categorization of soft skills to
develop instructional strategies to foster them.
Teachers may lack experience and prior knowledge to plan a course lesson or to carry out
the lesson plan effectively. In addition, teachers may be frightened by the novelty of the design
of a lesson and lack the ability to break down complex learning into simple achievable goals for
students. For self-improvement and improvements in teaching soft skills, teachers should be
aware of their own teaching style or effectiveness in teaching. Teachers may lack knowledge in
self-regulation, self-awareness and self-improvement when teaching soft skills.
Motivation. Teaching soft skills can be a difficult complex task, and teachers may lack
the desire to devote time to teaching soft skills for several reasons. Teachers may encounter
frequent unsuccessful experiences, may design ineffective goals and assignments, may have a
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55
lack of interest or not value the material highly, or may have low self-efficacy when teaching
unfamiliar topics. In addition, when teachers experience a lack of buy-in from students, they
may lose control of the classroom, and incur teachers’ fear. Teachers should seek guidance or
resources when they run into barriers, but low self-efficacy may act as a barrier to seek aid and
guidance, even when offered. On the other hand, teachers may lack effort in teaching soft skills,
as they are not evaluated on their performance. Moreover, teachers may lack persistence and
effort in teaching soft skills according to the lesson plan. Teachers who lack interest, clear goals
in their lesson plans, have low self-efficacy, fear negative feedback and losing control over the
classroom, may divert attention from teaching according to the lesson plan.
Organization. A presumed cause is that the organization should clearly define soft skills
and the levels of soft skill competencies for teachers to have a clear and directed goal. Teachers
should be provided with training, guidance and aids in teaching soft skills once the organization
gets buy-in from them in terms of the value of teaching soft skills. As the importance of soft
skills is recognized, the organization should encourage administrative support to set an
organizational culture and climate that empowers teachers to achieve goals.
The organization should also develop evaluation measures for teachers’ performance in
incorporating soft skills into instruction by providing formative feedback to foster their
performance improvements and progress. Through evaluation measures, the organization as a
whole may progress in developing appropriate support that enhances teachers’ fostering of
students’ soft skills development. To focus on the development of soft skills instruction,
teachers should not be overwhelmed with responsibilities other than teaching. The organization
needs to set a positive climate so teachers can focus their time and effort in planning and
carrying out lessons effectively.
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Learning and Motivation Theory
Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) suggested a framework that categorized knowledge-
related assumed causes into different dimensions of knowledge types. The model identified four
types of knowledge and six dimensions of cognitive processes. The four types of knowledge
were factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge. The six dimensions of
cognitive processes were to remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate and create.
Adapting to the Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) model of analysis, assumed causes were
categorized into the four knowledge types and were cross-referenced with the six dimensions of
cognitive processes. Once a particular knowledge gap was identified, solutions and strategies
were suggested based upon the analysis of research.
Clark and Estes (2008) gap analysis model identified the indicators of motivation as
choice, persistence and mental efforts. Pintrich’s (2003) motivational principles served as a
guide to address the underlying principles and theories of motivation causes. Assumed
motivational causes were discussed based on the categorization provided by Clark and Estes
(2008) and were addressed through Pintrich (2003) principles of motivation. In addition, a range
of organizational and cultural barriers were addressed through Clark and Estes’ (2008)
framework and analyzed at the end of this section.
Knowledge. Based on Anderson and Krathwohl (2001), assumed causes categorized
under factual knowledge were that teachers lacked knowledge of the levels of soft skill
competencies and in the application of instructional techniques to teach them. In terms of
conceptual knowledge, teachers lacked understanding of the categorization of soft skill
competencies within different instructional techniques. In the area of procedural knowledge,
teachers lacked the knowledge to plan a lesson on soft skills and to carry out that lesson.
INCORPORATING SOFT SKILLS INTO INSTRUCTION

57
Teachers lacked the knowledge to break down complex learning into simple achievable goals.
Lastly, teachers may not have the metacognitive knowledge to recognize the importance of soft
skills, and monitor self-performance in the teaching of soft skills.
Motivation. Bandura (1977) and Pajares (2010) indicated that individual beliefs of self-
efficacy lay the foundation for motivation and accomplishments. Self-efficacy determines
individual effort in accomplishing tasks. As a representation of effort, teachers may not be
motivated to seek resources, guidance and aids when they run into barriers due to low self-
efficacy. Teachers may feel incompetent even when resources, guidance and aids were provided.
Attribution and goal orientation theory examined the reasons behind individuals’
perceptions that affect the effort they exert in tasks (Anderman & Anderman, 2010; Yough &
Anderman, 2009). Attribution beliefs that relate to poor abilities and effort may lead to
resistance in devoting valuable time to teaching soft skills, as teachers are frequently
unsuccessful when they set ineffective goals and assignments (Anderman & Anderman, 2010).
Moreover, when teachers fail to get buy-in from students, they lose control of the classroom, and,
as a result, fail to set mastery or performance. Such experience causes teachers to no longer
attempt the task, as they attribute such failure to a lack of ability, effort, and goal-setting
(Anderman & Anderman, 2010).
Schraw and Lehman (2010) addressed the fact that individuals with personal or
situational interests increase engagement and learning on a task. Eccles (2010) indicated that
value increases individual desire to engage in a task. Teachers’ lack of interest and valuing of
teaching the soft skills may decrease their efforts. On the other hand, Clark and Estes (2008)
indicated that motivation declines when individuals lack clear feedback and goals. Therefore, it
is necessary to perform evaluations on teachers’ performance and provide clear feedback for
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58
them to improve. In other words, when performance is not evaluated, teachers’ task value
decreases, and they may be less likely to seek aid as their motivation decreases (Clark & Estes,
2008).
As regards to persistence and effort, teachers who are not teaching according to their
lesson plan may experience difficulties in carrying these out. Difficulties may include a lack of
interest in the topic, lack of clear goals, and fear of losing control of the classroom. Teachers
may have low self-efficacy due to negative feedback from students and, thus, often change
direction while teaching (Bandura, 1977).
Organization. Teachers are the facilitators of students’ learning process, especially
when it comes to teaching soft skills. With a positive environment and culture of support in
place, teachers should still be provided with adequate knowledge and skills training to allow
them to teach soft skills. However, to effectively achieve the goals of incorporating soft skills
into the curriculum, Kai Ping may need to first identify and define soft skills and related
competencies for teachers to gain a common understanding of what to incorporate into
instruction. As communication skills may mean one thing to one teacher and something else to
another, Kai Ping should provide clear directions and goals for teachers to achieve. Teachers
should not be overwhelmed by responsibilities other than a focus on teaching in order to achieve
the organizational goal.
Assumed Causes from Review of the Literature
Knowledge. Teachers may not understand the importance of soft skills (Schulz, 2008) in
culinary training, as Muller et al. (2009), in evaluating culinary curricula, found competency gap
in soft skills within the foodservice industry. Riggs and Hughey (2011) stressed that education
and training should align with industry needs. Graduating with competencies closely tied to the
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59
industry allows students to compete in the global economy, and hard skills alone are no longer
sufficient. Bancino and Zevalkink, (2007) and Crosbie (2005) provided insights into soft skills
training. However, literature has yet to explore the effectiveness of the suggested strategies
towards. With different sets of soft skills competencies ranked differently across nations and
industries, teachers may be confused as to the soft skills local foodservice industry values.
Motivation. When teachers do not have a general belief in the value of soft skills
training, motivation, in terms of willingness to teach them may decrease (Resnick, 2002). Often
times, teachers do not understand the importance of soft skills, and, hence, do not agree to teach
them (Schulz, 2008). Educational institutions should work in partnership with the industry to
rank the importance of soft skills, which may provide teachers a perspective as to the concept
and importance of soft skills (Paulson, 2001).
Organization. In vocational education institutions, often times, curricula overloads on
hard skills (Muller et al., 2009). Schulz (2008) recommended incorporating the teaching soft
skills into hard skills classes to increase effectiveness and attractiveness. Teachers should be
provided with adequate training, not only in teaching soft skills, but also in incorporating these
into hard skill classes. To have an effective and improved program, a common standard of soft
skills needs to be developed as teaching goals in order to monitor progress (Clark & Estes, 2008).
Summary. A summary of the sources of assumed causes categorized as Knowledge,
Motivation, and Organization is found in Table 4.

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Table 4
Summary of Assumed Causes for Knowledge, Motivation, and Organization
Source
Causes Knowledge Motivation Organizational
Scanning
interviews,
personal
knowledge
1. Lack of understanding in
the importance of soft
skills and its relationship
to student performance
and achievements in the
workforce.
2. Lack of strategies in
teaching soft skills.
3. Lack of knowledge in
applying teaching
strategies in soft skills.
4. Lack of ability to give
clear instructions towards
soft skills teaching.
5. Lack of self-awareness in
teaching performance
1. Teachers are not
putting valuable time
to teach soft skills
2. Teachers are not
seeking guidance or
resources when run
into barriers.
3. Teachers are not
teaching according to
their lesson plan
1. Teachers are not
prepared to teach soft
skill in thematic
course formats.
2. Teachers’
performances are not
evaluated based on
teaching soft skills.
3. The organization has
yet defined soft skills
4. Horizontal
Organization structure
has overloaded
teachers with
administrative work.
Learning and
motivation
theory
1. Factual
• Teachers lack of
knowledge in
understanding what the
levels of soft skill
competencies are
• Teachers lack of
knowledge in the
application of instructional
techniques to teach soft
skills
2. Conceptual
• Teachers lack knowledge
in understanding how to
categorize competencies of
soft skills for different
instructional techniques.
1. Teachers are not
putting valuable time
to teach soft skills
(Lack of Effort)
a) Frequent
unsuccessful
experience,
decrease task value
b) Ineffective goals
and assignment,
decrease task value
c) Lack of value.
d) Low self-efficacy
in teaching
unfamiliar topics
e) Lack of interest in
the topic
f) Cannot get buy in
from students, thus
often lose control
of the classroom.
1. Lack of accountability
measures towards
teachers.
2. Soft skills are yet
clearly defined and
standardized.
3. Teachers are not
provided adequate
training, support and
resources.
4. Overwhelming
workload on non-
teaching
responsibilities.
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61

Table 4, continued

Source
Causes Knowledge Motivation Organizational
Learning and
motivation
theory
3. Procedural
• Teachers lack knowledge
in creating a lesson plan
to teach soft skill
• Teachers lack knowledge
in the application of
carrying out the lesson
plan.
• Teachers lack knowledge
in the application of
breaking down complex
learning into simple
achievable goals
4. Metacognitive
• Teachers lack of
knowledge in
understanding the
importance of soft skills
and each level of soft
skill competencies.
• Teachers’ lack of
knowledge in monitoring
self-performance in
teaching of soft skills.
2. Teachers are not seeking
guidance or resources
when run into barriers
(Lack of Choice &
persistence)
a) Low self-efficacy,
believing they will not
achieve the goal even
when guidance is
provided
b) Decrease task value
when performance is
not evaluated
c) Lack of clear goals to
persist in teaching soft
skills throughout the
semester
d) Lack of interest and
value as students are
not interested in the
topic of soft skills
3. Teachers are not teaching
according to their lesson
plan (Lack of Persistence
& Effort)
a) Low self-efficacy due
to negative feedback
from students
b) Lack of control over the
classroom.

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62

Table 4, continued

Source
Causes Knowledge Motivation Organizational
Background
and review of
the literature
(Subject
specific)
1. Schulz (2008) points
out that soft skills may
not be valued as much
as hard skills.
2. Muller et al. (2009)
found competency gaps
exists in soft skills
between graduates from
culinary school and
industry expectation
3. Riggs and Hughey
(2011) stress education
and training should be
align with industry
needs
4. Bancino & Zevalkink
(2007), and Crosbie
(2005) provide insights
to ways of training for
soft skills, however, no
research have furthered
to explore the
effectiveness of the
strategies towards soft
skills training.
1. Renick (2002) found that
general belief in value and
outcomes and affect the
motivation in willingness
to participate.
2. Schulz (2008) points out
that soft skills may not be
valued as much as hard
skills.
3. Paulson (2001) points out
that education institutions
should work in partnership
with industry
1. Muller et al. (2009)
curricula are often
overloading in the
focus of hard skills
2. Schulz (2008)
recommended that
incorporating soft
skills into hard skill
class can increase
effectiveness and
attractiveness to the
class
3. Clark & Estes
(2008) points out
that for a program
to be effect, clear
goals and
monitoring progress
is important.
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Step 5: Validation of the Cause of the Performance Gap
The purpose of this study was to examine the amount of soft skill competencies
incorporated into teaching through Kai Ping’s thematic curriculum design. A list of soft skill
competencies was generated through a synthesis of key hospitality and foodservice research. The
list of competencies that defined soft skills serves as a baseline model to investigate barriers to
incorporating soft skills into instruction. Presumed causes to the performance gap were
suggested through personal knowledge, scanning interviews, and a review of literature. Teachers
current performance levels were identified through self-reported surveys, which found a mean of
66% of the soft skill competencies were incorporated into instruction.
Using the gap analysis model, the current performance level of 66% soft skills
incorporated into instruction was subtracted from the organizational goal of full incorporation.
Therefore, a 34% gap was identified along with presumed causes. For validation purposes, the
presumed causes were validated through a mixed-methods research design. Survey instruments
were designed and presumed causes were validated through triangulation, which ensures the data
from survey, interviews and observations converges (Merriam, 2009). After validating the
presumed causes to the performance gap, research-based solutions were provided to close the
gap, and an implementation plan was presented.
Sample and Population
The primary focus of the data collection was to examine the barriers in terms knowledge,
motivation, and organization themes that prevented teachers from incorporating all levels of soft
skill competencies into instruction. Kai Ping has a total of 120 employees: 28 teachers, 66
administrative staff members and 26 hospitality and foodservice professionals. All service an
approximate total of 1500 students. From the total population of employees, the unit of analysis
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selected was the group of teachers at Kai Ping. A total sample size of 28 teachers was identified.
The study adopted a purposeful sampling method of snowball sampling approach with criterion-
based selection. To thoroughly gain valid and reliable survey responses, teachers with the
criterion of at least one year of teaching experience at Kai Ping were essential to this study
(Merriam, 2009). The criterion for sampling selection, therefore, includes at least one year of
thematic teaching experience at Kai Ping.
This study collected qualitative data through a sample size of 10 teachers out of the 28
available to participate in interviews. As convenient sampling decreases credibility and makes it
difficult to obtain information-rich data (Merriam, 2009), a snowball sampling method was used.
Snowball sampling refers to selecting participants who meet the criteria established for the study
and asking him/her to refer the next suitable participant (Merriam, 2009). The main principle in
sampling is to maximize information-rich data. For the purpose of this study, the researcher
planned to continuously sample participants until the data showed redundancy and reached
saturation (Merriam, 2009). Therefore, the sample size was reduced to 10 teachers. In addition,
administrative staff serves as a supportive team for the teachers, and their perspectives may be
valued and included through survey and interviews for the purposes of triangulation of the data.
Instrumentation
Instruments used for quantitative analysis depended were surveys. Surveys were used to
collect information to describe, explain and compare participants’ knowledge, values, feelings
and behavior (Fink, 2013). For the purpose of the study, surveys were used to explain the
knowledge, motivation and organizational issues at stake.
For the qualitative analysis, interviews were conducted to obtain in-depth descriptions of
the knowledge, motivation, and organization barriers that hinder teachers from achieving goals.
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After the collection of data, the researcher triangulated surveys, interviews, and a review of
artifacts for convergence in results, as the purpose of triangulation is to strengthen the results by
ensuring validity and reliability (Merriam, 2009).
Survey. To measure the knowledge, motivation and organization gaps, a paper-based
survey was distributed. Survey questions were designed to assess the teachers’ basic
demographic information and their perception of the knowledge, motivation and organization
presumed causes that hinder goal achievement. The surveys were given to all teacher participants
at a focus group. Anonymous survey design promoted honest answers through statements
requiring response on a Likert scale (Table 5, Table 6, and Table 7).

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Table 5
Survey Builder Worksheet for Knowledge
Assumed Cause Knowledge Items
A. Factual Knowledge
Teachers’ lack of knowledge in
understanding what the levels of soft
skill competencies are.
• I clearly understand the knowledge, skills and abilities that are
associated with the term “soft skills.”
Teachers lack of knowledge in applying
instructional techniques to teach soft
skills.
• I am able to apply several different teaching strategies when
teaching soft skills.
• I am not equip with the knowledge, skills and abilities to teach
student soft skills.
B. Conceptual Knowledge
Teachers lack of knowledge in
categorizing competencies of soft skills
for different instructional techniques.
• I use different method of teaching to students when I teach
different levels of students or in different subjects.
C. Procedural Knowledge
Teachers lack of knowledge in
developing their own Soft Skills lesson
plan.
• I develop my own lesson plans to teach soft skills.
• I have developed a logical plan to teach soft skills throughout the
semester.
Teachers lack of knowledge in the
application of carrying out a planned
lesson.
• I teach according to my lesson plan.
• I give clear instructions in class in teaching soft skills.
Teachers lack of knowledge in the
application of breaking down complex
learning into simple achievable goals.
• When I teach complex topics of knowledge and skills, I break
down goals into smaller goals.
Teachers’ lack of knowledge of setting
goals for self and students at the
beginning of the class.
• I establish clear goal for myself in teaching a class.
• I set clear learning goals for students to achieve.
D. Metacognitive
Teachers lack of knowledge in
understanding the importance of soft
skills.
• From the Table below, please indicate the knowledge, skills, and
abilities that you believe are important to teaching students:
• “Soft skills are important that fosters students future success.”
• Future career paths are strongly affected by individuals Soft
skills performance.
Teachers’ lack of knowledge in
monitoring self-performance in
teaching of soft skills.
• Please rate your own teaching performance in teaching soft
skills:

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Table 6
Survey Builder Worksheet for Motivation
Assumed Motivational
Causes Items
A. Efforts
1. Teachers lack of effort to put in valuable time due to (the following)
Lack of Interest • I have strong interest in teaching soft skills.
Lack of value • I find teaching soft skills more valuable to students than
teaching technical skills.
Frequent unsuccessful
experience
• I frequently have unsuccessful experiences when it comes to
teaching soft skills.
Ineffective goals • Students are able to successfully achieve the goals I set for them
in class.
• I achieve my set goals effectively in teaching soft skills.
Low self-efficacy in
unfamiliar topics
• I believe I have strong soft skill abilities.
• When I am asked to teach a topic that I am not familiar with, I
try my best to prepare for teaching the class.
• I am confident teaching soft skills.
• I fear for teaching soft skills.

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Table 6, continued
Assumed Motivational
Causes Items
B. Choice & Persistence
2. Teachers are not seeking guidance or resources when run into barriers.
*(Also due to the following)
Lack of Interest and
value
• Please rate your perception on students’ interest in the topics of
soft skills.
• I choose to spend more time in teaching soft skills to students
than technical skills
• Please indicate in percentages an estimated amount of time you
spent in teaching soft skills versus others.
• Teaching soft skills ______ % + teaching other subjects
________% = 100%
Lack of Clear Goals • I plan to teach soft skills throughout the semester.
Low self-efficacy,
believing they will not
achieve the goal even
when guidance is
provided
• When I run into barriers, I believe to more effort I put in, the
more likely I can overcome problems I face.
• I can overcome challenges when guidance and aid are provided
in teaching soft skills.
• I always seek aid and guidance when I run into barriers.
Decrease task value
when performance is
not evaluated
• I often receive feedback from my supervisor or my peers on my
teaching performance.
• I find a waste of time to teach soft skills when my performance
are not evaluated.
• The feedbacks I get from my supervisor or from students
motivates me to improve.
C. Persistence & Effort
3. Teachers are not teaching according to their lesson plan due to (the following)
Low self-efficacy as
often receive negative
feedbacks from student
• When I run into barriers in teaching soft skills, I divert myself in
teaching other content and skills.
Fear of lack of control
over the classroom
• I tend to lose students concentration in class when it comes to
teaching soft skills.

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Table 7
Survey Builder Worksheet for Organization
Assumed Organizational
Causes Items
1. Performance
evaluation not present,
lack of accountability
measures
• Teachers should be evaluated based on their performance in
teaching soft skills.
• I am held accountable for the progress of students’ soft skill
development
2. Soft skills are yet
clearly defined and
standardized
• I clearly understand the definition(s) of soft skills that is
provided by the organization.
• The organizational mission and goals are clearly aligned with
my teachings of soft skills.
• The organization has provided clear and direct goals in relation
to teaching soft skills.
3. Teachers are not
provided with adequate
training, support and
resources
• The organization has provided me adequate useful and
effective training in teaching soft skills.
• The organization has provided me many resources and support
in teaching soft skills.
• The organization or my team has provided guidance and aid
are accessible when I need it.
• I feel supported by my peers or school administrators when I
face frustrations in teaching.
4. Overwhelming
workload on non-
teaching responsibilities.
• I am overwhelmed with duties and responsibilities aside from
teaching.
• Please indicate in percentages an estimated amount of time
you spent in teaching soft skills versus others.
• Teaching (in general) ______ % + Administrative Work
________% = 100%

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Interview. Interview questions were designed as open-ended questions for teachers to
provide in-depth perspectives. Ten questions with follow-up inquiries were asked to assess the
knowledge, motivation and organizational causes. Questions were self-designed, and shown in
Table 8, Table 9, and Table 10, showed the questions designed to examines organizational
performance causes.

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Table 8
Interview Builder Worksheet for Knowledge
Assumed Knowledge Cause Questions
A. Factual Knowledge
Teachers’ lack of knowledge in
understanding the levels of soft
skill competencies.
• How does the term “soft skill” mean to you?
• Can you list or summarize some of the soft skill
competencies? What are they?
Teachers lack of knowledge in
applying instructional techniques
to teach soft skills
• What are the soft skills that you focus on teaching to your
students?
• Can you give an example of how you teach these skills?
• What are the steps?
• What are the best practices that you use?
B. Conceptual Knowledge
Teachers lack of knowledge in
categorizing competencies of soft
skills for different instructional
techniques
• How do you evaluate students’ progress in soft skills?
• How would categorize teaching techniques for each level of
soft skill competencies?
C. Procedural Knowledge
Teachers lack of knowledge in
creating a Soft Skills lesson plan
• How do you create a lesson plan to teach soft skills?
• What are the steps of creating a lesson plan?
Teachers lack of knowledge in the
application of carrying out a
planned lesson
• How do you teach according to your lesson plan and achieve
your goals?
Teachers lack of knowledge in the
application of breaking down
complex learning into simple
achievable goals
• What are the steps you use to break down novel task into
achievable goals?
D. Metacognitive
Teachers lack knowledge in
understanding the importance of
soft skill.
• Do you believe that soft skills are important to be taught to
students? How is it important or unimportant?

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Table 9
Interview Builder Worksheet for Motivation
Assumed Motivational Causes Questions
A. Efforts
1. Teachers lack of effort to put in valuable time due to (the following)
Lack of Interest • What interest you the most in the topic of soft skills?
Lack of value
Frequent unsuccessful experience • Do you feel you are putting enough time into teaching soft skills?
What are the barriers that kept you away?
• Do you feel if your peers are putting valuable time into teaching
soft skills? Why?
• How do you feel of the motivation level of you and your peers in
teaching soft skills? And what motivates you and your peers?
Ineffective goals
Low self-efficacy in unfamiliar topics • How do you feel about your performance in teaching soft skills?
Why?
• How do you feel about your peers’ performance in teaching soft
skills? Why?
Cannot get buy in from students, lead
to fear of losing control of the
classroom
B. Choice & Persistence
2. Teachers are not seeking guidance or resources when run into barriers.
*(Also due to the following)
Lack of Interest and value • Do you believe that soft skills are important to be taught to
students? How is it important or unimportant?
Lack of Clear Goals • What are the guidelines or expectations from the organization that
guides you in teaching soft skills?
Low self-efficacy, believing they will
not achieve the goal even when
guidance is provided
• What are the strengths that kept you focused on teaching soft
skills?
Decrease task value when
performance is not evaluated
• Do you think teacher’s performance evaluation can motivate or
improve teachers teaching?
C. Persistence & Effort
3. Teachers are not teaching according to their lesson plan due to (the following)
Low self-efficacy as often receive
negative feedbacks from student
• What are major challenges you faced in teaching soft skills?
Lack of confidence? Lack of clear goals? Lacked buy in from students?
Fear of losing control? How do you overcome these barriers?
Fear of lack of control over the
classroom
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Table 10
Interview Builder Worksheet for Organization
Assumed Organizational
Causes Questions
1. Performance evaluation
not present, lack of
accountability measures
• How do you feel about the current teacher evaluation
system?
• Do you feel it is an effective system in evaluation of teacher
performance?
• What would you change to improve?
• Do you think teachers performance evaluation can motivate
or improve teachers in teaching?
2. Soft skills are yet clearly
defined and standardized
• Why do you think the organization expects teachers to teach
soft skills?
3. Teachers are not
provided with adequate
training, support and
resources
• What do you think is the most important knowledge, skills,
or abilities that teachers should be prepared for teaching
soft skills?
• Do you think the organization has prepared you, or new
teachers to be able to teach soft skills?
• Do you feel that you have enough support, resources or aid
from your peers or the organization to overcome barriers?
• What do you think the organization can do more to help you
or new teachers to teach soft skills?
4. Overwhelming workload
on non-teaching
responsibilities.
• In terms of usage of time, do you feel you have enough time
in teaching soft skills?

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Data Collection
Following the approval of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the University of
Southern California (USC), data were collected through surveys and interviews. Kai Ping
Culinary School teachers were the unit of analysis and selected through a criterion-based process.
Six teachers were interviewed due to criterion selection and saturation of data. All 28 teachers
were surveyed to assess the knowledge, motivation and organization causes of the performance
gap.
Survey. Questions aimed at examining the factual, conceptual, procedural, and
metacognitive knowledge were used to assess the knowledge causes. In the categorization of
active choice, persistence and effort, questions were designed to examine motivational causes.
Questions regarding the motivational causes were directed to examine value and interest, self-
efficacy, goal orientation, and attribution of teachers’ motivation. Organizational gaps were
assessed through questions focusing on policies and procedures, culture model and climate, and
resources provided to the teachers.
The survey remained anonymous and was kept only by the researcher for analysis.
Participation was voluntary and participants self-administered. The researcher collected survey
results after the focus group session.
Interview. Interviews were conducted for an in-depth understanding of the knowledge,
motivation, and organization causes of the performance gap. Questions were directed towards
the assessment of the factual, conceptual, procedural and metacognitive knowledge causes.
Questions directed towards motivation were aimed at the categorization of active choice,
persistence and effort with a focus on the value and interest, self-efficacy, goal orientation, and
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75
attribution of the causes. Questions aimed at assessing organizational causes focused on the
policy and procedures, culture model and climate, and resources provided by the organization.
Teachers were interviewed through a snowball sampling method with criterion-based
selection. Interviews took place during and after school hours at the convenience and comfort of
the teachers. The length of each interview was less than one hour per participant. All interview
data were kept confidential and used only for the purpose of analysis for this study.
Data Analysis
Data collected through surveys were analyzed for descriptive statistics including
frequencies, measure of central tendency and variation. The data were used to observe whether
correlations between variables were present. Data collected through interviews were encoded
and transcribed to identify common themes. Data collected through both interviews and survey
were compared for the purpose of triangulation. All data were analyzed to assess knowledge,
motivation, and organization causes.

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CHAPTER 4
RESULTS AND FINDINGS
This study identified the knowledge, skills and abilities that define “soft skills,”
specifically with competencies in regards to the service industry. With the compiled list of
knowledge, skills, and abilities examined through a review of literature, the present study
investigated the knowledge, motivation, and organizational assumed causes that challenged the
effort of teachers at Kai Ping Culinary School to incorporate all soft skills competencies into
instruction. Clark and Estes’ (2008) gap analysis model served as the guide to the investigation.
Surveys and interview questions were designed to assess the assumed causes that were presented
in Chapter 3.
A mixed-methods research design was structured for data collection and analysis.
Specifically, quantitative data were collected through a survey in a focus group on the Kai Ping
campus. The survey was designed based on the assumed causes identified through personal
scanning interviews, observations, content analysis and literature reviews. Interviews were
conducted on campus, for qualitative research, based on a snowball sampling method. Findings
were analyzed to identify common themes categorized under knowledge, motivation and
organization themes. After the University of Southern California’s (USC) Institutional Review
Board (IRB) approval, all documents, including the survey and interview questions, were
translated into Mandarin Chinese for data collection. The primary language for data collection
for both survey and interview were in Mandarin Chinese. All results and findings were
translated and reported in English.
Invitation letters were emailed through Kai Ping employee email list to invite all 28
general education subject teachers to attend the focus group on a voluntary basis. The focus
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group session, held once, lasted approximately 40 minutes, and most of the participants filled out
a 48-question survey within approximately 30 minutes.
Qualitative data were collected through interviews of teachers with at least one year‘s
experience held on the Kai Ping campus, after quantitative data were collected. Using a
snowball sampling approach, the researcher randomly selected the first participant for the
interview. After the first interview was conducted, the interviewee referred three stakeholders to
participate in the next interview session. All stakeholders voluntarily agreed to participate in the
study. All interview sessions were video recorded with the participants’ consent, and each
session lasted no more than one hour.
Participants for both the focus group and interviews were informed of their rights to
withdraw participation at any time before, during or after data were collected. Data were
collected during a two-week winter break in February 2014 while teachers were on duty for the
preparation of a new semester. Although the interview and survey participants overlapped, the
purpose of quantitative analysis was to validate the assumed causes, whereas qualitative analysis
sought greater in-depth findings based on the validated assumed causes for further investigation
and triangulation of the results.
With an overview of the characteristics of the study sample, the results and findings of
the analyzed data were organized and presented through the themes of knowledge, motivation
and organization causes. The survey results and interview findings are presented below and are
followed by a summary of the results and findings. A synthesized analysis of the results and
findings was performed and is presented with a list of validated causes for potential
recommendations and solutions discussed in the following chapter.
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Participating Stakeholders
Survey Participants
The population of the study includes all 120 employees of Kai Ping Culinary School.
However, the unit of analysis consists of the general education subject teachers. A total of 28
teachers were invited to participate in this study. All 28 teachers, invited through email,
participated in a focus group held on campus. Unfortunately, two participants did not complete
the survey, and those data were excluded from the analysis. Therefore, a total reduced sample of
26 teachers was surveyed. Table 11 provides an overview of stakeholder demographic
information.

Table 11
Survey: Stakeholders Demographic Information
Male 5
Female 21
Age Range 23-46
Average Age 31
Average Teaching Experience 4.8
Average Kai Ping Experience 3.7
**(2.3) excluding outliers
Level of Education Bachelors 19
Master 7
Teacher Certification Obtained 10

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Gender distribution showed there were 21 female teachers and 5 male teachers in the
sample. The youngest teacher was a recent college graduate, 23 years of age, with no prior
teaching experience. The oldest teacher, 46 years of age, had 14 years’ teaching experience and,
within the 14 years, reported teaching at Kai Ping for 13 years. The average age of the teachers
was fairly young, at 31 years and the average teaching experience was 4.8 years. The average
teaching experience at Kai Ping was 3.7 years. As there were six teachers with less than one
year teaching experience at Kai Ping, and five with more than nine, further analysis excluded
outliers of both low and high experience teachers. An average of 2.3 years of teaching
experience at Kai Ping showed that the teachers are fairly young and new to the school. The data
also indicated that, of the 26 teachers, six teachers with less than one year of teaching experience
at Kai Ping were new teachers, and only five teachers were considered senior teachers with nine
and more years of experience.
Comparing teachers’ overall experience and that specifically at Kai Ping also showed that
16 teachers had no prior formal teaching experience. This specifies that Kai Ping attracts fairly
new and inexperienced teachers, and the organization was willing to train from within the
organization.
Regarding the educational level of the teachers, 19 reported obtaining a bachelor’s degree,
and seven graduated with a master’s degree. Of the 26 teachers, 16 obtained a certificate to
teach senior high school students, and ten reported being in the process of obtaining the
certification. Kai Ping Culinary School can be seen as a risk taker in employing 10 teachers
without a certification. On the other hand, it is also a place willing to provide training and allow
new teachers to experiment in teaching.
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Interview Participants
Interviews were conducted on the Kai Ping campus after the collection of survey data.
Although participants were drawn from the same sample of 26 teachers, with criterion selection
eliminating teachers with less than one year’s experience at Kai Ping, a reduced sample of 21
teachers was qualified for selection and six were interviewed (Table 12).

Table 12
Interview: Stakeholder Demographic Information
Male 1
Female 5
Average age 34
Average Teaching experience 8.6
Average Kai Ping experience 6.3
Educational Level 100% Bachelors
Teacher Certification obtain 100% obtained

Of the six participating stakeholders, two teachers had more than one year’s but less than
two years’ teaching experience at Kai Ping, one teacher reported having four years’ experience at
Kai Ping. Experienced teachers with nine and more years’ experience at Kai Ping were referred
for interview. The composition of the participating stakeholders is fairly representative with half
being fairly new and half being experienced teachers. All participating stakeholders’ reported
having a bachelor’s degree, and all six stakeholders obtained a teacher certification to teach
senior high school students.
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Results and Findings for Knowledge Causes
Survey Results
Stakeholders were given a 48-question survey, of which a total of 14 questions were
directed towards the knowledge assumed causes. Questions were guided based on Anderson and
Krathwohl’s (2001) framework to investigate stakeholders’ factual (F), Conceptual (C),
Procedural (P), and Metacognitive (M) knowledge in the area of soft skills and the delivery of
instruction. The survey was designed with two types of questions. One type asked stakeholders
to mark a list of knowledge, skills and abilities of soft skills that they perceived important to
teach. There were 13 statements for stakeholders to rate how strongly they on a six-point Likert
scale. The highest value of six represents that stakeholder “strongly agrees”, followed by “agree,”
and “slightly agree.” The lowest value of one indicates, “strongly disagree,” and was preceded
by “disagree, and “slightly disagree.” Therefore, responses indicating four and above
demonstrate that stakeholders generally agreed with the statement, and the higher value revealed
the strength of the response. Since the values of the points are directional, an overview of the
direction of stakeholders’ response to each statement is presented in Table 13. A detailed
analysis of the median, mode, mean, and standard deviation follows an overview of the
directional responses.

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Table 13
General Overview Knowledge Survey Results: Directional Response in Percentages
Statements Items Results
14. “Soft skills are important to foster students’ future
success.” (M)
Agree 100%
15. Future career paths are strongly affected by individuals’
soft skills performance. (M)
Agree 100%
2. I clearly understand the knowledge, skills and abilities that
are associated with the term “soft skills.” (F)
Agree 96.2% / Disagree 3.8 %
3. I establish clear goal for myself in teaching a class. (P) Agree 96.2% / Disagree 3.8 %
12. I have developed a logical plan to teach soft skills
throughout the semester. (P)
Agree 96.2% / Disagree 3.8 %
4. I set clear learning goals for students to achieve. (P) Agree 92.3% / Disagree 7.7%
5. When I teach complex topics of knowledge and skills, I
break down goals into smaller goals. (P)
Agree 92.3% / Disagree 7.7%
9. I am able to apply several different teaching strategies
when teaching soft skills (F)
Agree 92.3% / Disagree 7.7%
6. I use different method of teaching to students when I teach
different levels of students or in different subjects. (C)
Agree 92.3% / Disagree 7.7%
7. I teach according to my lesson plan. (P) Agree 84.6% / Disagree 15.4%
11. I develop my own lesson plans to teach soft skills. (P) Agree 84.6% / Disagree 15.4%
13. I give clear instructions in class in teaching soft skills. (P) Agree 84.6% / Disagree 15.4%
10. I am not equip with the knowledge, skills and abilities to
teach student soft skills. (F)
Agree 19.2% / Disagree 80.8%

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The direction of the responses seems to have low divergence between the positive and
negative direction. That is, responses seem to lean towards the same direction and only
responses from a few questions have a larger gap towards positive or negative directional
responses. Only four questions, 7, 11, 10 and 13, have a divergent gap of 15% or more; though
the divergent gap is low, it may still merit closer examination. Question 10 was framed
negatively, and 80% of the stakeholders disagreed with the statement of “I am not equipped with
the knowledge, skills and abilities to teach students soft skills.” Only 19%, 5 out of 26,
stakeholders agreed with the statement.
Although questions 7, 10, 11 and 13 have a 15% or higher discrepancy in the directional
response, the percentages of those who agreed with the statements is still high. The three
questions assess the three assumed causes of (1) Teachers lack factual knowledge in applying
instructional techniques to teach soft skills, (2) Teachers lack the procedural knowledge in
developing their own lesson plan, and (3) teachers lack knowledge in the application of carrying
out a planned lesson.
Questions 14 and 15 have a 100% positive directional response; in other words, all
stakeholders agreed with the statements. These questions assess whether teachers lack
metacognitive knowledge in terms of understanding the importance of soft skills. All
stakeholders agree with the statements “soft skills are important that fosters students’ future
success,” and “Future career paths are strongly affected by individuals’ Soft skills performance.”
Thus, stakeholders demonstrated their metacognitive knowledge and supported the delivery of
soft skills instruction.
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The directional responses gave an overview of stakeholders’ responses to each statement.
However, evaluation through descriptive statistics shows the strength of the results for each
statement. Table 14 presents the descriptive statistics of the knowledge survey.
The strength of the responses showed high mean value above a 5 for statements 3, 14,
and 15. In particular, statement 14 had mode of six, meaning that the most common response
was that of strongly agreeing with the statement. The dispersion of the responses was
represented by the standard deviation (SD) value indicated in the range of 0.7 to 0.849. The SD
value showed that the variation of responses was somewhat concentrated, concluding that
stakeholders have metacognitive knowledge regarding the importance of soft skills and have
procedural knowledge in terms of setting goals for self and students at the beginning of the
semester.
On the other hand, statements 10 and 11 had a high variation of responses with an SD
value of 1.4 and 1.1, respectively, and a mean value of 4.38 and 2.31 indicating slightly agree
and disagree. Statement 10 is framed negatively, and the resulting response was one of slightly
disagree. Due to the high dispersion of responses and the lower SD value, the two statements
assessing the assumed cause of teachers’ factual knowledge of applying instructional techniques
to teach soft skills and procedural knowledge of developing their own lesson plan may, in fact,
serve as barriers to incorporating soft skills.

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Table 14
Analysis of Knowledge Survey Results: Descriptive Statistics. *(Descending by Mean)
Statements Items SD Mean Mode Median
3. I establish clear goal for myself in teaching a class. (P) 0.72 5.2 5 5
14. “Soft skills are important to fosters students future
success” (M)
0.849 5.19 6 5
15. Future career paths are strongly affected by individuals
Soft skills performance (M)
0.749 5.19 5 5
4. I set clear learning goals for students to achieve (P) 0.8 5 5 5
6. I use different method of teaching to students when I
teach different levels of students or in different subjects.
(C)
0.98 4.9 5 5
2. I clearly understand the knowledge, skills and abilities
that are associated with the term “soft skills.” (F)
0.8 4.8 5 5
9. I am able to apply several different teaching strategies
when teaching soft skills (F)
0.96 4.73 5 5
5. When I teach complex topics of knowledge and skills, I
break down goals into smaller goals. (P)
0.84 4.7 5 5
12. I have developed a logical plan to teach soft skills
throughout the semester. (P)
0.7 4.42 4 4
7. I teach according to my lesson plan. (P) 0.898 4.38 4 4
13. I give clear instructions in class in teaching soft skills.
(P)
0.834 4.38 4 4
11. I develop my own lesson plans to teach soft skills. (P) 1.116 4.15 4 4
*10. I am not equip with the knowledge, skills and abilities
to teach student soft skills. (F)
1.408 2.31 1 2

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Statements exhibited a solid range of SD value with a mean value of 4 and above, and
this specifies that stakeholders’ responses were more concentrated; therefore, the assumed causes
did not serve as barriers. However, statements 6 and 9 had a mean relatively close to a five,
agree, and the SD values were concerning, as they were close to one. Statement 9 assesses the
same assumed cause as statement 10 and statement 6 assesses the assumed cause of teachers’
conceptual knowledge in categorizing competencies of soft skills for different instructional
techniques.
As a result, from the knowledge survey, the three assumed causes that may need further
investigation through the triangulation of interview findings were (1) teachers lack of factual
knowledge in applying instructional techniques to teach soft skills, (2) teachers lack of
conceptual knowledge in categorizing competencies of soft skills for different instructional
techniques, and (3) teachers lack of procedural knowledge in developing own lesson plan. The
assumed cause of teachers lacked procedural knowledge in the application of carrying out a
planned lesson was not validated, as results showed a solid mean and SD value.
In addition to the results of the six-point Likert scaled statements, Table 15 specified the
results from survey question 8, which assesses stakeholders’ knowledge of the soft skills
competencies that teachers perceived as important to teach students. A table, listing soft skills
competencies to define soft skills, allowed the participants to mark the important knowledge,
skills and abilities that teachers find valuable and important to teach.
Results revealed that all stakeholders agreed that they understood the importance of soft
skills, but, since a gap of 34% of incorporation exists, question 8 assesses the extent to which
stakeholders evaluate the importance of teaching soft skills competencies by marking them in the
table. The abilities shown in the table were compiled from literature to define soft skills for the
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hospitality and culinary industry at all professional levels. The compiled soft skill abilities were
listed under four dimensions: Leadership, Interpersonal, Cognitive and Personal, for participant
ratings, shown in Table 15.

Table 15
Survey Question: Identifying Valuable Soft Skills
Question Results
8. From the Table below, please indicate the knowledge, skills, and abilities that
you believe are important to teaching students:

Leadership 60%
Interpersonal 65%
Cognitive 65%
Personal 74%
Grand Mean 66%

Stakeholders, on a grand mean, reported that 66% of the soft skills were important to
teach students. Specifically, 60% of leadership, 65% of interpersonal and cognitive, and 74% of
personal abilities were important. The results indicate a mean of 66% in teachers’ metacognitive
knowledge regarding the importance of soft skills and the abilities associated with them. Results
support the identified gap Kai Ping currently has in reaching its goal. However, they contradict
the results of statement 2, which assess the factual knowledge cause of teachers’ understanding
the levels of soft skills competencies. The Results of statement 2 showed a small discrepancy
gap and a solid mean and SD value. This may be due to the fact that teachers may believe they
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understood all the soft skills competencies. However, results in Table 15 show there were
actually more competencies present than teachers could know. In other words, teachers may not
have realized that they lack factual knowledge in identifying and understanding all the
competencies included as soft skills; therefore, contradiction exists.
In summary, the four assumed causes that serve as a barrier were (1) factual knowledge
in understanding the levels of soft skills competencies, (2) factual knowledge of applying
instruction techniques to teach soft skills, (3) conceptual knowledge in categorizing
competencies of soft skills for different instructional techniques, and (4) procedural knowledge
in developing their own lesson plan. Results were triangulated with interview findings for
validation.
Findings from Interviews
Interviews were conducted after survey data was collected. The purpose of the
interviews was to triangulate survey results and perform an in-depth investigation as to the
causes prevent teachers from incorporating the defined soft skills competencies into instruction.
Six stakeholders were invited to participate in the interview, and all six stakeholders accepted the
invitation. All ten questions, with sub level questions, were answered, indicating a 100%
response rate. The findings from the interview were organized into themes of knowledge,
motivation and organization that relates to the same assumed causes as the survey aimed for.
The questions assessed the knowledge causes are shown in Table 8.
Findings from each response are synthesized into common themes of Factual (F),
Conceptual (C), Procedural (P) and Metacognitive (M) Knowledge causes. The findings are
presented below. Stakeholders were referred to as Participants 1 through 6 (P1 through P6). All
Six participants were included in the findings.
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Knowledge Cause Question 1: What does the term “soft skills” mean to you? And
1a: Can you list or summarize some of the soft skill competencies? What are they? The
question was aimed at discerning the factual knowledge of teachers in their understanding of the
term “soft skills” by providing a clear definition and to assess whether they could list soft skills
competencies. Interview findings revealed two common themes. No interviewees were able to
provide a clear definition of soft skills; instead, all provided conceptual descriptions.
Respondent P1 indicate that soft skills are skills in regards to emotional, uncountable or
measurable skills and cannot be standardized. P2 responded that soft skills are relational skills,
including manner and attitude, and problem-solving skills. P3’s response overlapped with the
previous responses by stating these were relational skills, problem-solving skills, and by adding
they are skills that shape “logic.” The other three stakeholders reported that they believe soft
skills are relational, spiritual and metacognitive skills, particularly reflective skills and the ability
to express thoughts and feelings.
Conceptual descriptions of soft skills fell into the dimensions of interpersonal, cognitive
and personal whereas the leadership dimensions were left of out the description. In support of
the findings, stakeholders could only list four to six soft skills in the interpersonal, cognitive and
personal dimensions. The six stakeholders listed a total of 19 abilities in aggregate, and abilities
in the leadership dimension were clearly missing.
As this question corresponded to survey statement 2 in assessing teachers’ factual
knowledge of soft skills competencies, the findings contradict those of statement 2, but
triangulate with the result of Table 15, which validates the assumed cause. Stakeholders
believed they understood the knowledge, skills, and abilities, but findings show they could only
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express conceptual descriptions of soft skills and could not list any of the leadership abilities
associated with them.
Knowledge Cause Question 3: What are the soft skills that you focus on teaching to
your students? And 3a: Can you give an example of how you teach these skills? What are
the steps? What are the best practices that you use? The findings showed that stakeholders
were able to express the soft skills that they focus on while teaching, and the emerging themes
were relational, teamwork, and communication skills. Emphasizing the three abilities,
stakeholders expressed these skills are the fundamental basis for soft skills, especially through a
project theme curriculum. As P1 reported:
For a 16 year old student, the first step is to teach students to express themselves, to trust
others in a team and be able to communicate through listening others opinion, this is the
first step for students to learn soft skills.
In support, P3 expressed the importance of teaching students to understand themselves, that is,
“the relationship between you and yourself, you and others, and you and the community.”
Findings show that stakeholders had a clear structure for teaching soft skills. When stakeholders
were asked to list the steps for instructional techniques, one common technique mentioned by all
six stakeholders was to first help students understand themselves through a strength and
weakness evaluation and to help them set a goal.
The second step is to have students find their own team, meaning: find a partner to
accomplish themed projects and assignments. Student must evaluate whom to partner with in
terms of their strengths and weaknesses. The third step is to assign missions to each group and
to teach through themes of activities for students to accomplish. The fourth step is to have
students role-play with team members’ through hypothetical situations and challenges they may
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face during a mission or project. Lastly, stakeholders reported that the most important step is to
gather the students and reflect as a group on the lessons learned from missions and projects.
Stakeholders reported using different instructional techniques throughout the steps of
teaching soft skills. Stakeholders identified that lecturing is the best practice for delivering
instruction, but a respondent shared that personal experiences are the most influential method for
instruction. P1 stated that having students discuss a topic or giving students a mission, and
observing their discussion while listening to their opinions from the side is the best ways to teach
soft skills in smaller groups.
Although findings show that stakeholders use different instructional methods, a common
structure for teaching soft skills clearly exists. Stakeholders listed and provided clear and
concise examples to demonstrate factual knowledge of applying instructional techniques to the
teaching of soft skills.
The findings contradicted the survey results in that the stakeholders could identify at least
one common technique to teach soft skills. A logical explanation could be that survey results
focused on teachers’ being able to identify the application of several instructional techniques.
However, findings show stakeholders could identify one common technique. Stakeholders who
did not participate in the interviews may not have more than one instructional technique.
Knowledge Cause Question 3b. How do you evaluate students’ progress in soft skills?
And 3c. How would you categorize teaching techniques for each level of soft skill
competencies?
The two questions assess the conceptual knowledge cause, and finding did not support
reasonable doubt regarding the survey results. Stakeholders were able to evaluate differently
based on students’ progress of soft skills and were able to categorize teaching techniques for
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each level of soft skills. However, stakeholders expressed that soft skills competencies are
inseparable, and, therefore, instead of categorizing teaching techniques for each, they categorized
using project themes.
One theme to emerge was that three stakeholders (P1, P4 and P6) stated that evaluations
will be based on students’ self-evaluation, peer evaluation, and teachers’ evaluation. All three
evaluations, together, give the teachers an idea of the students’ progress. However, stakeholders
P5 and P6 added that the criteria used in the teacher’s evaluation are discussed with the students
on the first day of class. All the students and teachers must agree on the criteria for evaluation;
therefore, different classes of students have different criteria used for evaluation. In support,
stakeholders P2 and P3 stated that, because each student plays a different role in a mission or
project, the standard of evaluation depends on the role. For example, “if student assumes the
role of project leaders, evaluation standards will be different compared to a student assumes a
role with less responsibility.”
On the other hand, all six stakeholders responded that there were no particular
categorizations of teaching different soft skills for two reasons. First, all stakeholders stated that
the soft skills cannot be taught separately. Stakeholders P1, P4, and P5 specified that “…the
goal of teaching teamwork is to teach them to problem-solve together. They are interrelated.”
Stakeholder (P1) stated, “… you cannot teach only one soft skill per class, teaching
communication is teaching listening skills as well….” However, stakeholders reported that since
soft skills are inseparable and interrelated, instead of categorizing competencies of soft skills,
they categorized through themes and projects they assign. That is, certain projects or themes
emphasize the development of certain soft skills.
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Knowledge Cause Question 4. How do you create a lesson plan to teach soft skills?
And 4a. What are the steps of creating a lesson plan?
In general, findings showed teachers collaborate to create lesson plans for the entire
semester. As all stakeholders reported that a discussion takes place during summer and winter
break, teachers work together to review a master lesson plan. Teachers discuss timeline, set
goals, share teaching practices, and set themes and project assignments to reach learning
outcomes.
P1 and P2 indicated that, other than setting goals and making notes of effective strategies,
it is important to adjust the timeline and theme structure as the students’ motivational level
increase or decreases. P3 supported the response and stated that adjusting the timeline and
project requirements is important in order increase students’ motivation. P4 and P5 added that,
during the meetings during summer and winter break, teachers write a drafted lesson plan for
comparison and revision. For some lessons, teachers invite another teacher to co-host a class to
increase effectiveness.
In addition, stakeholders listed the steps to creating a lesson plan, and indicated that the
first step is to set learning outcomes and daily goals. The second step is to set project themes and
activities. The third step is to make notes of teaching strategies and the possibilities for class
adjustments. How to adjust the timeline, or structure of the class, is carefully thought out before
the semester starts. Most information was based on previous experiences. The last step is to set
evaluations for the students. Comparing evaluation to the learning outcome determines the
effectiveness of the lesson plan. All stakeholders listed concise procedural steps to creating a
lesson plan.
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The findings did not support the survey results, as stakeholder could list the procedure of
creating a lesson plan; however, findings showed that lesson plans were heavily based on
previous lesson plans and adjustments were based on previous experiences. If teachers were
fairly new to Kai Ping Culinary School, felt less of a sense of ownership towards the lesson plan;
this, therefore, contradicts the survey results.
Knowledge Cause Question 4b. How do you teach according to your lesson plan and
achieve your goals? Findings revealed that stakeholders are challenged in teaching according to
the lesson plan and achieving goals due to either student motivational issues or their learning
progress. Stakeholders demonstrated how they set daily goals to carry out the planned lesson.
However, they stated that goals are adjusted when student motivation is low (P1), when they find
an activity either overly or insufficiently challenging (P2), when they do not understand a topic
(P3), or when the teacher runs out of time (P4). P5 supports the findings and stated that, most of
the time, 70% of the goals were met.
P1, P2, and P4 indicated the school does not micro-manage to see if daily goals are met;
teachers agree that learning outcomes should be met at the end of the semester but not on a daily
basis, since soft skills are to be fostered and not taught. Findings suggest that teachers have the
procedural knowledge to carry out a planned lesson, and they were flexible in adjusting it and
evaluated the achieved goals at the end of each semester. The findings supported survey results
and, therefore, the procedural assumed causes were not validated.
Knowledge Cause Question 4c. What are the steps you use to break down novel task
into achievable goals? To break down complex, novel goals into achievable goals and tasks,
findings show stakeholders reported there were no complex goals. Stakeholders expressed that,
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since goals are collaboratively discussed and set, teachers do not set complex teaching goals.
However, stakeholders responded to a hypothetical situation and listed reasonable steps.
P1 indicated that a review of the structure of the goal or task determines the class timeline
in order to set stages of goals or smaller achievable tasks for students to accomplish. P2 reported
simply breaking down tasks into a single target task that is less challenging for students to
complete. P3, P4, P5, and P6 supported previous responses and added that, because of their
daily meetings to set goals, teachers, basically, will not set goals that are too complex. Teachers
would assess the goals or tasks to identify which the priority skills that students should learn.
Therefore, teachers do not face difficulties in teaching complex goals or tasks, as these do not
exist. The findings supported the survey results and the procedural assumed cause was found to
not be a barrier.
Knowledge Cause Question 5: Do you believe that soft skills are important to be
taught to students? How is it important or unimportant? All six stakeholders stressed that
they understand the importance of soft skills. All stakeholders responded “very important.”
Reasons for the importance emerged were related to a self-directed cause. P3 and P5 both
reported that soft skills foster self-improvement, can improve quality of life in a spiritual sense,
and can influence the quality of everyday life. P1, P2, and P4 stated that soft skills are skills that
students will never forget and directly influence their teamwork and relation with coworkers and
peers. Soft skills improve students’ cognitive skills, particularly students’ logic. P6 indicates
that soft skills are important because learning and living is all about interacting with self and
others. Learning soft skills directly improves students’ relational skills and they are more
satisfied psychologically. The reasons for the importance of soft skills were targeted mainly
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towards personal improvement and future lifestyle. All stakeholders agreed that soft skills are
important and teaching soft skills is a public good.
Synthesis of Results and Findings of Knowledge Causes
Seven assumed knowledge causes, organized in the themes of factual, conceptual,
procedural, and metacognition, were assessed through survey and interviews. Survey results
contradicted interview findings in the two factual causes and two procedural causes. However,
results and findings supported two procedural and one metacognitive causes. Results were
triangulated from to support the fact that the assumed causes were not barriers for teachers to
incorporate soft skills into instruction. Teachers demonstrated procedural knowledge in carrying
out a planned lesson and breaking down complex goals into simple achievable goals. They also
expressed the importance of soft skills is to a student.
The contradictory findings were: (1) teachers lacked factual knowledge in the
understanding of the levels of soft skill competencies, (2) factual knowledge in application of
instructional techniques, (3) conceptual knowledge in categorizing competencies of soft skills for
different instructional techniques, and (4) procedural knowledge in creating a lesson plan.
Results showed that assumed causes 2, 3, and 4, stated above, may serve as barriers, but
stakeholders were able to apply at least one common technique, categorize teaching soft skills
through themes instead of competencies, and could create a lesson plan but felt less ownership
towards the lesson plan, as these were created collaboratively. Therefore, findings demonstrate
that the assumed causes are not barriers.
On the other hand, interview findings showed that teachers lacked factual knowledge in
defining soft skills. Stakeholders could not give a clear and concise definition of soft skills;
instead, they could only express conceptual descriptions. Contradicting survey results, statement
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2 had a mean value of 4.8 that is close to full agreement with the statement “I clearly understand
the knowledge, skills and abilities that are associated with the term “soft skills.” SD values were
0.8, indicating a mild variation of response. However, the answers to survey question 8 revealed
that teachers believed 66% of the soft skills were important. From triangulating the results, a
synthesized conclusion was that teachers believed they understood exactly what soft skills were
and the competencies included in them. However, they should have known more actual
competencies.
From a synthesized review and triangulation of data, only one assumed cause was
validated. The validated knowledge cause states teachers lack factual knowledge in
understanding what the levels of soft skills competencies. Teachers should be informed of the
definition of soft skills and provided a list of competencies in order to close the gap in
incorporating 100% of soft skill competencies into instruction. Table 16 showed how each
knowledge causes were supported through survey results and interview findings. The symbol Y
indicated a yes for data supporting the statement may be a cause to the performance gap, whereas,
an N indicated a No for data not supporting the statement to be a validated cause.

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Table 16
Summary of Validated Knowledge Causes
Knowledge Causes
Supported
by Survey
Results
Supported by
Interview
Findings
Validated
(Y/N)
(F) Teachers’ lack of knowledge in understanding
what the levels of soft skill competencies are.
Y Y Y
(F) Teachers lack of knowledge in applying
instruction techniques to teach soft skills
Y N N
(C) Teachers lack of knowledge in categorizing
competencies of soft skills for different instructional
techniques
Y N N
(P) Teachers lack of knowledge in developing own
soft skills lesson plan
Y N N
(P) Teachers lack of knowledge in the application of
carrying out a planned lesson
N N N
(P) Teachers lack of knowledge in the application of
breaking down complex learning into simple
achievable goals
N N N
(P) Teachers lack of knowledge of setting goals for
self and students at the beginning of the class
N N N
(M) Teachers lack knowledge in understanding the
importance of soft skills
N N N

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Results and Findings for Motivation Causes
Survey Results
A total of 21 survey questions were asked regarding the motivational causes that may
serve as barriers to teachers’ incorporating 100% of soft skills into teaching culinary students.
The analysis used Pintrich’s (2003) motivational principles as a guide to investigate teachers’
choice, effort, and persistence in teaching soft skills. The scale of the survey for 19 statements
was a 6-point Likert scale, in which one represents strongly disagree, followed by disagree,
slightly disagree, and four, represents slightly agree, followed by agree and strongly agree. In
addition, one question had a ratio scale of 1 to 10, assessing teachers’ perception on students’
interest in learning soft skills. Another question directs teachers to self-report their distribution of
time, on a 1 to 10 point scale, for teaching soft skills versus other subjects.
The 21 items assessed the three motivational causes of (1) teachers’ effort in devoting
valuable time to teach soft skills, (2) teachers’ persistence and effort to teach accordingly to their
planned lesson, and (3) teachers’ choice and persistence in seeking guidance or resources when
running into barriers while teaching soft skills. Each assumed cause was investigated in terms of
teachers’ interest, values, goals, self-efficacy and other motivational factors that may serve as
barriers.
Assessing the 19 statements, an overview of stakeholder responses in the direction of
whether they agree or disagree with the statements provided a discrepancy gap. Table 17
provides an overview, in percentages, of teachers’ responses in the direction of agreeing and
disagreeing with the statements.

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Table 17
General Overview of Motivation Survey Results: Directional Response in Percentages
Statement Items Results
34. The feedbacks I get from my supervisor or from students motivates
me to improve
Agree 100%
32. I always seek aid and guidance when I run into barriers Agree 100%
29. I can overcome challenges when guidance and aid are provided in
teaching soft skills.
Agree 100%
22. When I am asked to teach a topic that I am not familiar with, I try my
best to prepare for teaching the class.
Agree 100%
16. I have strong interest in teaching soft skills Agree 100%
21. I believe I have strong soft skill abilities Agree 96.2%/ Disagree 3.8%
30. I often receive feedback from my supervisor or my peers on my
teaching performance
Agree 96.2%/ Disagree 3.8%
27. I plan to teach soft skills throughout the semester. Agree 96.2%/ Disagree 3.8%
28. I choose to spend more time in teaching soft skills to students than
technical skills
Agree 96.2%/ Disagree 3.8%
17. I find teaching soft skills are more valuable to students than teaching
technical skills
Agree 96.2%/ Disagree 3.8%
26. When I run into barriers, I believe to more effort I put in, the more
likely I can overcome problems I face.
Agree 96.2%/ Disagree 3.8%
31. I find a waste of time to teach soft skills when my performance are
not evaluated.
*Agree 3.8%/Disagree 96.2%
23. I am confident teaching soft skills. Agree 92.3% / Disagree 7.7%
25. I tend to lose students concentration in class when it comes to
teaching soft skills.
Agree 11.5% / Disagree 88.5%
20. I achieve my set goals effectively in teaching soft skills. Agree 84.6% / Disagree 15.4%
24. I fear for teaching soft skills. *Agree 15.4% / Disagree 84.6%
19. Students are able to successfully achieve the goals I set for them in
class.
Agree 80.8% / Disagree 19.2%
18. I frequently have unsuccessful experiences when it comes to teaching
soft skills
Agree 34.6% / Disagree 65.4%
33. When I run into barriers in teaching soft skills, I divert myself in
teaching other content and skills.
Agree 50% / Disagree 50%

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Participating stakeholders responses for statements 16, 22, 29, 32 and 34 all agreed with
the statements indicating that all teachers devote effort to put in valuable time as indicating
strong interest in teaching soft skills, teachers demonstrate a willingness to devote effort and
time in preparation to teach unfamiliar subject matter,. Teachers responded that, when resources
and aid were provided, they believed they could overcome challenges if efforts were devoted.
In addition, teachers persisted in their efforts to teach soft skills, as they sought guidance, aid and
feedback from their peers in teaching these.
Statements 18 and 33 have a higher discrepancy in the direction of the response. Results
from Statement 33 indicated that 50% of the teachers redirected their efforts to teach subjects
other than soft skills when they ran into barriers. That is, teachers do not teaching according to
their lesson plan due to low self-efficacy, as they often receive negative feedback from students.
Teachers tend to divert to other content knowledge rather than follow the lesson plan. The
results for statement 18 showed approximately 35% of teachers frequently experience challenges
when teaching soft skills. Therefore, they did not devote valuable time to doing so. As
directional responses provide an overview, further examination of the strength of each response
is shown in Table 18.

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Table 18
Analysis of Motivational Survey Results: Descriptive Statistics. *(Descending by Mean)
Statement Items SD Mean Mode Median
34. The feedbacks I get from my supervisor or from students
motivates me to improve
0.57 5.62 6 6
22. When I am asked to teach a topic that I am not familiar with, I
try my best to prepare for teaching the class.
0.68 5.31 5 5
32. I always seek aid and guidance when I run into barriers 0.59 5.23 5 5
29. I can overcome challenges when guidance and aid are provided
in teaching soft skills.
0.59 5.23 5 5
16. I have strong interest in teaching soft skills 0.85 5.19 6 5
26. When I run into barriers, I believe to more effort I put in, the
more likely I can overcome problems I face.
0.94 5.08 5 5
17. I find teaching soft skills are more valuable to students than
teaching technical skills
0.92 5.04 6 5
27. I plan to teach soft skills throughout the semester. 0.82 5.04 5 5
30. I often receive feedback from my supervisor or my peers on my
teaching performance
0.8 5 5 5
28. I choose to spend more time in teaching soft skills to students
than technical skills
0.83 4.85 5 5
23. I am confident teaching soft skills. 0.68 4.31 4 4
21. I believe I have strong soft skill abilities 0.53 4.27 4 4
20. I achieve my set goals effectively in teaching soft skills. 0.63 3.92 4 4
19. Students are able to successfully achieve the goals I set for them
in class.
0.69 3.92 4 4
33. When I run into barriers in teaching soft skills, I divert myself in
teaching other content and skills.
1.36 3.5 4 3.5
18. I frequently have unsuccessful experiences when it comes to
teaching soft skills
1.18 3.04 3 3
24. I fear for teaching soft skills. 0.98 2.19 2 2
25. I tend to lose students concentration in class when it comes to
teaching soft skills.
0.93 2.15 2 2
31. I find a waste of time to teach soft skills when my performance
are not evaluated.
0.83 1.73 1 2

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Consistently, questions 16, 22, 29, 32, 34, with which 100% of respondents agreed, had a
high mean ranging from 5.19 to 5.62. Statement 34, in particular, showed a mode and median
rating of a 6, strongly agree. Dispersions for the five questions had low standard deviation (SD)
values in the range of 0.57 to 0.85, which indicated that the stakeholders’ responses were
concentrated. Results appeared to support previous analysis in stakeholders’ directional
responses.
On the other hand, statements 18, 19, 20, and 33 reported a mean value between 3,
slightly disagree, and 4, slightly agree, and, therefore, results showed indications of signs for
barriers. For a closer examination, although statements 19 and 20 reported a mean value of 3.92,
the SD showed low values of 0.69 and 0.63, respectively. This indicated that the dispersion from
the mean was low. The mode and medium value indicated a 4, slightly agree to the statement;
therefore, most teachers, 21 out of 26, responded slightly agree. Thus, the strength of doubt for
the assumed cause was weak. Both statements assessed teachers’ lack of effort to put in time to
teaching soft skills due to ineffective goals.
Only statements 18 and 33 revealed a higher dispersion of responses from the mean,
represented by SD values of 1.18 and 1.36. The mean values were 3.04 and 3.5 respectively,
whereas, for statement 33, half of the stakeholders agreed and half of the stakeholders disagreed.
Statement 33. When I run into barriers in teaching soft skills, I divert myself in
teaching other content and skills. The motivational assumed cause behind statement 33 related
to teachers’ lack of persistence and effort to teach according to the lesson plan due to low self-
efficacy. Results indicate that 50% of the teachers would turn to other subjects.
In support of the results for this statement, questions 46 and 48 asked stakeholders to
calculate in the time they spend teaching soft skills compared to other subjects, and to rate their
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perception of students’ interest level in learning soft skills from a scale of 1 to 10 where one
indicates lowest interest and ten shows highest interest. Stakeholders reported on average that
they devote only 55% of the time to teaching soft skills, and their perception of students’ level of
interest was 6 out of 10. Results revealed that stakeholders turned to teach content other than
soft skills when facing challenges in the classroom and that low self-efficacy is a barrier that
reduces teachers’ motivation to teach soft skills. Teachers’ perception of students’ interest in
learning soft skills were low. Table 19 shows the results.

Table 19
Survey Motivation Questions 46 and 48
46. Please indicate in percentages an estimated amount of time you spent in teaching soft skills
versus others.
SD = 0.16 Mean 0.55 Mode 0.5 Median 0.5
48. Please rate your perception on students’ interest in the topics of soft skills (1 = Lowest
Interest: 10 = Highest Interest)
SD = 1.20 Mean 6.42 Mode 6 Median 6

Statement 18. I frequently have unsuccessful experiences when it comes to teaching
soft skills. The associated assumed cause behind statement 18 pertains to teachers’ effort to
devote valuable time to teaching soft skills. As one third of the stakeholders agree with the
statement, results showed teachers frequently have unsuccessful experiences that reduce their
motivation to devote more time for soft skills instruction.
In summary, results showed solid mean and standard deviation values for statements
directed towards the assumed cause of teachers’ persistence and choice to seek guidance or
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resources when facing challenges in teaching soft skills. However, results revealed that
stakeholders have low self-efficacy when they face challenges. As a result, teachers divert effort
and time to teach other subjects and are distracted from teaching according to the lesson plan.
Findings from Interviews
Interview questions were directed to investigate the assumed causes in the motivational
themes of active choice, persistence and mental efforts. Three assumed causes under
examination were (1) teachers’ effort in devoting valuable time to teach soft skills, (2) teachers’
persistence and effort to teach according to their planned lesson, and (3) teachers’ persistence
and choice in seeking guidance or resources when running into barriers. Questions directed to
seek findings for each assumed cause were shown in Table 9. Interview responses provided in-
depth findings that were used to triangulate survey results.
Motivation Cause Question 5. Do you believe that soft skills are important to be
taught to students? How is it important or unimportant? And 6c. What interest you the
most in the topic of soft skills? This question assessed both the metacognitive knowledge and
motivational causes associated with interest and value of soft skills. Findings, reported in the
knowledge cause section, were that all stakeholders expressed the importance of teaching soft
skills, as students benefit directly from lifelong skills that improve their quality of life. The
findings showed that all stakeholders not only understand the importance of soft skills, but they
also conveyed strong interest in teaching them. The topic of soft skills that held the most interest
for the stakeholders was understanding the qualities of self through role-playing, interpersonal
skills, confidence building, teamwork and problem solving.
Motivation Cause Question 2a. What are the guidelines or expectations from the
organization that guides you in teaching soft skills? A common theme was that the
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organization provided a clear vision, principles and directional guidelines towards teaching soft
skills; however, the strategies for doing so were absent. P1 reported:
for the past 10 years we have set our goals to teach similar skills such as teamwork and
communication, just we did not called it soft skills, … We have been teaching towards
the same direction, and ways to teach soft skills have been more developed nowadays.
P4 supported that the organization provided general guidelines in teaching soft skills and
encouraged teachers to seek aid and guidance when facing challenges. P5 stated, “When a
teacher called for help, guidance, aids and resources comes to you, even other teachers are
willing to co-host a class together.” Findings were that teachers were clear as to the goal of
teachings soft skills and were willing to seek guidance or resources when facing challenges.
Motivational Cause Question 6b. What are the strengths that kept you focused on
teaching soft skills? Findings showed that teachers had the strength to keep teaching soft skills
as a challenge for self-improvement, and a sense of achievement when students progress.
Findings also suggest that stakeholders were able to face challenges and seek resources to
accomplish goals. P1 and P6 expressed that soft skills are a life skill and cannot be taught, but
students and teachers can grow together in improving soft skills. P2 and P4 stated that, when
they see students work in teams to find answers to a problem, the quality of learning provides a
sense of achievement. P3 and P5 elaborated on the fact that teaching soft skills is influential
towards the self, and, while teaching soft skills, one can improve with one’s students and
coworkers, as teachers share strategies.
Motivational Cause Question 9c. Do you think teachers’ performance evaluation
can motivate or improve teachers’ teaching? General stakeholder responses rejected the fact
that performance evaluation can improve or motivate teachers. However, five out of six
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stakeholders reported that student or parent feedback is the most direct motivating factor for
teachers to improve. One stakeholder reported that student and parent feedback should be
included in teachers’ performance evaluation to make evaluations fair. Findings show that
teacher evaluation was not associated with performance in teaching soft skills. It is a sense of
self-improvement and positive student-parent feedback that helps teachers improve. Therefore,
teachers do not decrease task value when performance is not evaluated.
Motivational Cause Question: 3d. What are major challenges you faced in teaching
soft skills? Lack of confidence? Lack of clear goals? Lacked buy-in from students? Fear of
losing control? And 3e. How do you overcome these barriers? Findings revealed two major
challenges were that teachers teach the same group of students in soft skills for only one year,
and student progress and change are difficult to see. The other challenge that the parents’ values
or home values sometimes plays an opposite role that pulls students away from their
development of soft skills.
P4 and P6 reported that some parents focus on students’ grades and soft skills cannot be
evaluated through a point-based system. Parents may not believe that students should focus on
learning communication skills and prefer their children be more focused on reading and
preparing for tests. P1, P2, P3, and P5 indicated soft skills could not be quantified; therefore, it
is hard to detect any improvement in students’ change and progress within a one-year time frame.
When stakeholders were prompted with questions relating to lack of confidence, lack of
goals in teaching soft skills, general responses were diverted in two directions. Three out of six
stakeholders reported that students like classes taught by more confident teachers, and teachers
who have more confidence can take students’ challenges in different opinions. One stakeholder
expressed that “a confident teachers knows what he/she is saying, and students buy in to the
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topic.” Therefore, confidence influences success in teaching soft skills; P5 stated that, if teachers
are new to teaching soft skills or when teachers lack confidence, the group dynamic of the class
changes, and the teacher will lose the respect of the students.
However, three stakeholders indicated that they did not think teaching soft skills was
associated as long as teachers are passionate and willing to overcome challenges. P1 expressed
that teachers should grow with the students and should not expect students have to live up to
teachers’ expectations to improve. If teachers set expectations that are too high for every student,
disappointment will defeat the passion of the teachers.
All stakeholders reported that they have clear goals and guidelines in teaching soft skills,
and they thought that goals and guidelines do not serve as challenge, since teachers collaborate to
discuss lesson plans and set goals.
When stakeholders were prompted one step further in the interview with any challenges
associated with lack of buy-in from students and fear of losing control, the general response of
five out of six stakeholders, was that these are not challenges. The reason was that most of the
students were not used to project or themed courses. Rather, students were used to teachers’
giving lectures and feared participating in activities that involve public speaking or expressing
opinions. Therefore, teachers do not fear losing control or buy-in, since the courses were
structured in an unfamiliar format and students paid more attention.
Only one stakeholder indicated that, when she was a new teacher, she was unfamiliar
with the structure of themed or project-based courses, and the fact that she could not lecture to
students made her felt uncomfortable, as she feared losing control or buy-in from students.
However, after one year at Kai Ping, she was able to adjust. Findings showed that self-efficacy
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may serve as a barrier; however, fear of losing control over the classroom did not act as
challenges for teachers in teaching soft skills.
Motivational Cause Questions: 6. How do you feel about your and your peers’
performance in teaching soft skills? Why? A common theme was that most stakeholders rated
themselves a seven out of ten in their performance in teaching soft skills. However, stakeholders
expressed they believe they have performed well due to positive student and parent feedback. On
the other hand, they felt there was always room for improvement and for new ideas and
strategies as they collaborate with other teachers. In addition, stakeholders reported they believe
their peers’ were performing well, as experience builds up. Two stakeholders expressed a
different opinion that experience was not associated with how well you teach soft skills, but the
teacher’s background and willingness to teach soft skills were. Specifically, teachers must be
willing to spend the time to be with the students to foster soft skills development. The two
stakeholders reported that they believe their peers have been devoted in the teaching of soft skills.
Motivational Cause Question 8: Do you feel you and your peers’ are putting enough
time into teaching soft skills? What are the barriers that kept you away? General responses
suggested that teachers’ ability to organize time and tasks and teachers’ experience with soft
skills were key determinants of devoting time.
P1, P2, P4 and P6 stated that the organization provided plenty of autonomy and flexibility
for teachers to use new strategies in teaching soft skills, but teachers need to explore and
experiment more. Teachers with less experience or more prone to traditional styles of teaching
were easily diverted to teaching the traditional ways. Therefore, findings revealed that new
teachers often return to their comfort zone in teaching, and teachers need to be more
experimental and devote more time to teaching soft skills.
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Motivational Cause Question 8c: How do you feel of the motivation level of you and
your peers in teaching soft skills? And what motivates you and your peers? All stakeholders
believed their motivational levels were high, as students’ feedback and progress fueled their
sense of achievement and their desire to be more active in teaching soft skills. Stakeholders
expressed that teachers motivate each other, especially through collaborative discussions. P1 and
P2 stated that, when teachers collaborate and new ideas or strategies in teaching emerge or if
they experiment with new strategies together and experience success, they become more
motivated. Collaboration and co-hosting classes often takes place at Kai Ping, which is
traditionally different than at other schools.
Synthesis of Results and Findings of Motivation Causes
Three motivational assumed causes, organized in the themes of active choice, persistence,
and mental efforts were assessed through a survey and interviews. Survey results revealed that
the assumed cause of (1) teachers lack of effort in putting valuable time due to frequent
unsuccessful experience and (2) teachers lacked persistence and effort to teach accordingly to
their lesson plan due to low self-efficacy may serve as barriers for teachers to incorporate 100%
of soft skills competencies into instruction. Results indicated that teachers demonstrated choice
and persistence in seeking resources, aids and guidance when faced with challenges in teaching
soft skills.
Interview findings supported the results that teachers were able to face challenges and
seek resources, aid and guidance, as teachers working collaboratively served as a key
determinant. However, findings showed that teachers lack of effort in devoting valuable time
due to frequent unsuccessful experience was supported by both findings and results. Findings
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exposed the fact that lack of teaching experience diverts teachers from teaching soft skills, which
supports the cause of experiencing frequent unsuccessful experience.
Moreover, although teachers reported that lesson plans were adjusted due to other
challenges such as student learning pace, teachers demonstrated low self-efficacy in relation to
the lack of teaching experience. Findings showed that teachers divert from teaching soft skills to
teaching other subjects because they were prone to return to their comfort zone of the traditional
teaching styles. With an indirect relationship, it was reasonable to conclude that teachers divert
themselves to the traditional teaching styles due to facing unsuccessful experiences in the
classroom; therefore, they adjust lesson plans as students learning declines. Low self-efficacy
serves as the main barrier to the process of teaching soft skills.
In a synthesized analysis of the results and findings that triangulate the assumed cause,
the motivational causes that served as barriers for teachers to incorporate 100% of soft skill
competencies into instruction were mainly due to teachers’ low self-efficacy in teaching these.
When facing unsuccessful experiences, teachers divert time and pedagogical style to teach other
content. Table 20 gives a summary of whether each motivation cause was supported through
results and findings; a Y indicates a yes for support and N indicates not supported.

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Table 20
Summary of Validated Motivational Causes
Motivational Causes
Supported
by Survey
Results
Supported by
Interview
Findings
Validated
(Y/N)
Teachers lack effort to devote time due to
Lack of interest N N N
Lack of value N N N
Frequent unsuccessful experience Y Y Y
Ineffective goals N N N
Low self-efficacy in unfamiliar topics N N N
Teachers do not seek guidance/resources when run
into barriers

Lack of interest and value N N N
Lack of clear goals N N N
Low self-efficacy – will not achieve goals
even when guidance provided
N N N
Decrease task value when performance not
evaluated
N N N
Teachers are not teaching according to their lesson
plan due to

Low self-efficacy due to negative feedbacks Y N N
Fear of lack of control over the classroom N Y N

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Results and Findings for Organization Causes
Survey Results
Assessing the organizational assumed causes, a total of 11 items were listed. Ten items
were statements for stakeholders to rate based on a six-point Likert scale where one represents
strongly disagree, and six represents strongly agree. One additional question asked stakeholders
to distribute, in percentages, their time spent teaching and time spent in administrative
responsibilities. All 11 items sought to investigation the assumed causes that serve as barriers to
the teaching of soft skills. The organizational assumed causes were (1) lack of accountability
measure as performance evaluation are not present, (2) soft skills are yet clearly defined,
(3) teachers are not provided with adequate training, support and resources, and
(4) overwhelming workload on non-teaching responsibilities. Table 21 gives an overview, in
percentages, of teachers’ responses.

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Table 21
General Overview of Organizational Survey Results: Directional Response in Percentages
Statement Items Results
42. The organization or my team has provided guidance and
aid are accessible when I need it.
Agree 100%
43. I feel supported by my peers or school administrators
when I face frustrations in teaching
Agree 100%
38. The organizational mission and goals are clearly aligned
with my teachings of soft skills.
Agree 100%
39. The organization has provided clear and direct goals in
relation to teaching soft skills.
Agree 96.2% /Disagree 3.8%
40. The organization has provided me adequate useful and
effective training in teaching soft skills
Agree 92.3% / Disagree 7.7%
37. I clearly understand the definition(s) of soft skills that is
provided by the organization.
Agree 92.3% / Disagree 7.7%
41. The organization has provided me many resources and
support in teaching soft skills
Agree 92.3% / Disagree 7.7%
44. I am overwhelmed with duties and responsibilities aside
from teaching
Agree 84.6% / Disagree 15.4%
35. Teachers should be evaluated based on their performance
in teaching soft skills.
Agree 76.9% / Disagree 23.1%
36. I am held accountable for the progress of students’ soft
skill development
Agree 69.2% / Disagree 30.8%

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From a general overview, statements 38, 42 and 43 showed 100% stakeholders’
directional response in agreement. All stakeholders agreed to the statements of (1) The
organization or my team has provided guidance and aid are accessible when I need it, (2) I feel
supported by my peers or school administrators when I face frustrations in teaching, and (3) The
organizational mission and goals are clearly aligned with my teachings of soft skills.
Stakeholders’ response indicated the organization provided clear directional goals and resources
to support teachers.
On the other hand, statements 35 and 36 showed a higher discrepancy in directional
responses. That is, stakeholders’ response on Statement 35 revealed 77% agreed with the
statement while 23 % disagreed. Statement 36 had an even higher discrepancy rate, in that 70%
agreed with the statement and 30% disagreed. Both statements 35 and 36 were directed to the
assumed cause of teachers lacked performance evaluation and accountability measures in
teaching of soft skills. A closer examination of the stakeholders’ responses with descriptive
statistics sought the strength of the responses. Table 22 shows the descriptive statistics of each
statement response.

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Table 22
Analysis of Organizational Survey Results: Descriptive Statistics. *(Descending by Mean)
Questions SD Mean Mode Median
42. The organization or my team has provided guidance and
aid are accessible when I need it.
0.78 5.27 6 5
43. I feel supported by my peers or school administrators
when I face frustrations in teaching
0.76 5.23 6 5
38. The organizational mission and goals are clearly aligned
with my teachings of soft skills.
0.63 5.08 5 5
39. The organization has provided clear and direct goals in
relation to teaching soft skills.
0.74 4.92 5 5
37. I clearly understand the definition(s) of soft skills that is
provided by the organization.
0.91 4.89 5 5
44. I am overwhelmed with duties and responsibilities aside
from teaching
1.31 4.85 6 5
41. The organization has provided me many resources and
support in teaching soft skills.
0.90 4.81 5 5
40. The organization has provided me adequate useful and
effective training in teaching soft skills
0.98 4.65 5 5
35. Teachers should be evaluated based on their
performance in teaching soft skills.
1.12 4.31 5 4.5
36. I am held accountable for the progress of students’ soft
skill development
1.52 3.92 4 4

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Descriptive statistical analysis shows congruent results for stakeholders’ responses to
statements 38, 42, and 43, which show a mean above 5, agree to strongly agree, and low
dispersion with standard deviation value between the ranging of 0.63 to 0.78. Stakeholder
responses for statement 42 and 43 revealed a mode of 6, which represented most stakeholders
strongly agree with the statements directed to providing organizational support for teachers.
Results revealed that statements 35 and 36 had the lowest means of 4.31 and 3.92,
respectively, with a high dispersion in response of high SD value of 1.12 and 1.52. In particular,
a mean of 3.92, a value between slightly agree and slightly disagree, and the highest dispersion
SD value of 1.52 indicates that stakeholders lack accountability measures in teaching soft skills.
In support, statement 35 indicated stakeholder responses with a higher dispersion, SD value of
1.12, a mean value at 4.31, slightly agree, and mode of 5, agree with the statement; results
signify that stakeholders should be evaluated based on their performance in teaching soft skills.
In other words, the two statements show the assumed cause of teachers lack performance
evaluation in accountability measures in teaching soft skills acts as a barrier for teachers to
incorporate soft skills in instruction.
Results from statement 44 indicated a red flag for the assumed cause of teachers are
overwhelmed by heavy workloads of responsibilities other than teaching soft skills. Descriptive
data analysis shows that the mean value was slightly agree to agree with the statement of “I am
overwhelmed with duties and responsibilities aside from teaching.” An SD value of 1.31 shows
a high dispersion in response. A mode value of 6 represents that most stakeholders reported
strongly agree with the statement, and the assumed causes serves as a barrier.
In support, question 45 asked the stakeholders to distribute 100% of their time usage
towards either teaching soft skills as compared to other responsibilities. Results revealed that
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stakeholders reported a mean distribution of 63% of time teaching soft skills, with a low
dispersion of SD value 0.16. That is, stakeholders spent almost 40% of their time in other
responsibilities. Table 23 shows the results.

Table 23
Survey Organization Question 45
Please indicate in percentages an estimated amount of time you spent in teaching soft skills
versus others. * (Data represents time spent in teaching soft skills)
SD = 0.16 Mean 0.63 Mode 0.6 Median 0.6

Although statement 40 showed a solid mode and medium value of 5, agreeing with the
statement of “the organization has provided adequate useful and effective training in teaching
soft skills,” the mean value was reported to be 4.65, and SD value indicated a 0.98 variance. The
results revealed that stakeholders were in the range of slightly agreeing to agreeing to the
statement with wide dispersion of response. Stakeholders may believe that the organization
provided useful and effective training that was, however, not quite up to par. Interview findings
may yield more insight as to the stakeholders’ responses regarding the assumed cause associated
with the statement.
In summary, results indicated that the two organizational causes that serve as barriers
were (1) teachers lack accountability measure as performance evaluation were not present, and
(2) teachers were overwhelming workload on non-teaching responsibilities. On the other hand,
the assumed cause of the organizational support and resources given to teachers for teaching soft
skills were mostly supported by the stakeholder responses. However, statement 40 raised
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warnings to further assess this assumed cause. Interview data was analyzed to triangulate the
results associated with the assumed causes.
Findings from Interviews
Questions were designed to assess the organizational causes of (1) organization lacked
performance evaluation and accountability measure for teachers in teaching soft skills, (2) soft
skills were yet clearly defined and standardized, (3) teachers were not provided with adequate
training, support and resources, and (4) teachers were overwhelmed by non-teaching
responsibilities. All six stakeholders responded to the questions associated with the assumed
cause. Table 10 presents the questions designed to associate with the assumed causes.
Organization Cause Question 2: Why do you think the organization expects
teachers to teach soft skills? All six stakeholders gave different examples of how important
soft skills were for future success in the workplace and for quality of life. Stakeholders’
examples pointed towards relational skills, teamwork skills, communication skills and problem-
solving skills. Leadership skills were not in the context of any stakeholder responses.
Stakeholders P1, P2 and P3 identified that teaching soft skills directly fosters workplace
success, whereas stakeholders P3 and P4 reported that learning soft skills improves quality of life
as relationships with parents, coworkers, partners and friends improves. Only P5 responded that
the importance of teaching soft skills was due to organizational policy. Findings revealed that
stakeholders believed that interpersonal, cognitive and personal dimensions defined soft skills.
Therefore, soft skills were clearly defined, but not updated.
Organization Cause Questions 7: What do you think is the most important
knowledge, skills, or abilities that teachers should be prepared for teaching soft skills?
Common themes emerged as stakeholders indicated that teachers should be prepared with
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knowledge in group dynamics, learn storytelling skills, be flexible to change, willing to listen to
the students’ voices and to grow with them. Another theme was that teachers should enhance
their life experiences, find time to recharge and understand more current events. A few
stakeholders expressed their concern of teaching soft skills require many life experiences as
examples tell. If teachers lacked life experiences, difficulties maybe arise when students
challenge opinions.
Organization Cause Questions 7a: Do you think the organization has prepared you,
or new teachers to be able to teach soft skills? An overview of the response showed the
organization prepared teachers slowly on the job, through a learning-by-doing approach.
Teachers were prepared with resources, aids, and guidance, as reported by stakeholders, and the
support to voice opinion and experiment new ideas. However, the organization did not prepare
teachers with specific teaching strategies and techniques or allow practice before entering a
classroom. Stakeholders reported that they believed the organization’s leaders try their best to
prepare teachers, but the teaching of soft skills could not be learned through training or classes.
Findings revealed that teachers were prepared through on-the-job experience; however, prior
training was not given to them to teach soft skills.
Organization Cause Questions 7b: Do you feel that you have enough support,
resources or aid from your peers or the organization to overcome barriers? All of the
stakeholders indicated that the organization provided many outlets and methods to gain guidance,
aids and resources through different platforms. Stakeholders gave examples that teachers could
voice concerns through an online platform and that the principal, vice principal, directors and
even the founder of the school could provide answers directly. There were weekly meetings,
weekend classes, and, at any moment, a teacher could call for help on any matter. However,
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teachers must admit that help is needed and guidance, aids and resources will come immediately.
All stakeholders reported that the organization provided much support, but teachers were often
not willing to seek help.
Organization Cause Questions 7c: What do you think the organization can do more
to help you or new teachers to teach soft skills? Two common themes emerged: the
organization should provide teachers more time to themselves in order to foster creativity and
allow for the development of new curricula. Since four of the six stakeholders reported that,
every day, teachers were chased around by administrative responsibilities. Teachers are teaching
most of the time, leaving free periods of nine hours per week. However, within the nine hours,
teachers have administrative responsibilities such as communicating with parents on students’
progress, grading homework, and attending meetings.
The organization should prepare teachers by providing opportunities to experiment, to
learn to develop new curricula and to interact with teachers before being assigned to teach a class.
Two stakeholders expressed that creativity is low once teacher enters the classroom because
there are be too many projects on hand at a time, and it is difficult to stop and plan new ideas.
Therefore, providing training before being placed on the job allows teachers to gain a sense of
how to manage time, manage pressure and be more flexible as they are more prepared.
Organization Cause Questions 8: In terms of usage of time, do you feel you have
enough time in teaching soft skills? General responses indicated that stakeholders expressed
two different opinions. One was that the time to teach soft skills will be never enough because
soft skills are lifelong skills. P1 and P2 expressed that, if teachers are willing to teach soft skills,
every moment they interact with students is a chance to teach them. However, “if you look at
class time, soft skills are lifelong skills and you can never reach the end of teaching soft skills.”
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Another opinion stakeholders voiced was the fact that the organization planned out more than
half of the time teaching through projects and themes to foster soft skills. Therefore, there was
plenty of class times devoted to teaching soft skills.
Organization Cause Questions 9: How do you feel about the current teacher
evaluation system? 9a. Do you feel it is an effective system in evaluation of teacher
performance? 9b.What would you change to improve? 9c. Do you think teachers
performance evaluation can motivate or improve teachers in teaching? All stakeholders
reported that the current performance evaluation is an effective evaluation for teachers to
understand their overall performance, in regards to general teaching performance, administrative
responsibilities, and the ability to multitask on different projects at once. However, performance
evaluation had little to do with teaching soft skills in particular. General responses to improving
the evaluation system indicated that the organization should provide methods for improvements.
P1, P2, P3, and P6 expressed that the evaluation helps teachers see the aspects in which they are
performing under par, but teachers do not know how to improve. Though stakeholders reported
that the evaluation system is effective, it sometimes demotivates hardworking teachers when
their efforts are not seen.
Overall, teachers were generally more motivated by students’ and parents’ feedbacks, and
performance evaluation gives a reference point of how well they were doing. Teachers do not
base their motivation or seek improvement in teaching soft skills through performance evaluation.
Findings revealed that performance evaluation in the teaching of soft skills was absent, although
stakeholders reported that their motivation level was not based on the results of the evaluation.
The cause of teachers lack accountability measures due to lack of performance evaluation was
validated.
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Synthesis of Results and Findings of Organization Causes
The four organizational assumed causes of (1) teachers lacked of accountability measures
as the organization did not perform evaluation on teachers’ performance, (2) the organization did
not clearly define soft skills, (3) the organization did not provide adequate training, support and
resources, and (4) teachers were overwhelmed by non-teaching responsibilities were assessed
through survey and interviews. Results indicated that teachers were not held accountable for
students’ development of soft skills, and findings supported the fact that performance evaluations
were not tied to teachers’ performance in teaching these. Through a synthesized analysis of the
results and findings, the lack of performance evaluation and accountability measures serves as a
barrier for teachers to incorporate 100% of the soft skills competencies into instruction.
Results repeatedly showed, through two items, that teachers were overwhelmed by non-
teaching responsibilities. In support, findings revealed teachers multitask with projects and were
pressured with administrative responsibilities that may divert them from incorporating all soft
skills competencies into instruction.
The cause of teachers lacked adequate training may serve as a barrier while resource and
support was not an issue. Findings discovered that teachers were trained on the job through a
learning-by-doing approach and no prior job training was given. The organization should
provide teachers training in pedagogical content knowledge to teach soft skills before they are
placed in the classroom. In relation, although results showed the organization clearly defined
soft skills for teachers, findings exposed that the leadership dimension of soft skills were never
mentioned. This indicates that the leadership dimension of soft skills were absent from the
organizationally defined soft skills. The organization should update knowledge of soft skills
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competencies in teacher training and include pedagogical training for teachers to incorporate all
soft skills into instruction.
In summary, the two causes of (1) lack of accountability measures and performance
evaluation, and (2) overwhelming non-teaching responsibilities were fully validated as serving as
barriers for teachers. Although the causes of (1) lack of adequate pedagogical training, and
(2) lack of full definition of soft skills contradicted, findings showed the scope of the definition
of soft skills and teaching method were not enough to satisfy the goal. Therefore, the two causes
were considered validated for improvement. Table 24 Summary of Validated Organizational
Causes provides an overview of each organizational cause that was supported by results and
findings, indicated with symbols Y for yes and N for not supported.

Table 24
Summary of Validated Organizational Causes
Organizational Causes
Supported
by Survey
Results
Supported by
Interview
Findings
Validated
(Y/N)
Performance evaluation not present, lack of
accountability measures
Y Y Y
Soft Skills are yet clearly defined and standardized N Y Y
Teachers are not provided with adequate training,
support and resources
N Y Y
Overwhelming workload on non-teaching
responsibilities.
Y Y Y

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Summary
Results and findings for each theme of knowledge, motivation and organization assumed
causes were examined for validation through synthesized analysis and triangulation. A list of
validated causes was identified. The validated causes shown in Table 25 were reviewed in
synthesis and revealed interrelationships.

Table 25
Validated Knowledge, Motivation, and Organization Causes
Knowledge Cause 1. Teachers lacked factual knowledge in understanding what are
the levels of soft skills competencies
Motivation Cause 2. Teachers lacked self-efficacy in teaching soft skills, thus,
diverts from the lesson plan when faced unsuccessful
experiences.
Organization Causes 3. Teachers lacked accountability measures as performance
evaluation were not tied to teachers performance in soft skills
4. Teachers have overwhelming non-teaching responsibilities
5. Teachers lacked adequate pedagogical training.
6. 6. Organization did not provide a clear definition of soft skills.

The six validated causes revealed that the barriers were related to perspectives. That
teachers lacked factual knowledge in understanding the competencies of soft skills related to the
fact that organization did not provide a clear definition of soft skills. The fact that teachers
lacked adequate pedagogical training prior to being placed in the classroom leads to low self-
efficacy and frequent unsuccessful experiences. A synthesized solution is presented through
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recommending potential solutions organized in the theme of knowledge, motivation and
organization causes.
Results and findings for the knowledge assumed causes showed contradictions, and
findings from the motivational and organizational questions suggest rejecting the assumed causes.
Contradicted causes were (1) teachers lacked knowledge in application of instructional
techniques and (2) teachers lacked procedural knowledge in creating a lesson plan. Data revealed
that teachers could list the steps of creating a lesson plan, but they were overwhelmed with non-
teaching responsibilities and, therefore, based lesson plans on previous experience to reduce
workload. In addition, teachers were able to list the steps in applying an instructional technique,
but they lacked adequate pedagogical training prior to being placed into the classroom; therefore,
teachers may not be able to list more than one application of instructional techniques.
A synthesized analysis across each theme of knowledge, motivation and organization
affirms the causes through validation and triangulation. Based on the results and findings of the
validated causes, recommendations and solutions to remove barriers and close the gap of
incorporating all soft skills competencies into instruction are discussed in Chapter 5. Solutions
and recommendations re provided based on a review of empirical literature.

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CHAPTER 5
SOLUTIONS
Guided by Clark and Estes’ (2008) Gap Analysis Model, this study aimed to increase
teachers’ proficiency in incorporating all soft skills competencies into instruction to culinary
students at Kai Ping Culinary School in Taipei, Taiwan. This chapter presents solutions directed
to answer the research question of “What are the recommended solutions to close the knowledge,
motivation, organization gaps that prevent the teachers from incorporating soft skills into the
curriculum?”
Through a review of literature and an examination of the hospitality and tourism trends
and future demands, the term “soft skills” were defined through a compiled list of abilities. The
list served as a guide to assess the current proficiency of Kai Ping Culinary School teachers’
incorporating soft skills instruction. Comparing the current level of performance to the
anticipated outcome revealed. The presumed causes of this gap were analyzed through scanned
interviews, observations, literature review and content analysis.
Data collected through a mixed-methods design, and presumed causes were validated
through a synthesized analysis of results and findings. The validated causes were organized
along the themes of knowledge, motivation and organization, and triangulated between both sets
of qualitative and quantitative data. This chapter discusses each knowledge, motivation and
organization validated cause and offers potential research-based solutions and presents an
implementation plan. A total of six validated causes were shown in Table 25.
Validated Causes Selection and Rationale
As discussed in Chapter 4, the six validated causes were interrelated. Solutions are
provided for all six validated causes categorized in the themes of knowledge, motivation and
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organization. A synthesized solution is presented in the implementation plan that integrates all
solutions for a significant impact in terms of achieving organizational goals.
Solutions for Knowledge Causes
Increase Factual Knowledge: Teachers’ Understanding of “Soft Skills”
Based on Anderson and Krathwohl’s (2001) knowledge framework, four types of
knowledge were identified with six dimensions of cognitive domains. The first validated cause
was that teachers lacked the factual knowledge of understanding the term soft skills. Teachers
have a sense of what is meant by soft skills and were able to recall a few abilities associated with
these. However, during triangulation of data, teachers were not able to report a full scope of
abilities or identify most of them. Instead, they focused on no more than 5 main abilities out of a
total of 52. Teachers lacked the factual knowledge: the specific facts and the terminology
(Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001).
Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) indicated that the six dimensions of cognitive processes
are hierarchical in that each dimension is a prerequisite for the next. If teachers were not able to
remember a full set of soft skills abilities, then teachers were definitely not able to understand, as
the schema or content knowledge does not exist. Teachers cannot teach what they do not know,
and, without a clear definition of soft skills, teachers make broader claims and differences in
opinion may arise. Therefore, in order to achieve the organizational goal of incorporating 100%
of all soft skills abilities into instruction, one solution is to increase teachers’ factual knowledge.
Teachers should at least remember and understand all the abilities that define soft skills in order
to teach them. A fundamental basis of teacher competency is to fully understand, which means
to interpret, summarize and explain the content knowledge to help students learn the materials
(Ball, Thames and Phelps, 2008).
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Ball et al. (2008) performed a meta-analysis of Shulman’s pedagogical content
knowledge and subdomains, including common content knowledge and specialized content
knowledge, through studies regarding the teachings of mathematics. The analysis indicated that
teachers not only need to understand the principles and structure of the subject matter content
knowledge, but they also need to further understand the “why,” the underlying principles and be
able to differentiate content accuracy. Teaching demands teachers understand the content, as
teachers show students how to solve problem, they check student work, and they answer students’
questions. Therefore, teachers’ understanding of content knowledge plays a critical role in the
planning and carrying out instructions.
Moreover, an empirical study conducted by Schafer, Sawanson, Bene and Newberry
(2010) analyzed the effects of teachers’ on student achievement. After training an experimental
group of high school teachers on rubrics, the students of those trained teachers had favorable
achievement results. Findings indicated that understanding of the use of rubrics meant teachers
were more effective in teaching. Students have higher achievement when structure and
guidelines are clear. Teachers provide the structure and guidelines through their understanding
of the content.
Drawing generalizations from both studies, enhancing teachers’ understanding of content
knowledge and definitions of soft skills, promote effective planning and delivery of instructions,
which, in turn, may positively influence student achievement. Teachers need to first understand
the definition of soft skills and the abilities they consist of to further develop conceptual
knowledge and the application of the knowledge.
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Solutions for Motivation Causes
Increase Self-efficacy of Teachers in Teaching Soft Skills
Self-efficacy can be defined as the self-perception and beliefs of one’s capability and task
difficulty that affect the determination of activities to engage in, how much effort to exert and the
persistence of efforts made (Bandura, 1977; Pajares, 2010). An individual’s level of self-
efficacy can serve as a predictor of performance, as self-efficacy is positively correlated with the
level of active efforts (Bandura, 1977), meaning that “confident individuals anticipate successful
outcomes,” (Pajares, 2010). Teachers reported having both frequently faced unsuccessful
experience in the classroom and often diverting from teaching soft skills. Teachers stated that it
is easy to direct to past habits in traditional teaching when facing challenges in the classroom.
To close the motivation gap, it is critical to increase teachers’ self-efficacy to devote effort and
persist in teaching soft skills in order to incorporate all soft skills competencies into instruction.
Teachers’ self-efficacy was an indicator of instructional quality, job stress and job
satisfaction (Holzberger, Philipp & Kunter, 2013; Klassen & Chiu, 2010). Holzberger et al.
(2013) investigated the self-efficacy level of secondary school teachers and their self and student
ratings of instructional quality. Results show that the higher self-efficacy of teachers, the higher
the instructional qualities were rated in three dimensions: cognitive activation, classroom
management and individual learning support. Conversely, when teachers receive higher ratings
of instructional quality, their self-efficacy levels increase. Regardless of the years of teaching
experience teachers have, they reflect upon their performance and modify their level of self-
efficacy.
In support, Klassen and Chiu (2010) stated that years of teaching experience have a
nonlinear relationship with teacher self-efficacy. The growth of self-efficacy increases from 0
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years of experience towards 23 years of experience, and self-efficacy begins to decline after that
point. The growth of self-efficacy was nonlinear but dependent on teachers’ effective use of
instructional strategies, managing student behavior and engaging student learning.
The study also examined the relationship between teachers’ self-efficacy, job stress and
job satisfaction. Results showed that teachers with frequent unsuccessful experiences in
classroom management have less self-efficacy due to higher stress. As stress is negatively
correlated with job satisfaction, teachers with low self-efficacy in terms of classroom
management experience more stress and lower job satisfaction. Moreover, teachers with high
self-efficacy in quality instruction and classroom management report higher job satisfaction.
When teachers have frequent unsuccessful experience teaching soft skills and managing
the classroom, they were more stressed and less satisfied with their jobs (Klassen & Chiu, 2010).
This situation may encourage high turnover rates. On the other hand, high self-efficacy allows
teachers to deliver quality instruction that fosters better classroom management, student
engagement and student learning (Holzberger et al., 2013; Klassen & Chiu, 2010). It is essential
to motivate teachers through increasing self-efficacy to persist in teaching soft skills and not
divert to other content.
Bandura (1977) and Pajares (2010) state that self-efficacy can be improved through four
sources of information: (1) mastery experience or performance accomplishments, (2) vicarious
experience, (3) verbal or social persuasion, and 4) physiological or emotional reactions. To
increase self-efficacy through mastery experience, teachers need to experience mastery of
content or success in instruction (Bandura, 1977). Teachers need to master the content in regards
to soft skills to have the confidence to teach them.
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Increasing self-efficacy through vicarious experience is to have teachers observe others
gaining a successful experience. The social comparison of others achieving allows individuals to
form beliefs of the possibility of self-accomplishment (Pajares, 2010). Therefore, teachers
should be learning from peer teachers to understand how soft skills are successfully incorporated
into instruction. Social or verbal persuasion can increase self-efficacy through positive feedback,
as self-efficacy beliefs are enhanced by more positive emotions (Bandura, 1977; Pajares, 2010).
This suggests that positive or constructive feedback from either peer teachers, administration
staff, or even students and parents can enhance teachers’ self-efficacy and, hence, reduce stress
in teaching soft skills.
The proposed solution aims to increase teachers’ efficacy through the steps Bandura
(1977) and Pajares (2010) suggested. By increasing efficacy levels, teachers may face
unsuccessful experiences with less stress and more job satisfaction. This will allow for reaching
the organizational goal by incorporating all soft skills competencies into instruction.
Solutions for Organization Causes
Provide Solid and Clear Definition of Soft Skills
Kai Ping Culinary School’s mission is to provide a meaningful learning environment that
prepares students with both hard and soft skills for the service industry. However, teachers
cannot teach what they do not know. Teachers often teach based on the structure of the
curriculum. Even if teachers were given the autonomy to redesign the curriculum or design their
own course content, they need clear goals. Teachers reported their full understanding of soft
skills while differences were found during the interviews of data collection. The organization
should take charge and provide an overview of soft skills. From the organizational standpoint,
the definition of soft skill competencies serves to set goals for teachers to achieve.
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Goals are often used as objectives in the world of business, and goals provide directions to
enhance staff performance (Cheung, 2004). Moeller, Theiler and Wu (2012) indicated students’
abilities to set goals were significantly positively correlated with performance. Harackiewicz,
Barron, Tauer, and Elliot (2002) confirm the fact that college students who set goals performed
better and achieved higher grades. Specifically, students who set performance goals performed
well in all classes, and students with mastery goals enjoy the course work and foster
achievements. Therefore, a definition of soft skills provided by the organization sets goals for
teachers, helps them set clear directions to work towards, and enhances performance as the
minimum standards become clear.
Kleingeld, Mierlo, and Arends (2011) found that setting goals at a group level was just as
effective at improving performance as it is at an individual level. Specific goals and a high level
of difficulty of goals increase group performance. Goals are effective at increasing performance
and provide direction. However, setting goals does not enable goals to be achieved (Cheung,
2004). Teaching soft skills is a challenging task, but once the organization provides a clear and
concise definition, teachers work collaboratively to take on the challenge and devote more effort
to accomplishing the group goal.
Provide Teachers Professional Development in Pedagogical Content Knowledge
Understanding the definitions as goals to achieve does not equal accomplishing the goals
of incorporating all soft skills competencies into instruction. Content knowledge is the amount
and organization of a subject matter an individual has, and pedagogical content knowledge is the
knowledge of how to teach (Shulman, 1994). Pedagogical content knowledge includes not only
the knowledge of the subject matter, but the teaching strategies, the understanding of how
learning is processed and how to adjust level of difficulty for students (Shulman, 1994).
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Research repeatedly showed that teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical content
knowledge are significantly positively correlated with student achievement, especially when
teachers these serve as the basis of instruction (Ball, Thames and Phelps, 2008; Ghaith &
Shaaban, 1999; Kanter & Konstantopoulos, 2010; Kunter, Klusmann, Baumert, Ricter, Voss &
Hachfeld, 2013). Therefore, providing teachers the opportunity to gain pedagogical content
knowledge provides them a strategy to incorporate soft skills into instruction.
Kunter et al., (2013) examined how teachers’ competency affects instruction quality and
student achievement. The study defined teachers’ competency with pedagogical content
knowledge, professional beliefs, motivation and self-regulation. Through a quasi-experimental
design surveying 10th grade math teachers in Germany, results showed teachers with better
pedagogical content knowledge provided better quality of instruction and better learning support.
Teachers with high levels of pedagogical content knowledge not only affect student achievement,
but students are more motivated as teachers have more constructivist beliefs and are enthusiastic
in teaching.
When teachers improve their pedagogical content knowledge, they can be effective in
teaching, and, in turn, increase teacher self-efficacy when quality instruction ratings increase
(Holzberger at el., 2013). As teachers believe themselves able to be effective in teaching, they
are less concerned with self-survival and more concerned with student learning. Teachers with
less self-efficacy produce higher stress and less job satisfaction (Klassen and Chiu, 2010). On
the other hand, teachers with high self-efficacy are more confident in providing effective student
learning support and motivating student learning (Ghaith & Shaaban, 1999). In a combination of
the benefits of increasing teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, teachers higher self-efficacy,
enables constructivist beliefs, and, in turn, they deliver quality instructions and show enthusiasm.
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This leads to greater buy-in from students with higher achievement. This becomes a positive
cycle, which encourages teachers to incorporate all soft skills into instruction with confidence
and enthusiasm.
As research shows, increasing teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, not only
improves instructional quality, teachers’ self-efficacy, and job satisfaction, but it also allows
them to motivate student learning and provide meaningful learning support (Ball, Thames and
Phelps, 2008; Ghaith & Shaaban, 1999; Holzberger at el., 2013; Kanter & Konstantopoulos,
2010; Klassen and Chiu, 2010; Kunter et al., 2013). Therefore, to incorporate all of soft skill
competencies instruction into curriculum, teachers should, first, increase content knowledge and
follow with professional development to increase pedagogical content knowledge. The
organization should provide professional development opportunities to educate teachers on the
content knowledge of soft skills, and the pedagogical content knowledge of how to teach soft
skills and foster student learning to gain self-efficacy.
Reduce Time Spent on Non-Teaching Responsibilities
Participants expressed that they were overwhelmed by non-teaching responsibilities and
that 50% of their time was spent on administrative work. If teachers were to incorporate all soft
skills competencies into instruction, then teachers would spend more time designing curriculum
and preparing for instruction.
Findings indicated that participants design courses and lesson plan in a collaborative
manner. Although collaboration among teachers is a strong factor in success that shows synergy
in working together towards a specific goal, participants reported that they did not take
ownership of the lesson plans, as their opinions were incorporated into previous plans and not
built by themselves from the ground up. Teachers implied that they spent a proportion of their
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time on administrative and other non-teaching related duties. They, therefore, could not possibly
achieve designing lesson plans on their own and adjust them through collaborative dialogue.
The proposed solution is to reduce teachers’ non-teaching responsibilities that may cause
unrelated stress. Teachers should be granted the time to exert effort teaching related matters
such as designing lesson plans, improving pedagogical strategies, and providing student support.
In addition, overwhelming teachers with administrative or other non-teaching
responsibilities may cause stress and burnout. Burnout is defined as emotional exhaustion,
depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishments (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2007). On the
other hand, stress is defined as a negative emotional experience triggered there is threat to self-
esteem or social well-being in work situations (Kyriacou, 2001). Sources of stress, especially for
the participants, were heavy workloads, time pressure, and administrative issues that cause
teacher burnout (Kyriacou, 2001). Moreover, Skaalvik and Skaalvik (2007) indicated that self-
efficacy is strongly and negatively correlated with burnout. Lower self-efficacy triggers reduced
personal accomplishment and leads to burnout, and teacher burnouts can lead to lower self-
efficacy. Emotional exhaustion reduces personal accomplishments and, hence, affects self-
efficacy beliefs. In addition, teacher stress can be caused by general beliefs of the limitations of
achievement through education. That is, beliefs that external constraints prevent them from
achieving their teaching responsibilities can lead to possible burnout.
Setting goals for teachers to incorporate all soft skills competencies into instruction while
overwhelming teachers with other non-teaching responsibilities sets external constraints for them
to believe they can accomplish the objectives. To encourage teachers to incorporate soft skills
competencies into instruction and prevent negative consequences, appropriate time and workload
need to be reconsidered. As current results and findings show, there is a need to reduce
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administrative duty and non-teaching responsibilities to allow teachers the time to design their
own lesson plans, and increase both content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. On
the other hand, without the reduction of non-teaching responsibilities, overwhelmed teachers
experience higher stress and burnouts (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2007), which leads to lower job
satisfaction (Klassen & Chiu, 2010) and high turnover rates. Such consequences would widen
the gap of incorporating soft skills even further. The proposed solution is to close the gap by
reducing teachers’ non-teaching responsibilities from 50% to no more than 20%.
Establish Evaluation of Teachers’ Soft Skills Instructions
Results and findings indicate teachers lacked accountability measures in terms of students’
development of soft skills. Teachers reported the difficulty of measuring students’ progress due
to the short amount of time interacting with them. The proposed solution is to establish
evaluation measures, not to hold accountability against teachers, but to aid teachers in seeking
student progress and professional growth in. In turn, teachers will understand their effectiveness
in incorporating soft skills competencies into instruction.
In public policy literature, program evaluation is meant to help understand the
effectiveness of certain program in meeting objectives and in determining its worth (Smith &
Larimer, 2009). Teacher evaluation serves similar purposes: (1) promote professional
development and (2) determine the worth of personnel in making human resource management
decisions (Stiggins, 1986). Different types of evaluation serve different purposes. Formative or
process evaluation analyzes teachers’ professional development and whether their practices are
aligned with plans and goals (Smith & Larimer, 2009; Stiggins, 1986). Summative or outcome
evaluation holds accountability measures by determining what is actually achieved (Smith &
Larimer, 2009; Stiggins, 1986).
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Stiggins (1986) argues that the purpose of summative evaluation is to hold teachers
accountable in achieving standards and to protect students from incompetent teachers. However,
growth-oriented evaluation through a formative process is teacher-centered, as the evaluation
itself is meant to provide information on performance and to promote professional growth.
Sanders, Wright and Horn (1997) showed teachers’ effectiveness affects student achievement at
all academic levels, regardless of class size and gender composition. The study concluded that
teachers were the main influencers of student achievement, and, when teachers were ineffective,
students showed inadequate academic progress. Establishing evaluation measures that center on
growth helps teachers understand their current effectiveness in incorporating soft skills into
instruction.
The goal of establishing evaluation is to promote professional growth to incorporate soft
skills instruction of all competencies. As teachers do not have the content and pedagogical
content knowledge to teach these, both summative and formative evaluations should take place.
From an organizational perspective, summative evaluation ensures that all soft skills are
incorporated into instruction. From a teacher standpoint, formative evaluation provides effective
feedback for teachers to improve in content knowledge, pedagogical strategies, or increase self-
efficacy when feedback is positive.
Most of Kai Ping Culinary School’s teachers have less than five years’ teaching
experience, and evaluations are a way to provide accurate feedback for professional development.
Delvaux, Vanhoof, Tuytens, Vekman, Devos, and Van Petegem (2013) examined the effects of
evaluation on teachers’ professional development. Results showed that evaluation has a positive
effect on teachers with limited teaching experience. Useful feedback and positive attitudes of the
principal were positively correlated to the professional development of teachers. Teachers will
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gain from the feedback and improve teaching performance in incorporating soft skills into
instruction. The establishment of the evaluation formalizes a positive feedback loop focusing on
teacher growth and assists the organization to determine teachers’ achievement of the goal. In
the area of soft skills, evaluation measures provide insight as to teachers’ current performance,
provides feedback on their effectiveness, and also helps their growth in incorporating soft skills
effectively into instruction.
Implementation Plan
Solution Integration
As previously noted, the validated causes in the themes of knowledge, motivation and
organization were interrelated. An integrated solution can be implemented and turn theory into
practice. The proposed integrated solution is to establish a professional development (PD)
program with a triple-phase process of (1) establishing a soft skills content knowledge training
workshop, (2) instituting mentor-coaching system, and (3) establishing evaluation measures to
formalize feedback and increase growth and accountability. Teachers should go through the first
two phases in a sequential format in that the previous phase of the program is a prerequisite of
the next phase. Evaluation takes place during each phase of the program with a summative
evaluation to determine the impact of the PD program.
Establish soft skills training workshop. The first phase of the proposed solution is to
hold a workshop to develop factual content knowledge of soft skills. Steinert, Boillat,
Meterissian, Liben, and Mcleod (2008) studied the effects of a four-hour workshop that taught
teachers how to design evaluation and assessment. Nine months after the workshop, 30% of the
participants conducted a workshop of their own. Pre- and post-tests were given to the
participants to assess knowledge gained from the workshop. Results indicated that participants
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gained knowledge in the areas of defining goals and objectives, identifying contents, ability to
conduct assessments, and in seeking methods that align with content and objectives.
In support, Syed and Hussein (2010) conducted an empirical study examining the effects
of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) workshop training for teachers. The ten-
hour workshop, laid over a five-day period, helped teachers understand and recognize the
symptoms of ADHD. A pre- and post-test were given to the participants, and results showed
they showed improvement in knowledge even after a six-month period.
Both studies demonstrated that teacher-training workshops increase teacher factual
knowledge in understanding a concept. In relation to the application of soft skills, it can be
predicted that placing teachers through a training workshop will help them gain knowledge and
understanding of the competencies that defines soft skill and the concept of soft skills itself. As
studies have shown that, regardless of the length of the workshop, participants show an increase
of knowledge after a long period of time (Steinert, 2008; Syed & Hussein, 2010). Therefore, the
phase-one workshop lays the foundation for assisting teachers incorporate soft skills into
instruction.
Institute mentor-coaching system. After teachers go through the soft skills training
workshop, they need to learn how to apply and incorporate soft skills into instruction. The next
phase of the PD program is to establish a mentor-coaching system that pairs experienced and less
experienced teachers. In the case of Kai Ping Culinary School teachers, experienced teachers
were defined as having more than five years’ teaching experience. Once teachers have paired
with a mentor-coach, they can observe, learn and gain emotional support from their mentor-
coaches. The goal of the instituting the system is to enhance soft skills content knowledge,
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increase pedagogical content knowledge, increase self-efficacy, reduce stress and burnouts and
allow for reflection on the effectiveness of performance.
Swafford (1998) discussed the types of coaching and the benefits it brings about. Five
types of coaching forms focused on different purposes and goals. The types were discussed in the
literature review and listed as (1) technical coaching that involves pedagogical strategy
knowledge transfer, (2) Expert coaching that trains teachers in specific content knowledge and
provide feedback and support in teaching, (3) Reciprocal coaching which allows teachers to
exchange pedagogical content knowledge, (4) reflection coaching involves learning and
collaboration through open dialogues of teachers in classroom practices, and (5) cognitive
coaching allows teachers to explore goals, objectives and meanings. Regardless of the type of
coaching approach, teachers will be gain from mentors in learning how to incorporate soft skills
competencies into instruction.
In addition, Swafford (1998) discussed the overall benefits of coaching as it fosters a
culture of collaboration and a culture of social and emotional support. In addition, the coaching
system allows coaches to be responsive and intervene when problems arise. Peer coaches and
teachers can exchange pedagogical strategies, explore instructional alternatives, and reflect and
make adjustment in teaching to maximize effectiveness (Swafford, 1998). Through the culture
of social and emotional support, observation of mentors incorporating soft skills into instruction
and intervening when problem arise, mentees can increase their self-efficacy due to the approach
of vicarious experience, verbal, or social persuasion and physiological or emotional reaction
(Bandura, 1977; Pajares, 2010). Emotional support can help to reduce teacher stress, as mentors
are can empower mentees. In turn, this will close the motivation and organization gaps and
increase self-efficacy and pedagogical training in addition to preventing stress and burnouts.
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Onchwari and Keengwe (2008) supported the fact that a mentor-coaching model
enhances teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and is an effective tool to improve
instructional practices. The study indicated an important factor that the relationship building
between mentor and mentee helped teachers develop a change in attitude for adjusting pedagogy
strategies through feedback and support of the mentors. Therefore, teachers were more willing
to alter teaching strategies and gain pedagogical content knowledge. In fact, the mentor-mentee
relationship helps both mentor and mentees to master the soft skill content knowledge and
increase self-efficacy through the exchange of mastery experience (Bandura, 1977; Pajares,
2010). Once teachers have the content knowledge of and strategies to teach soft skills, they are
more likely to successfully incorporate all competencies into practice.
Once soft skill instruction incorporates all competencies, and as instructional quality
improves, teachers’ self-efficacy can be predicted to increase (Holzberger at el., 2013; Klassen &
Chiu, 2010). In turn, when teachers’ self-efficacy increases, or group efficacy increases through
a culture of collaboration, social and emotional support, and instructional quality, student
achievement improves (Kunter et al., 2013; Swafford 1998). High self-efficacy reduces teachers’
stress and leads to fewer burnouts, which increases job satisfaction and lowers turnover rates
(Klassen and Chiu, 2010; Richter, D., Kunter, Lüdtke, Klusmann, Anders, & Baumert, 2013;
Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2007).
Richter et al. (2013) investigated how constructive-oriented and transmission-oriented
approaches of mentoring affect teachers’ efficacy, enthusiasm and job satisfaction. A pre- and
post-test were administered to over 700 German beginner teachers. The authors found that
teachers with constructivist mentors display higher levels of efficacy, enthusiasm, job
satisfaction, and negatively correlated with emotional exhaustion.
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The potential advantage of instituting the mentor-coaching system is that it will help to
close knowledge, motivation and organization gaps. If the soft skill training workshop fails to
educate regarding the content knowledge of soft skills, mentor-coaches will continue to foster the
content knowledge through an exchange of understanding and observation of in-class teaching.
The benefits of mentors fostering a culture of collaboration, social and emotional support is that
it aids teachers to increase efficacy, which reduces stress and burnouts. Teachers will be able to
exchange and increase pedagogical content knowledge through learning from mentors. The
phase II mentor-coaching system can integrate the previously proposed motivation and
organization solutions and support of the previously proposed knowledge solution.
Establish evaluation measures. The last phase of the solution is to construct a both
formative and summative assessment that provides feedback to both teachers and organizational
leaders. Assessment and evaluation that focuses on professional growth serves the purpose of
this phase. Formative evaluation can be done during the mentor-coaching phase wherein the
mentor provides feedback to the mentee and vice versa. Constructive feedback from mentor-
coaches, students and parents allow teachers to reflect, improve and explore new strategies in
teaching to increase quality instruction and self-efficacy (Swafford, 1998; Onchwari and
Keengwe, 2008; Richter et al., 2013). In phase III of the solution, it is critical to foster formative
assessment from mentor-coaches, teachers and students’ perspectives. The established evaluation
provides insight for teachers to understand their challenges, reflect on their performance and
further progress in the incorporation of soft skills into instruction.
Summative evaluation should be constructed on the basis of measuring the abilities of
teachers. The purpose of summative evaluation is to ensure teachers are performing to the
standard (Stiggins, 1986), and, if not, to evaluate the barriers that prevent this performance.
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Summative assessment gives an overview of the outcome of the professional development
program and determines whether organizational goals were reached. That is, through summative
assessment, the organization, mentors and teachers will be able to count the soft skill
competencies that were incorporated into instruction.
A detailed implementation plan of both formative and summative models of assessment
is discussed in Chapter 6. However, this section stresses the importance of evaluation in the PD
program as the last phase of professional development.
The professional development program integrates five of the solutions in each theme of
knowledge, motivation, and organization. Professional development requires time and resources
for a significant positive impact. Therefore, the organization needs to lay the foundation for the
program to be successful by two means. First, the organization needs to reduce teachers’ non-
teaching responsibilities and allow them to have time to participate in the program. Secondly,
financial and human resources become the cost of the program, as the program may need to
bring outside professionals, train experienced teachers to become mentors or coaches and more
administrative staff to support teachers in administrative responsibilities. The organization’s
leaders should keep in mind the costs and benefits of the program and decide whether to invest in
it. Table 26 shows a summary of causes, solutions and implementation of the solutions.

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Table 26
Summary of Causes, Solutions, and Implementation of the Integrated Solution
Knowledge Motivation Organization
Causes 1. Teachers lacked
factual knowledge in
understanding what
are the levels of soft
skills competencies
2. Teachers lacked
self-efficacy in
teaching soft skills,
thus, diverts from the
lesson plan when
faced unsuccessful
experiences.
3. Organization did not
provide a clear definition of
soft skills.
4. Teachers lacked adequate
pedagogical training.
5. Teachers were
overwhelmed with non-
teaching responsibilities
6. Teachers lacked
accountability measures as
performance evaluation
were not tied to teachers
performance in soft skills
Solution 1. Increase Factual
Knowledge: teachers
understanding of
“soft skills.”
2. Increase self-
efficacy of teachers
in teaching soft skills
3. Provide solid and clear
definition of soft skills
4. Provide teachers
professional development in
pedagogical content
knowledge.
5. Reduce teachers’ time
spent on non-teaching
responsibilities.
6. Establish evaluation of
teachers’ soft skills
instructions
Integrated
Solution Establish a three-phase Professional Development Program
Implementation Phase I:
Soft skills content
knowledge
workshop
Phase II:
Mentor-Coaching
Program
Phase III:
Formative and Summative
Teacher Evaluation

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Stakeholder Cascading and Performance Goals
The synthesized solution of establishing a triple-phased professional development
program helps to close all gaps and achieve the organizational goal. Clark and Estes (2008)
indicate that all performance goals should follow and cascade from the organizational goal for
effectiveness. Therefore, to successfully implement the proposed solution, stakeholder
performance goals are presented in Table 27 to align all goals from the organization goal for
effective implementation. The following Table 28 presents how each goal is to be evaluated
within a designated timeframe for implementation.

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Table 27
Summary of Organization’s Main Goal, Cascading Goals and Performance Goals
Organizational Goal:
By August 2015, all teachers will integrate 100% levels of soft skill competencies into their
instruction.
Stakeholder 1 (Teachers) Goal:
Teachers will focus on teaching all soft skills
competencies in the classroom in the future.
Stakeholder 2 (Administration) Goal:
Organization administration will provide
support for teachers to participant in
professional development program
Stakeholder 1 Cascading Goal A:
Teachers will learn the factual knowledge of
soft skills and understand each competency
for future references.
Stakeholder 2 Cascading Goal A:
Organization administration will design and
support the construction of the professional
development phase I workshop
Stakeholder 1 Cascading Goal B:
Teachers will be paired up with a mentor-
coach to foster trust and dialogue.
Stakeholder 2 Cascading Goal B:
Organization Administration invests financial
resources and reduces teachers’ non-teaching
responsibility to support the development of
professional development Phase II Program.
Stakeholder 1 Cascading Goal C:
Increase pedagogical content knowledge, self-
efficacy in teaching soft skills.
Stakeholder 2 Cascading Goal C:
Organization Administration design and set
evaluation indicators and evaluation process
for the implementation of professional
development Phase III - Evaluations.
Stakeholder 1 Cascading Goal D:
Incorporate 100% of soft skill competencies
into instruction.
Stakeholder 2 Cascading Goal D:
Organization Administration performs
summative evaluation on teachers’ progress
and reviews the effectiveness of professional
development program.

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Table 28
Summary of Performance Goals, Timeline and Measurement of Performance Goals
Stakeholder 1 Performance Goals Goal Measure
Teachers will participate in the professional
development workshop by October 2014.
1. 100% Workshop Participation rate
2. Summative evaluation of the teachers
understanding of soft skills
Pair with a mentor-coach and coordinate a
meeting schedule by November 2014.
Keep track of pair up groups and their meeting
schedule. Determine if schedules were followed
and meeting time length.
Teachers incorporate 85% soft skills competencies
into instruction by March 2015.
Perform formative evaluation through survey
measuring teachers self-perceived instruction
quality, teachers self-report in efficacy, guidance,
emotional support of the mentor, and job
satisfaction.
Teachers incorporate 100% of soft skill
competencies into instruction by August 2015.
Perform Summative evaluation through content
analysis, observation and student survey
determining the number of soft skill competencies
used in instruction.
Stakeholder 2 Performance Goals Goal Measure
Assign Human Resource director to design and set
up soft skills workshop by September 2014
Review design of workshop for appropriateness
Provide financial budgets for PD program II and
reassign teachers’ non-teaching responsibilities to
other administrative staff by October 2014
1. Review financial budget for PD program II for
approval.
2. Assess teachers’ time spent with
mentor/coaches.
Develop appropriate summative evaluation and
the process of evaluation by March 2015
Review assessment procedure and design
Perform summative evaluation of teacher
performance in incorporating 100% soft skills into
instruction by August 2015
Review evaluation to determine whether the goal
has been achieved.
Perform formative and summative evaluation on
the effectiveness of the PD program and teachers
satisfaction by December 2015.
Review results to determine program worth and
determine whether to continue the program.

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Summary
Based on the results and findings presented in the previous chapter, solutions were
provided upon a review of empirical and meta-analysis literature to close all knowledge,
motivation and organization gaps. Each cause of gaps was addressed through providing a
particular solution, and, with six validated causes, six solutions were proposed. An integrated
solution of establishing a three-phase professional development (PD) program attempts to
incorporate all six solutions.
The PD program is designed in a sequential manner through the lenses of the
organization administration. The program aims to increase teachers’ content knowledge of soft
skills through hosting a training workshop that presents the organizational definition and factual
knowledge of soft skills. Instituting a mentor-coaching system will build teachers’ efficacy and
pedagogical content knowledge, reduce stress and burnout from overwhelming responsibilities,
and foster a collaborative culture of social and emotional support. The establishment of
evaluation and assessment gives teachers positive and constructive feedback for improvement
and progress. In addition, evaluation allows the organization to understand current teacher
performance and predict future performance.
Through each phase of the PD program, teachers will be equipped with the knowledge,
skills, abilities and support to incorporate all soft skill competencies into instructional practice.
Evaluation serves as a formalized feedback loop that enhances teachers’ growth in knowledge of
their effectiveness in performance.
The integrated solution demonstrates many advantages to close all knowledge,
motivation and organization gaps and empower teachers to achieve the organizational goal. An
implementation plan was designed and presented to nurture effectiveness and align
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organizational, stakeholder, and performance goals with goal measures. The next chapter
presents an evaluation plan to provide insight for assessment of the integrated solution. Chapter
6 highlights the overall strengths and weakness of the research approach of this case study,
provides a detailed evaluation plan, and discusses the implications, limitations and future
research directions on the basis of this case study.

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CHAPTER 6
DISCUSSIONS AND EVALUATIONS
The tourism, hospitality, culinary and food service industries trend shows strength in the
growth of business, and, thus, businesses face increasing demands of labor. In particular, these
businesses have difficulty attracting and retaining labor (Bharwani & Butt, 2012; Davidson et al.,
2010; UNWTO, 2012). As continuous growth of the industries calls for improving service
quality, soft skills become a prerequisite for graduates to ensure a successful career and fulfill the
needs of businesses (Bancino & Zevalkink, 2007; Bailly & Lene, 2013; Bunker & Wakerfield,
2004; Dede, 2010; John, 2009; Robles, 2012). While hard skills are the technical skills, the
foundation skills, that one puts on the resume to set foot in the industry (Johanson et al. 2010;
Robles, 2012), soft skills are added value competencies businesses seek to provide improve
quality of service. The growths of hospitality and culinary education escalated over the past
decade, and focuses on hard skills education (Johanson et al. 2010; Robles, 2012; Zopiatis, 2010).
However, there are expectations regarding soft skills, businesses’ desired outcome is not
achieved. As an industry education gap exists, outdated hospitality and culinary curricula
require revision to satisfy the needs of industries (Blum, 1996; Johanson et al., 2010; Muller et al,
2009; Yup Chung, 2000; Zopiatis, 2010.).
Kai Ping Culinary School, located in Taipei, Taiwan, educates 500 students per year and
currently remains one of the leading culinary programs in the country. The school seeks to
improve its curriculum and quality of education, as its mission is to close the industry-
educational skills gaps and prepare future leaders with the necessary hard and soft skills.
Although soft skills were highly valued across industries, the abstract term “soft skills” was not
clearly defined. Soft skills may have different meanings across industries and context, and a
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general definition would be difficult to be recognized by all industries. The purpose of this study
was to define soft skills with competencies that were valued highly among industry leaders and
professionals through a review of past literature.
A list of competencies compiled together, through a review of literature, to define “soft
skills” serves as a baseline to examine Kai Ping Culinary School teachers’ knowledge and
proficiency in incorporating competencies of soft skills into instruction. The rationale of
examining teachers as the unit of analysis for this study was based upon the research John (2009)
conducted that shows soft skills can be effectively taught in the classroom. Results indicated that
students’ level of soft skills were higher when teachers incorporate them into instruction, as
compared to a control group where teachers did not teach these. Therefore, to improve students’
level, teachers must first incorporate soft skills into instruction.
Using the gap analysis framework, this study found teachers demonstrated knowledge
and proficiency, incorporating 66% of soft skills competencies into instruction. The goal is to
have teachers deliver 100% of the competencies. Therefore, a 34% gap was identified.
Presumed causes to the gap were organized under the themes of knowledge, motivation and
organization, and were validated through results and findings of a mixed-methods research
design. Research-based solutions were provided to close all knowledge, motivation and
organizational gaps for teachers in order to achieve the desired level of performance. As one
solution aims to close one presumed cause, to avoid conflicting results, a synthesized review of
all causes and solutions was conducted and an integrated solution was recommended along with
an implementation plan. The integrated solution suggests establishing a three-phase professional
development program to increase factual knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge in the
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topic of soft skills. The integrated solution attempts to elevate teacher efficacy, enhance
feedback, and reduce overwhelming responsibilities.
To transform theory into practice, implementation and evaluation plans were proposed.
The implementation plan aligned performance goals with stakeholder goals under the guidance
of the organizational goal. Successful implementation of solutions is to be measured through the
proposed evaluation plan in this chapter. This chapter is structured with a synthesis of results,
strengths and weaknesses of the study approach, general implications, limitations and future
research, and concluding remarks of this case study.
Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this case study was to close all knowledge, motivation and
organizational gaps that serve as barriers for teachers to incorporate all defined competencies of
soft skills into instruction. In order to reach the organizational mission of equipping students
with both necessary hard and soft skills in preparation for the hospitality/foodservice industry, a
clear definition of soft skills needed to be identified. The first section of this study identified and
presented a list of soft skill competencies through a review of literature, which were valued
highly in the fields of tourism, hospitality, foodservice, and culinary industry. The list of
competencies was used as the foundation for this case to examine the gap in teachers’
proficiency in incorporating soft skills into instruction. Solutions provided based on the results
and findings suggested ways for the organization to reach its mission.
Synthesis of Results
Based upon the presumed causes of the gap, survey and interview questions were
developed. Presumed causes were validated and organized into knowledge, motivation and
organization themes, shown in Table 25. Results and findings captured teacher responses and
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were analyzed through a statistical and content analytical approach. The results and findings
serve as the basis to provide recommended solutions.
Solutions provided were based on a review of literature targeted at each cause. In a
synthesized review of the causes and solutions, an integrated research-based solution offers
practitioners ways to close gaps and enhance performance. A recommended integrated solution
was provided, and the solution incorporates all solutions pertaining to each validated cause to
eliminate a conflicting interest. Implementation plans were proposed to turn theory into practice
and provide insight as to the stages of implementation of the integrated solution, shown in Table
28. For a successful implementation of the solution, a critical step is to make clear goals and
align organizational goals with stakeholder goals.
Although an integrated solution was offered and an implementation plan was designed to
carry out the solution, it is important to measure the impact of the solution and the
implementation process. Therefore, an evaluation plan is proposed through this chapter to assess
the impact on teacher performance caused by each phase of the solution and implementation plan.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Approach
The gap analysis framework is a cyclical process designed to enhance performance
through the examination of organizational problems by assessing goals and gaps between the
current performance and the desired performance. From scanning interviews, observations,
content analysis and literature review, causes of the gaps were identified through a tri-lensed
model that incorporates well-researched models of knowledge, motivation and organization
themes. Determination of the causes within each theme provides the basis for solutions that
tackle each validated cause. The holistic approach incorporates both the assessment of the cause
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to the gaps through a spread of knowledge, motivation, and organizational context and culture
theories and offers thorough in-depth examination of the causes through each theme.
Results from the evaluation plan offered to assess the recommended solution lay the
foundation for examining whether goals and the desired performance are achieved. If this is not
the case, the gap analysis process begins once again to build upon previous results and findings.
The gap analysis framework can be offered as an effective and appropriate design that guides
practitioners to transfer theory into practice based on investigation and examination of
organizational problems and the pursuit of practical research-based solutions to enhance
performance.
However, due to in-depth review of each of the knowledge, motivation, and
organizational themes, the unit of analysis must be narrowed down to a single stakeholder. As
problems and causes are interrelated, examination through different stakeholder’s perspective
can increase the reliability, completeness and validity of the problem at stake. In addition,
solving one stakeholder problem may cause another stakeholder problem to arise; therefore,
challenges exist as tradeoffs to limit the scope of the analysis into a manageable one. The unit of
analysis of this case study focused only on the teachers; thus, perspectives from service industry
professionals, students and administrators may provide insight to triangulate and increase the
validity, completeness, and reliability of the problem.
The core design of the gap analysis framework measures the gap between the current and
desired performance in alignment with the organizational goals. Two major components must
exist in order to successfully examine organizational problems under the gap analysis framework:
the organization must have clear goals and 2) must be able to assess the current state of
performance. When organizational mission or goals are stated in abstract terms, it is difficult to
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assess both the current and the desired performance and identify the gap. In this case study,
organizational goals were stated in abstract terms of equipping students with necessary hard and
soft skills that prepare them for the service industry. However, soft skills were a construct
undefined in the hospitality and culinary fields. The current performance in teaching soft skills
was difficult to assess transforming the results into a definite numerical value also proved
troublesome. Therefore, it was challenging to state a gap in percentages between the current and
desired performance levels.
Finally, although the gap analysis framework offers practical research-based solutions
with an evaluation plan, implementing and evaluating the solution requires buy-in from the many
stakeholders. In addition, a great amount of financial resources, time and human capability are
needed to carry out a successful implementation. Challenges may be to get buy-in from all
stakeholders, and resources may be difficult to pull together based on one research study that
requires a significant amount of time to examine a problem thoroughly in all themes of
knowledge, motivation and organization. The present case study recommends the establishment
of a PD program that would involve the effort all stakeholders, and at least a year’s worth of
financial resources to support the implementation. After thorough examination of the problem, it
might be difficult to get buy-in from the administration to exercise the solution, as the problem
may be out of date.
General Implications
General implications of this case study offer that the definition of soft skills can serve to
evaluate hospitality and culinary programs across nations and among institutions. The list of
competencies may be compared and contrasted among industries that value soft skills. The
attempt to define these skills provides to educators and industry professionals a concise overview
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of the term “soft skills.” Industry professionals and educators can adopt this definition for future
professional development and training. Implications of the proposed solution may be of use to
target the delivery of instructional quality or in the realm of improving instruction regardless of
topic. Finally, the evaluation plan serves as an example that allows practitioners to perform
evaluation of a desired program. Improving hospitality and culinary programs globally supports
the growth of the tourism, hospitality, culinary, and foodservice industries. This case study
examined teachers’ proficiency in soft skill instructions, which can serve as a resource to
compare hospitality-and culinary-focused programs nationally and internationally.
Recommendations for Evaluation
The nature of evaluation serves two purposes: (1) to determine program worth and assess
accountability (Smith & Larimer, 2009; Stiggins, 1986), and (2) to provide professional growth
in focusing on the feedback for improvement (Dick & Johnson, 2002; Stiggins 1986). Two types
of evaluations were identified as formative and summative evaluation. Formative evaluation
focuses on the process (Smith & Larimer, 2009), and on personal growth for improvement
(Stiggins, 1986), and summative evaluation measures the outcome, the impact and effectiveness
that determines the worth of the program and promotes accountability (Smith & Larimer, 2009;
Stiggins, 1986). It is critical to determine the goal of evaluation, as different types of evaluation
achieve different objectives (Stiggins, 1986).
As integrated solutions propose to close all gaps and achieve the objective, Phase III of
the PD program suggests both formative and summative evaluation to determine teachers’
professional growth and the effectiveness of the program. However, the role of evaluation here
is not to police and hold teachers accountable. Rather, it emphasizes teachers’ professional
growth and how they incorporate soft skills into instruction. Therefore, formative evaluation is
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predominately at work during Phase III of the suggested solution. On the other hand, from an
organizational perspective, as resources were invested into the program, summative evaluation
benefits organizational leaders in making decisions regarding whether the right approach is taken
and measures the impact of the program. To make compromises, Kirkpatrick’s (2006) model of
evaluation includes both formative and summative evaluation designed specifically for
educational training programs (Dick & Johnson, 2002).
The four levels of evaluation Kirkpatrick (2006) defines were Level I: Reaction, Level II:
Learning, Level III: Behavior, and Level IV: Results. The evaluation of reaction is to assess
participants’ general attitude, perception and reaction towards the program (Dick & Johnson,
2002). When participants report positive reactions, the chances of learning increase (Kirkpatrick,
2006). The evaluation of Learning assesses the change in knowledge, meaning measuring what is
understood or absorbed pre- and post-training. Both evaluation levels of Reaction and Learning
can be used as formative assessment for the phase III PD program to assessing mentor-coaches’
and mentees’ reaction and learning. Outcomes of the evaluation serve as feedback for both
mentor and mentee to improve their relationship and coaching styles. Both levels of evaluation
can be performed numerous times on a regular basis to provide positive and constructive
feedback.
The third level evaluates the behavior of the participants in terms of the behavioral
change due to the knowledge and skills learned. The evaluation of behavior allows evaluators to
determine whether the change in behavior was an outcome of the training program, and measures
participants’ persistence in the enhanced performance (Kirkpatrick, 2006). The fourth level
assesses the result or impact to ascertain whether objectives were achieved and measures how the
outcome affects the organization overall (Dick & Johnson, 2002; Kirkpatrick, 2006). The third
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level of evaluation can be used as both formative and summative evaluation. Feedback on
behavior change allows mentors to understand what they are doing right and the how and why
mentee’s performance enhances. Evaluation of the change in behavior may be seen as
summative feedback that allows organizational leaders to determine the direction and worth of
the program in evaluating teachers’ performance improvement. The fourth level is predominantly
a form of summative evaluation that allows organizational leaders to conclude the impact of
teachers towards student achievement and organizational performance in an overall manner.
Given the overall knowledge on Kirkpatrick’s’ (2006) model of evaluation, the
implementation of the evaluation involves complexity, as the PD program was designed in a
three-phase sequence. First, the four levels of evaluation should be conducted at each phase of
the program with a pre- and post-survey for data collection and analysis. To put this in
perspective, a step-by-step implementation plan is described as followed:
Evaluation of Phase I: Soft Skills Workshop
Level I reaction. The first level involves measuring the reaction teachers have toward
the workshop with a pre-, mid- and post-survey. Before teachers attend the workshop, their
perceptions and attitudes towards it should be determined to get buy-in. A mid-survey assesses
teachers’ beliefs regarding whether the information provided was useful. In the event of negative
results, there is still a chance to make alternations and make the workshop worthwhile. A post-
survey assesses the overall reaction after the workshop as a basis to assess learning.
Level II learning. The second level measures teachers’ change in knowledge gains with
a pre- and post-test. The test should be distributed before teachers attend the workshop to
determine their current knowledge of soft skills. A post-test administers the same test to seek
knowledge gains.
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Level III behavior. The third level assesses teachers’ performance based on learning.
Observations and content analysis, before and after the workshop, provide insight as to how
teachers teaching soft skills differently and as to whether such change is in relation to the
materials given during the training workshop. Observations can be performed on a daily,
weekly or monthly basis and information can be given to the mentors in phase II of the PD
program.
Level IV results. The fourth level of results can be evaluated through surveys
distributed to students, pre- and post-workshop, to assess their perception of teachers’ clarity of
instruction and their own understanding of soft skills. In addition, the evaluation of impact on
teachers can be measured through observation of teachers’ time spent in class preparation, self-
efficacy levels and job satisfaction rates.
The data collected from the evaluation of the workshop should be analyzed to serves as
the basis for the next phase of the PD program. The separation of evaluation between phases I
and II allows organization leaders to determine the differences in impact of the two programs for
future reference or provisions.
Evaluation of Phase II: Mentor-Coaching System
Level I reaction. Teachers’ pairing up with a mentor-coach extends the teachers’
professional growth on an individualized level. Reactions can be evaluated focusing on the
quality of mentor, and, in turn, the mentee. A pre-, mid- and post-survey seeks mentor/mentee
perception of the relationship and helpfulness of the mentor/mentee.
Level II learning. The second level of evaluation assesses learning from the mentor or
mentee. One method to evaluate learning is through a comparison of a control and an
experimental group. However, the goal is to have all teachers improve through the mentor-
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coaching system. Therefore, all teachers should pair up with a mentor-coach. Therefore, the
proposed method to evaluate learning is through a self-reported survey and observations to
determine the reported learning is valid. A survey should be designed to focus on teachers’
perception of what is learned from the mentor/mentee. Observations seek to identify the change
in perception, attitude and knowledge of the teachers during meetings.
Level III behavior. The third level evaluates teachers’ performance in instructional
change through the self-reported surveys and student feedback surveys, classroom observations,
and content analysis of either meeting minutes or lesson plan designs. The goal is to incorporate
all soft skills competencies into instruction; therefore, the objective of this level of evaluation is
to assess the change in number of soft skill competencies teachers included in instruction.
Through the different types of assessment, teacher performance can be assessed in a well-
rounded perspective. Evaluation and assessment of this level can be performed on a monthly
basis, and the outcome can be used to inform and encourage teachers to incorporate more soft
skills competencies into practice.
Level IV results. The fourth level measures impact of the PD program through a
summative evaluation and determines how the mentor-coaching system has elevated the
organization as a whole. A few different approaches are valuable to measure impact: the
organization’s administration team can measure impact through student achievement, graduation
rates, employability rates of the graduates, and industry satisfaction of graduate student
performance. On the other hand, evaluating impact from within the organization, teachers’
retention rate, self-efficacy level, job satisfaction rates, and instruction quality are useful
indicators to show effectiveness of the PD program.
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Kirkpatrick’s (2006) model of evaluation serves best, as it combines both formative and
summative evaluations, and was designed to target professional development programs. In
addition, the four levels of evaluation provide insight as to many dimensions of information
which assess teachers’ current states, how teachers have changed, the reasons behind the change,
and the impact of change. Results and findings from all levels of evaluation serve both
formative assessment for professional development and summative assessment to measure the
effectiveness and impact of the PD program.
Limitations
One of the limitations to this research is the adoption of a case study, which lacks
generalizability to the wider population as the study goes in-depth into a single instance
(Merriam, 2009). This study focused on the teachers of Kai Ping Culinary School in Taipei,
Taiwan, in terms of their proficiency in incorporating soft skills into instruction. Generalization
from the results and findings with proposed solutions from this research may be limited due to
different cultural contexts, the structure of organization, and priority of goals of the stakeholder
sand organization as compared to other institutions.
The case study investigated a particular organizational problem and limited research
exists that defines of soft skills, and the researcher designed the survey instrument and interview
protocol, as there were no similar available instruments for the purpose of this study. Reliability
and validity measures of the instrument through a pre-test and post-test review were absent due
to the scope of the study. However, multiple peer reviews and corrections between questions
strengthen the instrument to reduce researcher bias and unclear language.
Once the instrument was approved through the University of Southern California (USC)
Institutional Review Board (IRB), a third party translated the instrument into Mandarin Chinese
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for data collection. Kai Ping Culinary School teachers were not proficient in the English
language, so translation of the instruments was a necessity. Data collected from the survey and
interview protocols were analyzed and translated into English for the purpose of this research.
Thus, reliability and validity measures of the instrument may be lost through translation, which
limits this study in capturing the completeness and accuracy of the results and findings.
However, precautions were taken, in regard of the translation performed by a third party, since
the content translated was confirmed by the researcher for accuracy. The researcher is
competently fluent in both English and Mandarin Chinese.
Due to the time constraint in data collection, survey and interviews were the main source
of data analysis. Although observations, scanned interviews and content analysis were adopted
as methods to gather presumed knowledge, motivation, and organization causes, classroom
observations in regards to how teachers deliver soft skill instructions were not performed.
Recording classroom observations was difficult due to the thematic course structure Kai Ping
adopts, which makes it difficult to pinpoint when soft skill instruction takes place. There were 11
classes taking place during the same class period, and, due to time constraints, the researcher
would not have gathered enough observation of delivery of soft skill instruction. Therefore, one
limitation of the study is the lack of observation data and triangulation of observational data with
results and findings.
Future Research
Soft skills are a clear construct that involves non-technical skills. However, the
importance of certain soft skills may be different across industries. This study defined soft skills
with competencies that were rated important and valuable to the tourism, hospitality, culinary,
and foodservice industries. As the competencies may differ across industries, future qualitative
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and quantitative research that seeks to define or confirm the definition of soft skills in the service
industry may be useful to increase reliability and validity of the definition itself. Additional
research should take consideration of defining soft skills through literature review and industry
professional’s perspectives, as well as across nations and cultures.
To foster the development of soft skills, future research that examines pedagogical
strategies for increasing student levels of soft skills can be resourceful. The current study
examined how to increase teachers’ proficiency to incorporate soft skills. However, additional
research as to the effectiveness of delivery of soft skill instruction and instructional qualities that
affects student development in soft skills provides insights as to how educators and practitioners
can increase students’ and employees’ level of soft skills.
Future research should focus on the development of soft skills towards employability
rates and career path to determine how soft skill accounted for students’ success. In addition,
future research can examine the relationship between development of soft skills and personal
growth and satisfaction.
Finally, as soft skills are extremely difficult to measure, future research that focuses on
measuring the proficiencies of soft skills would contribute significantly to the body literature,
which would allow researchers a clearer sense of individuals’ soft skills level of and the extent of
improvement needed for each individual.
This study served as a basis to define soft skills in particular to the tourism, hospitality,
culinary, and foodservice industries. Teachers’ knowledge of soft skills were found limited by
the term “soft skills.” Future research that examines the definition of soft skills across industry
will adds to the body of literature and aids teachers’ understanding of the term. Evaluating soft
skills and their development in relation to student achievement, future success, and employability
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rates may guide educators toward innovative pedagogical strategies to deliver quality instruction
and foster the development of these skills. As literature regarding soft skills was not thoroughly
researched, future studies that examine the correlation or cause and effect among the suggested
variables with soft skills will provide insight and better understanding of soft skills.
Conclusion
The increase of globalization stimulated the rise of competitiveness in the tourism,
hospitality, and foodservice industries; as a result, businesses rely on either increases in service
and product quality or reducing revenue to remain viable (Dev et al., 2010; Blum, 1996; Yoo et
al., 2010; UNWTO, 2012). To increase quality of service, businesses search for talent with both
hard and soft skills. From an educational perspective, hospitality and culinary curricula that
solely focuses on hard skills training creates an industry-education gap (Muller et al., 2009;
Smith & Kemmis, 2010). Therefore, this study identified and defined “soft skills,” in the service
industry with competency descriptors. Furthermore, this study examined Kai Ping Culinary
School, located in Taipei, Taiwan, regarding whether its teachers proficiently deliver soft skill
instruction. Through a gap analysis model, the goal was to close Taiwan’s industry-educational
gap in both fields of hospitality and foodservice. This case study presented solutions and
evaluations of implementation plans, based on the results and findings found through a mixed-
method approach.
Solutions discussed in the previous chapter were based on the results and findings that
validate knowledge, motivation and organization causes through the Gap Analysis Framework
(Clark & Estes, 2008). A proposed integrated solution, based on a review of empirical and meta-
analytical literature, outlines a three-phase Professional Development (PD) program that aims to
close all performance gaps. A recommended implementation plan is proposed to turn theory into
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practice and was followed by an evaluation plan. The suggested evaluation plan adopts
Kirkpatrick’s (2006) four levels of evaluation system to measure the effectiveness and impact of
the proposed solution. Kirkpatrick’s (2006) model of evaluation not only provides formative
assessment that fosters teachers’ professional development, but it also measures effectiveness
and impact through a summative evaluation that provides insight as to the level of organizational
performance. The gap analysis framework is a cyclical process that allows the results of
evaluation to be re-stated as the current performance of the organization in reaching the desired
state of performance.

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Abstract (if available)

Abstract Hard Skills are technical skills or foundational skills that allow one entry to perform on a job while soft skills are the human skills that serve as a competitive advantage for fostering a career success. Hospitality and culinary educational programs that focus curriculums on hard skill training alone can no longer satisfy the market needs in preparing talents for the service industry. Therefore, to close the industry-education gap, this case study served two purposes: (1) to define the “soft skills” with competencies valuable to the service industry at all employment levels, and (2) to examine the amount of soft skills teachers incorporated into instruction at Kai Ping Culinary School. Competencies identified to define “soft skills” were extracted through a review of literature, and to assess the current levels of teachers’ performance in incorporating soft skills into instruction. Guided by the Gap Analysis Framework, this study adopted a mixed-method research design to seek causes to the performance gap. Presumed causes were organized into knowledge, motivation, and organization themes. To gather quantitative results, a survey, filled by 26 teachers, were analyzed through descriptive statistics. Using a snowball sampling and criterion selection method, six teachers were interviewed for qualitative analysis. Results and findings showed a grand mean of 66% of the soft skill competencies were incorporated into instruction, and a 34% gap exists. Six validated causes were identified and a three-part integrated solution was proposed. The proposed solution suggested Kai Ping Culinary School to provide soft skills knowledge workshops, institute a mentor-coaching program, and establish an evaluation system for formalize feedback and to increase growth and accountability. An implementation and evaluation plan was structured for practical implications.

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Creator Hsia, Howard Hao-Chun (author)

Core Title An examination of teachers' proficiency in incorporating soft skills into instructions to culinary students at Kai Ping Culinary School: a gap analysis

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Global Executive

Publication Date 10/07/2014

Defense Date 10/07/2014

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag 21st century skills,chefs,competency,culinary curriculum,foodservice,hospitality program,OAI-PMH Harvest,soft skills,training needs

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Castruita, Rudy Max (committee chair), Filback, Robert (committee member), Krop, Cathy (committee member)

Creator Email howardhh@usc.edu,hsiahoward@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-489347

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Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

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