Sustainable Development of Hotel Food and Beverage Service Training: Learning Satisfaction with the Situated Cognitive Apprenticeship Approach

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the cognitive apprenticeship teaching approach in food and beverage (F&B) service training courses on learning satisfaction. This study is a quasi-experimental research design conducted using pretest–post-test nonequivalent groups. Its research subjects are primarily new employees from the F&B departments of well-known five-star, high-end hotels in Taiwan who must undergo education and training. The new employees are divided into an experimental group and a control group for the eight-week teaching practicum. This study concludes that learning satisfaction achieved through the cognitive apprenticeship teaching approach during the F&B training course is superior to that achieved through the conventional teaching approach of lecturing. An innovative finding of the current research is that regardless of whether cognitive apprenticeship teaching is adopted, the master–apprentice relationship is the most important factor in the five-facet measurement of learning satisfaction. This point also explains why the cognitive apprenticeship approach is a suitable teaching and training strategy. The greatest contribution of this study is that it provides a direction for the application and sustainable development of hotel staff training and offers references for the improvement of future hotel training programs.