Out of school learning relies heavily on intrinsic motivation; engaging in a task for pure satisfaction. Motivation can help us pursue a goal, but it doesn’t necessarily lead to success. It involves activation (starting), persistence (continuing) and intensity (effort) (Cherry, 2026). In our attempt to make the perfect French macaron, we tested all three.
The following macaron adventure became a lesson in what it takes to learn a new skill outside a formal learning environment. What started as a personal challenge turned into a journey of much trial and error, frustration, and eventually learning from an expert. We discovered that motivation and persistence matter, but so does feedback, experience, and mentorship when it comes to learning.
Learning on Our Own
Making French macarons is not a feat for the faint of heart. They are notoriously unforgiving and quite finicky. Temperature or humidity variables, along with too many or too few strokes when mixing the batter, may result in cracked tops, hollow or sunken shells or no feet. These fancy French delicacies can frustrate even the most seasoned of bakers. But my husband and I were motivated and ready for the challenge! We’d recently mastered sourdough bread, so how hard could macarons really be?
Armed with a recipe from famed New York Times baker, Claire Saffitz, and a great sense of confidence, we set off on our first attempt.
Failure! Flat, wrinkly tops.
No worries, we tried again making extra sure to follow the recipe to a “t”.
Failure!
Persistence. Our third attempt sent us to the website of the New York Times baker where we watched her video as we matched her techniques step by step.
Failure!
New recipe.
Failure!
Different video.
Failure!
Consult with a friend who has attempted these tricky treats.
Failure!
Nine attempts on our own. And nine failures.
How could we be falling so short of success when we were so closely following the recipes and mirroring videos step by step? Were we learning something new with each attempt, or repeating the same mistakes without recognizing it?
Photo by Steve Sneed
The Turning Point
Our independent and valiant efforts hadn’t produced success, so we signed up to take a French macaron class at Le Chat Gourmet with a professional chef.
We, along with about 10 other eager bakers, were able to observe the chef in real time as she demonstrated the art of sifting, mixing, and folding the batter with precision. She explained what she was doing at each step and described the science behind why she was doing it. We asked questions during her demonstration and she responded.
When it was our turn to make the batter, we received feedback, “The batter is too thick.” “It should be glossy”, “It should run off the spatula like lava”.
Feedback!
The feedback from the chef helped us to see where our home attempts had gone awry. This was a good example of how informal learning doesn’t necessarily mean learning on your own. By the end of the class, we had made a variety of gorgeous French macarons! But would we be able to transfer this knowledge when we returned home to our own kitchen?
This experience highlighted what was missing when we worked on our own: feedback from someone with experience! While we were motivated, and quite persistent, when we were learning independently, we had to troubleshoot what went wrong and how to modify our technique on our own.
Making Connections
Out of school learning takes place outside of formal school settings. In our case, learning took place in our kitchen as we read through recipes and watched online videos. It also took place in the community as we were mentored by a local chef. We were voluntarily learning, we set our own goals, we chose our own resources, allowed ourselves flexibility in when we wanted to bake, and critiqued our own results. Authentic learning took place through obtaining knowledge and skills through meaningful real-world engagement (Williams, 2026). My husband and I had set a challenge for us to make close-to-perfect macarons. No instructor was telling us to do this, nor would we receive a grade. We simply wanted to challenge our baking skills. But, after nine failed attempts, I did start to wonder if we were wasting our time.
As I reflect on the macaron experience, I think those failures helped give us a foundation to build on when we worked with an experienced chef. Our previous attempts helped us to recognize our mistakes and better understand the chef’s feedback. From a sociocultural learning standpoint, the chef provided us with scaffolding by demonstrating how to fold the batter, and providing us with feedback to help us build on what we had already learned. Without those earlier failed experiences, we may not have fully appreciated the chef’s advice. We connected our experiential learning with the chef’s feedback so we could apply what we learned, and we made these macarons independently:
Photo by Kristi Sneed
Voluntary out of school learning requires more than motivation and persistence. It also involves feedback, reflection and recognizing when a different approach is needed.
References:
Cherry, K. (2026, July 4). Motivation: The driving force behind our actions. verywell mind.
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-motivation-2795378
Williams, J.P. (2026, September 23). What is authentic about ‘authentic learning’? Times Higher Education.
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/what-authentic-about-authentic-learning