Is there such a thing as permaculture pedagogy? I’d say it’s emerging as we speak 🙂 Beginnings First there was the chalk & talk – follow the master’s lead academic pedagogy of people like Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton. They demonstrate pre-digesting permaculture knowledge and skills. The Permaculture: A Designers Manual and the classic 72-hour Permaculture… Continue reading Emergent Permaculture Pedagogy?
Category: Teacher’s Manual
Pedagogy: what is it?
Wikipedia says this about pedagogy: Pedagogy (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) “Pedagogy (/ˈpɛdəɡɒdʒi/ or /ˈpɛdəɡoʊdʒi/) is the science and art of education, specifically instructional theory. An instructor develops conceptual knowledge and manages the content of learning activities in pedagogical settings. (…) Students learn as they internalize the procedures, organization, and structures encountered in social contexts… Continue reading Pedagogy: what is it?
Designing a Teachers’ Training College
Designing a Teachers’ Training college starts with coming up with a catchy name like: Aardwerk Academie. Just kidding. No, designing a teachers’ training college starts with the realisation that people learn best by doing and that systems (people) have an innate ability to learn, i.e.: the ability to change behaviour over time in response to… Continue reading Designing a Teachers’ Training College
Forest Gardening
Hur skapar vi en skogsträdgård? Första frågan till gruppen: Vad kan ni om detta? Folk tror att det är en skog som man planterar i. Men viu skapar den från ingenting, non? En skog vi skapar med ätliga träd, plantor och olika arter Foof forest: Matskog vs Forestgarden: Skogsträdgård Många lager, funktioner, element… Mat skog… Continue reading Forest Gardening
Teaching Permaculture Principles with Cards
ETP Spain Session with Rakesh Rootsman Rak delivered on 25 Sept 2013. There are write-ups about this session in German and Spanish. The video shown below capturing this session was shot and edited by Mihail Kossev.
Wild Edibles: Start Foraging!
Klara Hansson delivered this ‘micro-teaching’ session on 25 Sept 2013 at the Spain meeting of the European Permaculture Teachers Partnership. Klara shares a lesson plan below for providing this session yourself. Just below, find a video of the session shot and edited by by Mihail Kossev. A) Context Design Give an authentic task, like picking… Continue reading Wild Edibles: Start Foraging!
Learning Styles
This workshop led by with Alessandro Ardovini was held on 26 September 2013 at the Barcelona meeting. Below is a 4 min video of the session in English (shot and edited by Mihail Kossev)
Zone 00 – Breathe
Klara Hansson presented a technique for breathing that will keep you healthy, balanced and focused. The technique is to first breathe deeply into the stomach, then fill the middle area around the ribs with air and finally breathe into the top area of your lungs by moving shoulders and head backward to open the chest… Continue reading Zone 00 – Breathe
Author’s Guide to the EPT WordPress
Do you feel confused? Is the EPT WordPress Teacher’s manual beyond you? Or would you just like a few pointers for jazzing up your page? Then this is the page you need. Below are links to guides and a list of tips and tricks for making a WordPress page which communicates your permaculture expertise, methods,… Continue reading Author’s Guide to the EPT WordPress
Educational Videos: Ecological and Social Landscapes
Permaculture teacher Helder Valente, based in Portugal, has created a collection of educational videos about how to relate to ecological and social landscapes. They are freely available here on YouTube. The topics include, for example, food forests, kitchen gardens, pedagogy in education, celebration, design, soils, water management, permaculture events, teacher training and more.
Soil Life Introduction
Session length – 20 minutes. Presented by Primoz Turnsek on 26 September 2013 at EPT meeting in Barcelona. Written up by Peter Cow. Props needed – large sheet of paper with precollected soil with mycellium in it, and mycorrhizal funghi Pass out I gram of soil to each person. Explain what is in it –… Continue reading Soil Life Introduction
Session Plan: Teaching PC Design Principles the Open Space Way
Shared by Antonio Scotti, As. Cambium Permacultura en Formación, Spain, October 2103 In this session, I use Open Space Technology as an inspiration to design a session about the teaching of the design principles for large groups, where some of the participants may have some prior understanding of them, and can help the others who… Continue reading Session Plan: Teaching PC Design Principles the Open Space Way
Other Games
Secret friend (also known as Angel) Every participant takes a piece of paper on which the name of his/her secret friend is written. You keep this in secret as your secret friend does. You can use the time of the course to make nice things for this person like prepare a hand-made present, write something… Continue reading Other Games
Orientation
Treasure hunt Aims: To help participants know the area Conduct a treasure hunt around the town/farm/village/center where the course is held. Hide various objects in important locations such as the closest shop, post office, bank, pharmacy, toilets, showers, swimming pool… use a map of the area to plan this. There are lots of different ways… Continue reading Orientation
Introduction Rounds and Getting to Know One Another
Silhouettes Aims: Getting to know each other and creating a “gallery of heads” together (for decorating the rooms) Numbers: 10-30 participants in pairs Materials: Sheets of paper, cardboard, pencils, scissors, lamps (or candles) After a short introduction, silhouettes are made in pairs; the outline of the head of each person is copied and then cut… Continue reading Introduction Rounds and Getting to Know One Another
Games: Ice-Breakers
Aims: getting to know each other from the first day and remember the names of everybody Numbers: Any Length: 10-30 minutes depending on group size/s Alphabetical name game Place two parallel strips of tape on the floor, one foot apart (or use a nature pattern like the wave). The participants are then asked to stand… Continue reading Games: Ice-Breakers
Introducing How to Teach Patterns with Kirsty
(Note: This session would be best to give early in a PDC. The session plan for this session can be found at the bottom under “Resources”) Time needed: Best as a one-hour session, possibly longer. It can be flexible to fit the time available. Introduce the topic of patterns to the class and state why… Continue reading Introducing How to Teach Patterns with Kirsty
Introducing How to Teach Inputs & Outputs with Joe Atkinson
P108 in the Permaculture Teachers Guide has a full class plan for this exercise. Time needed: Best as a one-hour session, possibly longer. It can be flexible to fit the time available. This activity can sit in different sessions. This is usually one of the first sessions on a PDC. Good to use to introduce… Continue reading Introducing How to Teach Inputs & Outputs with Joe Atkinson
Teaching Tool: How to Create a Session Plan
Cathrine Dolleris presented how to create a session plan on the 25th of September 2013 in Mas Franch. The session presents learning outcomes and planning of your session as a tool to become a more confident teacher. Notes from the session are coming soon. A video from this session follows:
Sample Course Templates from Ecoherencia-Spain
Several Course Templates from Ecoherencia-Spain (PDF) including: Introduction to Permaculture Introduction to Urban Permaculture Interpretation and Soil Improvement Participatory methodologies for implementing Permaculture and agroecology projects: session plan available here.