Reflections on a Permaculture Design Certificate in Kenya
This Output Packet will be a a reflection on my PDC teaching in Lekuru, Kenya for Sadhana Forest International. It was an incredibly challenging experience, plagued by disorganization and near mutiny from the students and teachers. I thoroughly documented the entire experience and believe it could be of great use to future and current instructors.
I will explore my un/learnings, challenges and highlights through select journal entries, pictures, course timelines and intervention points, class materials, as well as feedback from students and organizers. I will also provide a sample PDC plan for the same course with lessons, group dynamics exercises, and logistics for the setting.
The OP is designed using the Experiential Learning Model, starting with "Act," then "Reflection," "Conceptualize," and "Apply." There are parallel learning elements from Kolb, Greenaway, and Argyris and Schon that will be used.
This OP will be submitted January 1st, provided no major barriers appear in December.
Landscape Design and the Pedagogy of Self
As a student, teacher, and auto-didactic learner with the ambition of becoming a landscape designer, consultant and teacher, I will be focusing my second project on instructing myself in the areas I lack. I will explore my learning style through different methods--including Bloom's Taxonomy, the Kolb model, and the 5E's--and make a learning plan with my findings. Focusing on plant ID, drawings, client interviewing, hardscaping, et cetera, I will document effective methods of self-instruction and devise a plan for continued learning.
I have split up each week of January into a different learning style and added specific goals for each week (i.e. 4-5 plants learned). Toward the end of the project, I will teach a course in landscape drawing to solidify what I've learned, both in drawing and in teaching through different methods.
For resources I have many books and a full binder of notes from a landscape course my mom took when I was a baby. I have also signed up for a course at a Community College starting in January, as well as a daily landscape lesson from online. I plan to interview different professionals of the field and complete a design for a local family. This is a very exciting and challenging OP. I hope to submit February 1st, 2016.
Plant Propagation and Maintenance
I am most excited for this Output Packet, my third and final project for my Action Learning Cycle. It is the most experiential and balanced project in terms of the Kolb Model. In order to solidify and ground my landscape design knowledge I need to understand more of the active praxis of such: propagation and maintenance are the areas I am weakest. I will practice with all the plants I currently have planted on my property and ones I plan to attain soon--grafting, forcing bulbs, cuttings, rooting, soil mix, scarification, pruning, disease and pest control, water-light-nutrient-mineral needs, et cetera. I will keep a full learning journal to record my experiments, theories, projects, and reflections.
I plan to use Dragon Dreaming and the Action Learning/Innovation Process to make each week of learning as full of experimentation, reflection, doing and thinking as possible. To get hands-on practice from a professional, I will be volunteering at a nearby nursery with whom I currently work as a Farm Hand. Using other resources, such as my library, websites, and videos, I will create an annual timeline for plant propagation and maintenance in zone 5a+/- for use by others. This will be completed by March 1st, 2016.
- Commitment to action?
- Appropriate frame?
- Creative doable alternatives?
- Meaningful, reliable information?
- Clear values and trade-offs?
- Logical, correct reasoning?
I also evaluated the 4 Information Inputs that I need to balance in my Decision-Making methods:
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6 Thinking Hats
Edward de Bono
I plan to use these "hats" as additional brainstorming when I begin my projects. It seems a good mix of a S.W.O.T. analysis and the Kolb Model--excited to try it out!
| White: (Facts, Data, Information) — Paper |
Weekly OP Planning
I've decided to use two different methods at the beginning of each school week:
1. Review reflections, project timelines and xMinds, goals, and design;
2. Create Critical Path Analyses and "Backcasting" timelines for the week--this will be the "lesson plan".
Paralysis by Analysis
Analysis that isn’t understood because of previous convictions —rapid prototype with analysis at hand
Decision Vacuum
Coming back to the same type of analysis over and over and rewriting — set drop dead date
Can’t decide which path to take — quadrant of do-don’t, will-won’t
Dunn and Dunn Learning Model
Stimuli and Elements of my Learning Style
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Environmental:
Emotional:
Psychological:
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Sociological:
Physiological:
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Drawing of my 5 areas of stimuli and the associated elements
Accepting insufficient information — answer the 5 Ws using information to solve top objective; am I serving my objectives or ALL the objectives?
"Preaching to the choir”, analysis received from like-minded source — have supporter play devil’s advocate, look at source of information
Other Projects
During this Action Learning Cycle, I plan to stay away from distracting or time-consuming projects. The few I do plan to be a part of is the NEHSA snowboard program for riders with disabilities at Sunapee Ski Resort and the "Stitch and Bitch" club.