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Farmer Field Schools for IPM: Refresh your memory
Contents
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Formal or non-formal education?
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The type of training that takes place in a Farmer
Field School is often referred to as “non-formal adult education”. What
is the difference between formal and non-formal education?
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Formal Education* |
Non-formal Education |
- Teacher
- Teacher is the center of instruction
- Information ‘push’ (teacher decides what trainees are being
taught)
- Teacher is responsible to deliver contents from the curriculum
- Teacher has to prepare all sessions
- Teacher forced into being ‘expert’
- Teacher lectures trainees.
- Trainees are passive receivers of information
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- Facilitator
- Participants can give inputs
- Information ‘pull’ (focus on actual information needs)
- Facilitator ensures that participants learn basic contents and
involves participants to determine additional learning goals
- Informal, open exchange; equal chance to participate
- Active cooperation and collaboration from all participants
- Facilitator is a group member
- Facilitator can rely on inputs of the group
- Questions from the group can be answered BY the group
(discussion/sharing of experiences, setting up experiments, inviting
resource persons, etc.)
- Working in small groups
- Facilitator stimulates critical thinking.
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* Modern “formal education” is increasingly using some of the
non-formal facilitation skills, placing more emphasis on working in
small groups, and stimulating critical thinking and active involvement
by the trainees.
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Seating arrangement in the FFS
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Participatory training aims at increasing communication and sharing of
knowledge between participants. The seating arrangement in the FFS is
important. An FFS is never a classroom style training. Instead we work
in small groups or we use a U-shape seating arrangement that allows
everybody to participate in the discussions. |
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| Small groups
J
U-shape
J
Classroom style
L
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Facilitators / Facilitation skills
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Role of a facilitator
- Prepare for the FFS sessions
- Prepare materials, visual supports, etc.
- See and use learning opportunities
- Stimulate thinking
- Stimulate interaction between farmers
- Stimulate experimentation
- Guide the learning process
- Create a good learning environment
- Manage effective discussions
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Good habits
- Smile
- Eye contact
- Clear speaking
- Use local language
- Respect moments of silence
- Respect differences
- Listen carefully
- Use open questions
- Support participation
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Training materials
When planning the next FFS session, it is necessary to make sure that
the required training materials will be available. Here is a list of
materials that are often needed in an FFS:
- Paper (newsprint / flipchart for AESA drawing)
- Notebooks and pens (for each participant)
- Pencils / crayons / markers (need extra green colors)
- Rulers / scale
- Tape / glue
- Hand lenses
- Sticks / ropes / signboards
- Materials to prepare insect zoo
- Boxes
- Bottles
- Mosquito netting
- Cotton, elastic bands, tape
- Pots
- Plastic bags / elastic bands
- Stand for flip chart
- Sweep nets (not only in rice FFS, but also in other crops. Used to
catch flying insects, adult butterflies, dragonflies, hoverflies,
etc.)
- Aspirator (make one yourself to catch small insects)
- Knife / scissors
- Chairs / plastic sheet
- Inputs for field experiments
- Fertilizer
- Seed / seedlings
- Bio-control agents
- Neem
- Sticky traps
- Signboards
- Sometimes special designed forms to take data (e.g. in a small
field experiment)
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