Preparing to Teach

This tool aims to set a conducive mindset that will enable you, in the role of facilitator, to make most of the Doughnut Economics foundational learning materials.

Hello! If you are new here, please do take a look at the first section below:  'About foundational Doughnut learning tools’. 

Next, we offer 'Preparing to Teach' tool. If you are short of time, 'Mindset shift' - the first card of 'Preparing to Teach' - introduces the tool via a short video-clip. Further below you will find the full tool where you can explore it in depth and download it in one go from a Google Drive link.

 

How have we structured the tools for flexibility and ease of use?


Through an initial sensing phase of DEAL’s schools and education communities around the world, we learned the importance of creating educational tools that are accessible to many age groups, which can be adopted globally, and engage learners holistically. As a result, each foundational tool that we have designed is therefore composed of a number of learning elements, which we call ‘cards’, which are also bespoke to specific school-learning age-brackets (5-7 years old, 8-11 years old, 12-16 years old, and 17-18 years old). The tools and each card - 'preparing to teach’ space cards (yellow), insight cards (orange), activity cards (green) and reflect cards (blue) - have been designed to be flexible and adaptable to the diversity of cultures and ways of learning around the world, including informal/formal, rural/urban education settings too. Therefore, the cards’ content, age brackets, and duration may be shifted up or down depending on the particular context in which they may be used. Images and guidance can be modified to fit the diversity of learners, their everyday contexts, their aspirations, etc. These tools are certainly not perfect but a first step...






What these tools cannot do


In alignment with our 'vision for learning' section under the Schools & Education Thematic page, our foundational tools' design does not conform with the design of mainstream education materials. They are not the usual 'same containers but with different content'. 


We recognise that we have made compromises in order to be accessible to current dominant perspectives of what schools and education should be — their goals, aspirations, and values; their philosophies, curriculums design, establishments and institutions’ organisational structures, etc. However, we have also taken steps to contribute towards loosening and opening up, via small transformative gestures and ambiguous sketches, alternative ways of learning (knowing, being and doing) that amplify proposals for more expansive, plural, ways of sharing knowledge and skills across cultures. Ways that enhance our understanding that people and planet in rhythm = ONE. Education that challenges the normalisation of anthropocentric and ego-centric unsustainable ways of living patterns, and instead prepares humanity to live within the doughnut. 


So... these foundational tools do not offer traditional ways of measuring success and attainment either. They do not include predefined learning objectives,  learning outcomes, or assessment. Their language is reciprocal, and engagement is intrinsic, self-reflective, collective and systemic, with playfulness and humour employed as key strategies to resist the need for quick fixes. Instead, they welcome and invite people to learn how to navigate complex, fuzzy and messy boundaries, as well as uncertainty and incoherence. 



What is our approach to improving these tools on an ongoing basis?


We are currently, and will continue to, modify the Doughnut Economics Foundational tools where necessary, based on the following design principles:

  1. Being critical about the expression of a system that has given rise to the current mindset: an education that shapes people into believing that the current society and globalisation is what we should all aspire to.
  2. Be an invitation to experience with head, heart, hands, and feet through a diversity of learning media (written, visual/drawings, music/songs, stories/narrative, embodied experiences/dance, analysis).
  3. Be an invitation to the creation of fertile spaces from the beginning and iteratively through the learning journey; not an afterthought.
  4. Be accessible to a diversity of socio-cultural-economic contexts.

 

We at DEAL have been working for the past two years on developing the first set of a comprehensive series of resources for educators - teachers and learners, young and old - to help bring the foundational ideas, practices, and principles of Doughnut Economics into learning spaces across all school years.

We have designed the first set of resources,  Preparing to teach and Hello Doughnut! (four ‘ready to go’ tools focusing on introducing the Doughnut concept). More sets are coming!

After an enriching iterative learning journey of sensing, listening, and practising with and from a broad range of friends in the Schools and Education space - teachers and learners of a diverse number of countries including Colombia, China, Denmark, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Uganda, and United Kingdom - we are now ready to launch them around the world.

We trust that there is still much more that we can learn from how they will be used, adapted, and be useful or not in different contexts and spaces around the world. If you spot any issues or have suggestions for improving them, please reach out to us via Sharing back.  Thank you in advance! 

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Preparing to Teach aims to set a conducive mindset that will enable you, in the role of facilitator, to make most of the Doughnut Economics foundational learning materials.


Cards in this tool

This tool aims to set a conducive mindset that will enable you, in the role of facilitator, to make most of the Doughnut Economics foundational learning materials. As in all learning tools, we have incorporated possible components of a lesson to 'prepare to teach' into a number of cards. Here you can see the five cards we offer to compose your lesson with.


Suggested lessons...

Here a suggestion to run one or two lessons depending on your time availability. Feel free to compose your own. We are curious about what works best for you!


Getting started

  1. Use the 'Download all cards' button below to collect all the cards as PowerPoint files, on your local hard drive.
  2. Review the cards. Take your time to decide which ones are best to use in your situation. You already saw a suggestion above, but maybe you have other ideas. Feel free.
  3. One of the cards is called 'Mindset shift'. This aims to set a conducive mindset that will enable you, in the role of facilitator, to make most of the learning materials. It also contains tips on practical preparation.
  4. Once you've selected the cards that you will use, don't forget to read the 'Practical Preparations' slide to finalise your lesson plan! It includes key information to hold a successful learning session, including what materials you may need to prepare and/or printout beforehand.
  5. Have fun! We are very curious about your experiences and critical reflections!
Preparing to Teach

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