BERNI Magazine
Garden Based Learning
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/earth-planet-world-globe-sun-1990298/
BERNADETT ASKEY
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ducation is a way of life. Connecting education and design is Bernadett’s mission. Her role as a designer and educator is to inspire. She teaches based on learning outcomes and the individual learner’s abilities. Education should also be a community-driven project. As such, she is also a member the board of a the Mount Pleasant Family Centre in East Vancouver. There, she handles its mission mandate, fund raising and personnel. It all started in Budapest, Hungary where she habitually rearranged her furniture as a child. As a young adult she found employment in the printing and reprographics industry. Upon moving to Vancouver, BC., she began taking Interior Design. She completed her diploma at NKBA- and FIDER-accredited Lakeland College in Alberta. There she earned several student design awards. Her career in education began with tutoring fellow students at Lakeland. Back in Vancouver, she worked as the Education assistant for the Canadian Craft and Design Museum. Bernadett worked for several years as an independent designer and for local design firms. She started teaching at LaSalle College Vancouver and Vancouver Community College in 2002. She joined the Interior Design Department of the Art Institute of Vancouver in 2005. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Interior Design through the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 2009. In 2015, Bernadett earned her Master’s Degree in Adult Education from Argosy University. Now she lives and works in Vancouver with her husband and two young children. Her teaching philosophy is based on inspiring and supporting her students, faculty and colleagues. She provides a respectful environment for students to feel comfortable constructing knowledge. Her curriculum design is based on industry standards. She designs classroom projects to carry students from a novice level to expertise. Student’s learning styles, cultural backgrounds and personal skills guide curriculum design.
CASE 9 (Feb 19 – Mar. 1st 2019) Feb. 18 Family Day
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our school has recently completed a project to build a school garden and you are considering how you could utilize it as a learning environment for interdisciplinary studies. Clearly, gardens can be wonder-filled, place-based learning environments for scientific and mathematical inquiry. You can imagine exploring topics such as soil, water, plants, pollination and food production to name a few. What other science topics, concepts or themes might you focus on with students? How might you address environmental benefits and impacts, as well as social justice and cultural connections, related to gardens and food? What about literacy learning, poetry and oral language? Thinking back to yesterday, you remember that several of your students didn’t have their homework done even though this homework contributed to small group projects. This seems to be turning into a habit, and you realize that these same students are also being unproductive during class time. You ask yourself if garden-based learning projects might help with classroom community building but wonder about how to assess students’ pro-social behaviour and what assessment tools to use to evaluate learning in garden-based learning. The garden reminds you that your students have enjoyed learning how to speak about their food preferences in Core French. You would like to extend their language skills while also building cultural understanding, and you wonder if food might be the connection. How might you integrate the school garden with the concepts of identity and culture in francophone communities? Your school has recently completed a project to build a school garden and you are considering how you could utilize it as a learning environment for interdisciplinary studies. Clearly, gardens can be wonder-filled, placebased learning environments for scientific and mathematical inquiry. You can imagine exploring topics such as soil, water, plants, pollination and food production
to name a few. What other science topics, concepts or themes might you focus on with students? How might you address environmental benefits and impacts, as well as social justice and cultural connections, related to gardens and food? What about literacy learning, poetry and oral language? Thinking back to yesterday, you remember that several of your students didn’t have their homework done even though this homework contributed to small group projects. This seems to be turning into a habit, and you realize that these same students are also being unproductive during class time. You ask yourself if garden-based learning projects might help with classroom community building but wonder about how to assess students’ pro-social behaviour and what assessment tools to use to evaluate learning in garden-based learning .The garden reminds you that your students have enjoyed learning how to speak about their food preferences in Core French. You would like to extend their language skills while also building cultural understanding, and you wonder if food might be the connection. How might you integrate the school garden with the concepts of identity and culture in francophone communities? Driving home after school, you remember a workshop you completed on cultivating creativity in the garden including printmaking, weaving with plants, plant drawing and pressed leaves. You start to think about the garden as a co-teacher in teaching social studies –history, geography, Indigenous ways of knowing, social justice, etc. You grow excited about the possibilities and benefits that school gardens can have on students’ learning.
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GARDEN-BASED EDUCATION AND ITS CONTEXT
There are differences between epistemological, ontological, axiological and pedagogical differences between Indigenous and non Indigenous students making sense of their learning. Self Education can be aided by self determination in indigenous communities.
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arden and Art pedagogy emphasizes the importance of building connections to communities. This in turn increases responsiveness to and understanding of the places students live and builds students up to become more engaged citizens for the future. Gardens are the perfect blend of Disciplinary and Social knowledge. Art and Horticulture develop reasoning skills, methodology, through understanding the scientific system of meaning so students understanding their world in new ways. Social Knowledge and cultural practices include soil preparation, harvesting methods, and other planting methods. This social knowledge deriving from art and gardening as well as from placebased knowledge is also tightly connected with local cultures and the knowledge of the land. Students are active participants in their knowledge development, and as such it applies the principle of “Learning is embedded in memory, history, and story” (FPPL). Indigenous Knowledge(I.K.) depends also on region, particular type of vegetation, landscapes and climate and purposeful storytelling. Furthermore, land based art, in a social and local context drives students connection to holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational”(FPPL) understanding of their world. Furthermore, teachers responsibility includes to guide student’s cultural and ethical responsibilities in recognizing the consequences of one’s actions” (FPPL). Therefore in Case 9, the teacher and the students can successfully benefit from garden-based learning to inspire student in thinking how people’s actions (within the garden/in their personal lives) would have impacts on the world-scale. Through garden based learning through art techniques as well as the use of art as social and political commentary allows students to be able to focus on “connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place”(FPPL). “Holistic and Circular understandings do not draw separations between body and mind, between humans and other earthly inhabitants, and among generations”(McKinley at al.(2009.,p.13). “In the study of ethnology what you have of people of developed cultures, putting their subjective categories on indigenous peoples. I wanted to do just the opposite, to take the Indigenous peoples and put their subjective categories on our progressive
culture” (Reggio, G.2013). In Case 9, the The teacher’s ways of knowing helps her be a guide. The teacher used her own way of knowing to extend and complicate other ways of knowing and being, thereby locating a “new center”. Contextualizing in teaching practice is tying the topic into the child’s life. Think about engaging with the world every day. Move experiments outside of the classroom, think of larger concerns. Garden based learning benefits students by providing optional learning styles in the teaching process by offering more handson, inquiry based, problem-based and child-centred learning. In Case 9, the teacher will be able to approach any subject material through garden and nature focused education, primarily by teaching through the Core Competencies. Students learn to Connect and engage with others, and collaborate to plan, carry out, and review constructions and activities by planting, planning and discussing garden-related topics. Students can engage with inquiry based projects and acquire, interpret, and present information in teams. While engaging in the Applied Design Skills, and Technologies, students can reflect on experiences and accomplishments. Through the use of Creative thinking Profiles, students can unpack historical significance and understand new or old knowledge. By using their Critical Thinking skills they can analyze and critique and communicate thought provoking discussions through projects in science, social studies, HOPE, literacy, art, math, and health education. Basing education on Positive Personal & Cultural Identity, garden based pedagogy can build students relationships and cultural contexts. Teachers will be able to entice students to engage with the outdoors, and foster the care, curiosity and love for nature. Through these discoveries, students build positive nature-relationships, and understand their personal and social responsibilities. The teacher’s aim should be to facilitate the development of children to contribute to community and care for the environment. Student’s skills should manifest in their ability to solving problems in peaceful ways.
https://vashonnaturecenter.org/salish-sea-islandsummit/
GARDEN BASED LEARNING ACROSS BC’S NEW CURRICULUM Turner, N. J., & Royal British Columbia Museum. (1995). Food plants of coastal first peoples. Vancouver: UBC Press. Turner, N. J., & Royal British Columbia Museum. (1998). Plant technology of first peoples in British Columbia ([2nd]. ed.). Vancouver: UBC Press.
http://www.pedagogiadascores.com.br/arvore.html Curriculum in the garden lends itself to differentiated learning, and allows for multi-modality. English Language Learners are also able to participate and learn through hands-on activities. Garden pedagogy considers the different cultures and communities, and accommodates student’s prior knowledge. When gardening is a big part of student’s first language culture, they can become expert members when it comes to teaching others about planting. This in tern, gives those students who may not be able to connect with the new culture they are in something they are able to relate to.
Grade 1: Physical Education Big Idea: Knowing about our bodies and making healthy choices and helps us look after ourselves. Students can understand the difference between fresh and processed food and learn how to grow their own food. Grade 1 Science Big Idea: Living things have features and behaviours that help them survive in their environment. Project: Students learn about life cycles by observing worms. The students learn the benefits to the garden and farms of worms. Outcome: Students understand the contribution made by insects in the garden, learn about the life-cycle, and needs of living things. Gardening book resources that consider alternative ways of being in the world and understanding of the different ways of using plants and gardens by people:
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Music Big Idea: People create art (music) to express who they are as individuals and in a community, to express meaning in unique ways, and to connect to others and share ideas. Content Beat/ pulse, rhythm, tempo, pitch, dynamics, form. Application: Making Wind Chimes, Musical instruments using natural materials. Food Practices : Traditional food practices (agrarian revolution): • Hunting, fishing, preparing soils for planting, harvesting, storing crops, gathering berries, preparing and presenting meals intertwined with sustainability and community. People were connected to their land. ADST (Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies) Application: Exploratory and purposeful play.. Activity: Mud Kitchen, Food Garden Planning and Design (http://www. spec.bc.ca/Resources/Documents/Food/ WEB_July18_lesson_book.pdf) and Plantix Software. Planting native plants. Book resources: Native stories from Keepers of life.by Caduto, Michael J.
• Teach land-partnerships (example: create a canoe garden that symbolize the Indigenous identity of the land). Pay particular attention to including curricular relationships beyond the “multicultural” framework of cultural diversity, and include the history of the land (Indigenous groups, traditions, story-telling, and history of the land where the school is located. In Case 9, the teacher can illustrate the way Indigenous people have been resource managers, stewards as well as engineers of marine ecosystems” (The Clam garden network,2019).
http://www.williammoseleyfan.net/modern-homedecoration/
Social Studies: Historical Significance through garden-based education: • Research agricultural history and create a time-line of important events. • “Choose one plant or flower in your area and learn how indigenous people use(d) it.” (From the 150 Acts of Reconciliation) • Study the contribution of indigenous foods and other cultures’ foods to our history and diet. • Grow samples in the school garden. • Research the histories of school garden plants. Discover where they originated, their impact on our diets, and how they changed over time.
Keep in mind the history of school gardens and the way Indigenous peoples hoped the schools would teach their children trade skills such as carpentry, blacksmithing or printing that would have been necessary to adapt to the societal changes. Eco Justice : Aim to advance a curriculum that address the dominant discourses of anthropocentrism, ethnocentrism, consumerism, scientism. This in turn will serve students in their decision making abilities about future generations and the consequences of one’s actions. In case 9, the teacher can discuss technology’s threats to human health and the environment. National laws and trade agreements can also be understood through the lens of Eco-justice. Enquiring into the concept of our ecological footprint will bring student’s awareness about their impact on th planet into their conscience. The explicit instruction of recognizing and re-valuing diverse cultural practices, traditions and knowledge that offer a sustainable way of living will help students realize the interconnectedness between people, place, living things and the ecosystem. Cross Curricular Inquiry Projects: Science (plant cycle and water cycle) and math (measurements of growth of plants in the garden, measurements of area in the garden). Art: students can draw their observations of plants, local animals, and themselves with their class in the garden. Language Arts: students can write in “Garden Journals” that detail what they felt and what their experiences were like in the garden, create poetry about specific elements of the garden, do a choral reading about garden-related books. HOPE: physical activity - digging soil, planting seeds, watering, collaborating with others in a healthy and respectful manner; nutritionlearning about healthy vegetables that can be grown in the garden.
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Native-Land.ca
Adolescent Identity and our Environment Understanding the parallel between social identity and the place where students live is important. Student’s self identity is determined by the choices and commitments made regarding certain personal and social traits. Socially-defined labels guide student’s social identity, therefore they need to have guidance and support to proceed safely through their stages of identity development. Adolescence is a critical time for identity development. The social climate, parents, caregivers, and other environmental factors act upon the student’s successful development of personal as well as social identity. When adolescents are able to evaluate themselves in these areas: behaviour, status, appearance, popularity, happiness, and satisfaction, their self identity and pro-social behaviours development interact with one another. This in tern means that the ability of an adolescent to promote positive social interactions will be successful when they have established a positive self identity. Teachers goal is to facilitate all of their adolescent student’s self and social identity development.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abronia_fragrans
IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT:
When adolescents are provided with support from an adult, they develop a strong sense of identity and are able to remain true to their beliefs and values in the face of problems and other people’s perspectives. At the same time, adolescents need to be allowed to try many different selves, explore various roles and ideas, set goals, and attempt to discover their “adult” selves.
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Autonomy and respect re key building blocks of establishing independence and the ability to navigate risks and rewards in society. The physical environment that surrounds adolescence can help them develop relationships with their place, while their social network helps them develop relationships in the neighbourhood outside of their homes. Garden-based learning accommodates the abilities of these students to develop natural mapping skills.
Applying Indigenous ways of knowing to map and land will be able to provide a background framework for their skill. Mapping and understanding one’s community is understood in many different ways. In Case 9, when the teacher provides adolescence a chance to see the organizational systems of society in its physical and social framework, students will have a better concept of their ultimate goals Investing students in their own goal setting will help the teacher create a cooperative and progressive classroom community. Goal and rule setting allows the adolescence to see where the rules come from. Furthermore, they have the opportunity to form an understanding of logical consequences. The process of student input into goal and rule establishment involves: • Setting goals as a class • Connecting the goals to rules • Connecting the rules to expected behaviours Creating a Responsive Classroom emphasizes the importance of the integration and building of academic and social-emotional skills. This realization in turn will help students create a
safe environment on which to build a classroom community. This approach is not exclusive, and can be used alongside most other programs at the beginning of the year, or gradually throughout. Suggested Resource: https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/
PERSONAL AWARENESS AND RESPONSIBILITY With help, students are working towards to a manage their thoughts, behaviours, and emotions in order to successfully navigate their learning experiences. Teachers also need to assist students to self regulate. Students should be able to be calm yet alert and focused during the day. The environment should accommodate this state for students. Because many students enjoy the benefits of outdoors, they may better achieve self regulation when allowed to interact with the outdoor environment on a regular daily bases all year around. Garden education fosters the possibility for these students. The Zones of regulation allows students to practice self awareness and can foster independent self-regulation. When students identify their feelings, they can apply strategies to manage their feelings and behaviour. Blue zone: Tired, sad, not ready to learn; Yellow zone: silly, frustrated, not ready to learn; Green zone: calm, happy, ready to learn; Red zone: angry, out of control, not ready to learn. The environment as the third teacher can aid student’s self regulation. Besides reducing classroom clutter and noise, planning seating arrangements in class and establishing routines, teachers should use the outdoor environment to help students not only with self regulation, but also with connection to the garden. According to the Attention Restoration Theory: exposure to natural environments encourages involuntary attention, this creates short breaks that allow directed attention for the learning environment to reset. According to the Stress Recovery Theory: individuals have adapted to innately respond positively to natural environments opposed to built environments.. Activities outdoors can aid student’s self regulation. Activities that bring the outdoors in, such as making leaf prints, creating art using natural materials, documenting plant growth, or cooking and eating vegetables (especially if they were grown by the students).
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developing student’s language strategies around providing feedback. Reflecting their abilities and identifying their stretches will move their self-actualization forward. Investigation report- digital voice presentation of how science helps us look after nature (Investigation report, garden portfolio (narrated drawing portfolio). Student participate in assessment criteria to compile a portfolio that uses photos, drawings, recordings written work to document learning across curriculum. (https://www. australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/curriculum-connections/portfolios/outdoor-learning/).
ART AND THE GARDEN Erik Erikson stages of psychosocial development
THE VIEW OF CHILDREN
Children are confident, responsible, independent, creative and curious beings (Loris Malaguzzi) can become the foundational support for engaging them with garden-based learning. According to the Reggio Emilia approach, the classroom as a third teacher can guide children to new knowledge. Therefore, the garden as a co-teacher can support integrated learning in and across all disciplines by fostering engaging, active real-world place for education. For children, their own knowledge-creation can strengthen their identity and values by being involved and trusted with the knowledge of the land and their community. Applying he Reggio Emilia process, students are allowed to discover, discover and re-discover learning opportunities, by which they become partners in the process of learning. Documentation, discussion, recording and interpreting old and new knowledge allows children to see learning not as a linear process but as a spiral progression.
ASSESSMENT AND IDENTITY:
When students can be involved with the design of their assessment criteria, they are more willing to cooperate, and achieve those goals. It is important that adolescence learn to apply the rules of their outside world into their assessment. Peer-to peer assessment can also help with
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• Engagement in the arts creates opportunities for inquiry through purposeful play. • Inquiry through the arts creates opportunities for risk taking. • People connect to the hearts and minds of others in a variety of places and times through the arts. • The mind and body work together when creating works of art. • The arts connect our experiences to the experiences of others. • Exploring works of art exposes us to diverse values, knowledge, and perspectives. • Artists experiment in a variety of ways to discover new possibilities. • Works of art influence and are influenced by the world around us. • Engaging in creative expression and experiences expands people’s sense of identity and belonging. • Artistic expressions differ across time and place. • Experiencing art is a means to develop empathy for others’ perspectives and experiences. • Engaging in the arts develops people’s ability to understand and express complex ideas.
As a relatively new immigrant I learnt about Vancouver through the ear and suddenly realized that I had been hearing these sounds, but not noticing them or understanding how they connected me to place. It intensified my listening towards the environment immensely… Hildegard Westerkamp, In the Field p. 112 https://collabcubed.com/2014/05/05/patrickdougherty-stickwork/
ENGAGING WITH ART:
Learning in Art: Provides a rich base from which to explore ideas, sensory qualities, penetrating questions, and personal feelings Learning through Art : Stresses a holistic education by infusing the arts throughout intended learning experiences Learning from Art: What can art teach us about learning that will inspire a love affair with learning itself. Garden art can allow students to dare, make mistakes, and take risks. Because garden art is not permanent, the act of creating something and leaving it to the elements connects the artist child with nature and eliminates the pressure of permanence.
PERMANENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL ART
Environmental art is primarily created to address issues such as environmental issues and climate change issues. Through land-art , sustainable and conceptual art, students can connect to place. Eco Art is a type of environmental art that uses resources from the Earth and creates pieces that are not destructive to the environment and are sometimes even beneficial to the ecosystem. In Case 9, the teacher would be able to connect the students with political, social and global issues through the use of Eco-
art. Aspects of the immediate environment can be taken into consideration and the pieces often also challenge politics, economics, ethics and culture as they explore the complex interrelationships that exist in our ecosystems. Gardens and nature are a part of our lives, as people are part of the ecosystem.
PRACTICAL EXPLORATIONS THROUGH ART:
Observational drawing can be conducted outside and it can be a sense-based experience, while it invites students to extract the essence from the environment. Observation also develops multiple skills such as patience, attention to detail and practice. Art should be practiced like any other subject. Other subjects such as ADST (Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies) can utilize such training when applying and practicing design thinking and procedures.
ART AND SENSES
Ecology can become focused on what is visible and interconnectedness represented through the visual, but developing observational skill and an ethical relationship of care can also mean developing relationship through other senses. Children can engage with feeling what is in the garden and letting it just being what it is. Being an artist can help children develop curiosity around
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Charles Jencks-landformColor-Children-Friendship-2847508
touch and texture. Similarly to media, natural materials can engage students with surface, scent -qualities, sight, sound and light that exist in the world. The garden is a space where students can engage with somatic inquiry and knowledge. By using natural materials can also help students focus on and engage in the process of art making instead of focusing on the final product. For example, snow, sand, ice, dirt and clay all bring an experience that involve consideration of temperature and moisture levels. Consider the ways in which this engages with different modes of intelligence. Richard Long- Mud circle
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INQUIRY THROUGH ART:
Why enquire through art? Children enjoy the possible spontaneity, creativity and engaging nature of art. This engagement translates naturally to inquiry based learning. Garden art furthermore engages students with natural materials, and inquiry. It is an easy transfer of this inquiry mindset to problem solving, creative thinking and critical thinking processes. Real-world, nature and place-based educational opportunities can increase involvement with physical, political and cultural aspects of communities. Students can increase their ability to relate to complex national or global issues and desire to shape places in the future. Public art, which can also be created by students in their community is a great way to allow them to communicate a message, display their learning and connect with the community through outdoor displays. For example, the Stream of Dreams project, that draws attention to the damage done to the ecosystem and fish of Byrne Creek when toxic material was dumped down storm drains in Burnaby.
CONCLUSION:
The garden is a holistic and generative environment. There is opportunity to engage with it as a co-teacher, a place to cultivate imagination, develop resilience and courage, and to build connections and relationship to community. Artistic engagement enhances the body, mind, and spirit and when we engage with this in the garden we ask students to become experiential learners and find divergent responses to issues.
VISUALIZATION AND IMAGERY
Because visualization and imagery (visual–spatial abilities (Gv)) are two main components of giftedness, artistic skills along with three dimensional thinking abilities prepare students for future abilities to communicate findings in visual format. The application of abstract spatial representation is explained as necessary for the creation of theories or models. Therefore teaching and developing student’s fluid intelligence (Gf) as well as Gv will aid a well balanced learner (Andersen, 2014).
Koyaanisqatsi- 1982 by G.Reggio
ARTISTS WITH ECOLOGICALLY CONCERNED PRACTICES
The advantage of art is that artists can communicate and draw attention to larger issues of land and place. Godfrey Reggio created an eye-opening film called Koyaanisqatsi as a commentary of the way humans changed their natural environment, while they normalize the way they look at the new environment. Peter von Tiesenhausen draws attention to a pipeline that was planned by a corporation through his land. The way he got around this was to copyright his land as an artwork. He also asks other questions concerning the environment and human impact through his work. Sans façon facilitated WATERSHED+ to build an emotional connection between the citizens of Calgary and their environment. The artists collaborated on many public programs and commissioned many artworks over the course of 5 years, centring inquiry around the water systems and treatment in the city. https://www.sansfacon.org/watershed
A. Goldsworthy- Land Art
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Discovers-Fall2017-Indigenous-Projects-Masthead-Feather jpg.jpg
“We don’t own the land, the land owns us. The land is my mother, my mother is the land. Land is the starting point to where it all began. It’s like picking up a piece of dirt and saying this is where I started and this is where I’ll go. The land is our food, our culture, our spirit and identity.” -S. Knight
askey studio
Thank you!