Introducing Preservice Elementary Teachers to Permaculture Education

Urban Farm DB summary

A pilot instructional intervention on permaculture was implemented within an elementary science methods course for preservice teachers (PSTs) in the United States. The intervention had four components — background readings and videos, guided discussion, a food forest design activity, and a lesson plan analysis activity — with data drawn from pre/post-tests, the lesson analysis activity, and daily reflections. After the intervention, PSTs self-reported higher knowledge of permaculture topics and ways to use permaculture in their classrooms, and effectively linked permaculture-based lesson plans to elementary learning standards. PSTs viewed permaculture-based lessons positively as active, real-life learning experiences supporting environmental consciousness, but identified cost and time as barriers to classroom implementation, and viewed the developmental appropriateness and spatial resources required as both advantages and disadvantages.