| Part 1: General Learning Toolkits and Resources | ||
| Name | Description | References |
| Tools for Knowledge and Learning: A Guide for Development and Humanitarian Organisations | Not specifically focussed on climate adaptation but a very comprehensive and well explained collation of tools for knowledge and learning which will be extremely useful for anyone planning adaptation processes | http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/details.asp?id=153 &title=toolsknowledge-learning-guide development-humanitarianorganisations |
| Learning for Sustainability | This site provides an annotated guide to a range of on-line resources providing papers, handbooks, tips, theory and techniques in a number of related, skill fields. It also shows how the application of these different skills are interlinked in practice to contribute towards social learning and constructive practice change. The author of the site says: ‘This site aims to provide a practical resource for proponents of multi-stakeholder learning processes. It recognises that social learning is an on going process, rather than an outcome to be achieved. Moreover, the process occurs as a result of many well-managed relationships and the provision of a range of interactive opportunities between different stakeholder groups. Social learning and empowerment are based on each other. In this sense empowerment is the process of enhancing the capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes’. | http://learningforsustainability.net/about.php |
| The Barefoot Guide to Learning Practices in Organisations and Social Change | The Barefoot Guide to Learning Practices in Organisations and Social Change is a free, downloadable and practical resource for leaders, facilitators and practitioners involved in social change who want to improve and enrich their learning processes. This guide is the joint effort of a group of development practitioners from across the globe to help them (and inspire others) to start, and continue, the journey towards learning and social change. It includes topics on community mobilising and development, adult learning, funding, evaluation, facilitation, and creative writing. There is an emphasis on using accessible language and avoiding ‘development speak’. There is also a Companion Booklet with practical ideas and tips for designing and facilitating good learning processes. Any new resources will be posted in the Resource Centre. | http://www.barefootguide.org/ |
| Barriers to learning in organisations | This briefing paper focuses on some of the defences and barriers to organisational learning that face many NGOs although it is applicable to any type of organisation. It offers suggestions and examples of how these can be worked with. The intention of the paper is to open up discussion of this key area of organisational life, out of which new meanings and actions may emerge. As the author states Liz Goold states ‘The approach to learning conveyed here challenges the dominant world view that outcomes need to be predicted and that we are judged solely by our ability to achieve these predetermined outcomes. This is not a conducive environment for learning. Whereas, if we inhabit a world view, where things are not in our control, where we do the best we can, at that moment, but even when we bring all our collective intelligence to bear, things may still not turn out the way we thought, where we operate from a position of humility and compassion for human frailty (including our own) then it offers a very different environment for learning. We need to recognise and work with the barriers to organisational learning, in order to release the vital benefits that it brings’. | http://www.bond.org.uk/resources.php/467/working-with-barriers-toorganisational-learning |
| Learning together to manage together - improving participation in water management | A handbook about ideas, approaches and methods for supporting public participation and social learning for water managers responsible for implementing the European Water Framework Directive but with a wider application to people engaged in all forms of natural resource management. Covers topics such as: building trust, developing common views, arriving at joint solutions and encouraging active participation. | http://www.harmonicop.uniosnabrueck.de/HarmoniCOPHandbook.pdf |
| Facilitating learning and change in groups and group sessions | An introduction to the theory and practice of the facilitators role in supporting processes of change in groups | http://www.infed.org/biblio/bfacil.htm |
| Part 2: Examples of tools and approaches that support learning | Name | Description | References |
| Action learning | This is a form of learning through experience originated by Reg Revans to improve production in the UK coal industry. Participants focus on problems of direct relevance to their daily lives and work, meeting at regular intervals in learning groups (sets) to review progress. The process is based on reflection, questioning and identifying future action and participants take action between meetings to resolve their problems. It can be used at various levels, (organisational, team) for organisational learning, professional development, evaluation or to spark innovation. A set is generally made up of about 6 people who agree to meet over a period of time (from a few weeks to months and may renegotiate periodically to meet for longer - some have been meeting for years). | For more information go to: http://www.bond.org.uk/data/files/als.pdf The project aims to support a shared learning process with agricultural research and advisory service stakeholders across Africa on responding to climate change and the implications for policies, practices and actions. http://www.erails.net/FARA/climate-learning/climatelearning/ |
| Action research | This is a form of research that actively intervenes in real life situations rather than taking a detached, objective stance. Kurt Lewin proposed the 'plan, act, review' model to describe this approach. Action research is an orientation toward research and practice in which engagement, curiosity and questioning are brought to bear on significant issues with the overt purpose of making positive interventions. Five challenges of PAR include building relationships, acknowledging and sharing power, encouraging participation, making change and establishing credible accounts. It has also to involve tangible action or interventions in a system | http://www.bath.ac.uk/management/news_events/pdf/lowcarbon_insider_voices.pdf |
| Appreciative inquiry | A method of change management that emphasises inquiry into strengths rather than focussing on weaknesses and problem solving. Basic approach is to find out what is going well, what conditions support that success, visioning what might be, creating participatory dialogues about how visions might be achieved. It can be used at many levels to understand whole systems, organisations, networks and teams | For more information go to: http://www.iisd.org/ai/ This project originally sought to build the capacity of a network of 12 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in southern India to use Appreciative Inquiry to move beyond traditional problemcentered methods to identify and build on past achievements and existing strengths within a community, establish consensus around a shared vision of the future, and construct strategies and partnerships to achieve that vision. http://www.iisd.org/ai/myrada.htm |
| Complementarities matrix | A framework for diagnosing capacity gaps and reflecting on successes and the conditions that supported it. Complementarities theory suggests that at certain times a number of factors (both internal and external to a project or organisation) come together to create a ‘window of opportunity’ when individuals and groups are more likely to be able to act effectively for change. The complementarities matrix allows you to identify what is happening in four aspects of organisations that are key for supporting change. This helps to pin point gaps in capacity, structures and processes that need to be addressed in order to respond well to a changing climate. | examples given in Insider Voices e.g. Thurulie factory in Sri Lanka http://www.bath.ac.uk/management/news_events/pdf/lowcarbon_insider_voices.pdf |
| Facilitating cognitive dissonance | The term cognitive dissonance describes the discomfort that results when there is a discrepancy between beliefs and behaviours. Recognising facilitators can draw attention to the paradox and this may result in something changing in order to eliminate or reduce the dissonance. It can be used as a way to challenge assumptions that seem limited or short term thinking and may provide the energy for a transformation from 'business as usual' to a new paradigm. | http://www.all-things-conflictresolution-and-adr.com/Cognitive-Dissonance-and-Conflict.html |
| Learning histories | A case study told in a narrative form that focuses on what was learned by those involved and telling a joint tale. Provides way to reflect more deeply on what went well, what assumptions were tested and used as a basis for further discussions for those involved and others considering similar work. Can be used towards the end of a stage or piece of work to draw out key learning and reflect more deeply on what has transpired in the work: the success (and what supported that) the problems (and how they might be averted next time). It acts as a way of bringing together different perspectives into a single narrative and so acts as a way to show everyone involved the bigger picture, beyond the remit of any one actor allowing a sense of joint meaning making to take place. | The
approach was developed as an organisational learning tool so many of
the examples come from the corporate world. The approach has been
adopted by the Asian Development Bank see: http://beta.adb.org/sites/default/files/learning-histories.pdf who recognise its value as a way of helping an organisation or project learn and value what it has achieved and communicate it more widely. http://www.solonline.org/res/wp/18001.html http://www.learninghistories.net/ |
| Learning journals | Can be used as a tool for individual reflection on action. Reflective diaries/learning journals/portfolios are records kept on a regular, often daily, basis by people undergoing a learning process and are commonly used in action research and other reflective approaches. In learning two kinds of reflection are important - reflection as a group and reflection as an individual. By keeping a learning journal one can regularly capture moments of dissonance, confusion, what was new, surprising, confusing or scary and thus start to notice patterns of behaviour useful in challenging assumptions and biases. You can only reflect on what you notice so feedback from others can help in widening this. | http://www.infed.org/research/keeping_a_journal.htm |
| Narratives and storytelling | The potential for change is evoked by stories and narratives, particularly stories of what has worked. Thus one of our messages is to create your own stories and narratives of change because these stories really do matter. We are seeking to amplify small stories, to show examples of what is going on, around which different kinds of stories could be built. We learn to notice the patterns that enable innovation to happen more easily through the stories we tell and the stories we hear. Through critical use of story we learn to pay attention to and value these particularities of each situation. | http://www.bath.ac.uk/management/news_events/pdf/lowcarbon_insider_voices.pdf |
| Sensemaking workshops | The term 'sensemaking', was made popular by, Karl Weick, and is a process that helps people to draw out and reflect on patterns of behaviour and thinking and develop a shared understanding of aspects of an issue in order to find an effective way to address it. | SENSE-MAKING AS PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH IN CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION AND PEACE BUILDING http://communication.sbs.ohiostate.edu/sensemaking/meet/2003/meet03rajendram.html How to facilitate a sense making workshop http://www.rkrk.net.au/index.php/How_to_facilitate_a_sensemaking_workshop |
| Social learning | A simple definition of social learning is learning through interaction with others. There is no one theory of social learning and it building on thinking from a number of fields. Some use the term to refer to the collective learning process that can take place through interactions between stakeholders engaged on a joint project or issue with good facilitation and supportive institutions and policy environment. If done well it can help forge strong relationships and understanding between people necessary for sustainable resource use. Knowledge and changes in behaviour is co-created and understood through experiential learning and leads to further joint action. Social learning is an approach to undertaking a piece of work that may encompass many different tools and methods that can be used at various scales to explore different issues as part of the whole | Social Learning for the Integrated Managing and
sustainable use of water at catchment scale (SLIM). The overall
focus of the SLIM Project was to understand the application of social
learning as a conceptual framework, an operational principle, a policy
instrument or governance mechanism, and a process of systemic change in
the fields of natural resource management and water catchments in
particular. A premise of SLIM research is that it is useful to view
sustainability as an emergent property of stakeholder interaction and
not as a technical property of the ecosystem; from this perspective,
stakeholder interaction is not causal, i.e., it is necessary but may
not be sufficient for sustainability outcomes to appear. Social
Learning for the Integrated Managing and Sustainable use of water http://sites.google.com/site/slimsociallearningforiwm/home Building Capacity in two vulnerable semiarid Mountain Regions in Bolivia http://weadapt.org/knowledgebase/vulnerability/bolivia-ncapproject |
| Learning Maps | Learning maps enable individuals, organisations, projects and networks to create a visual representation of the flow of knowledge and learning in their work or project. The resulting map can be used to explore the potential for creating or strengthening connections and ways to ensure that the organisation (individual or project) is making the most of learning from experience. | www.hivos.nl/eng/.../Learning%20for%20Change%20(Britton).pdf |
| Learning directory | A learning directory is a collection of information about people in an organisation, project or network relating to their interests, areas of expertise, experience etc. with how they may best be contacted. The purpose is to encourage communication and knowledge sharing between individuals and groups of people working in collaboration as building up more informal connection between people can save time, increase understanding and enjoyment of the work and prevent similar work being replicated by others. | www.chriscollison.com/l2f/beta/documents/KMyellowpages.doc |
Relevant across Pathfinder sections.
| Pathfinder Entry point selector |
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| Decision tree: Monitoring and evaluation |
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