Case study approach to region-wide curriculum and teaching materials development in agroforestry education in Southeast Asia

Since 2005, the South east Asian Network for Agroforestry Education (SEANAFE) has developed region -wide curriculum frameworks and teaching materials on two important subject matters identified by its member universities, namely: „marketing of agroforestry tree products (MAFTP) and „agroforestry landscape analysis (AFLA). This paper shares the processes adopted and lessons learned by SEANAFE from both projects, which used a case study approach to bring practical experience into use for teaching and learning. Both projects were aimed to enhance the content of agroforestry education programs and courses , including the teaching capacity of lecturers and the quality of graduates, among SEANAFEs 8 7 member institutions in Indonesia, Laos PDR, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. For each of the two projects, m ulti -disciplinary teams of lecturers carried out the following activities within 18 months: (a) regional training to enhance the current state of knowledge on the two topics; (b) national case studies; (c) a workshop to formul ate a curriculum framework and teaching material based on the results of the case studies; (d) translation of project outputs into local languages; (e) in -country training for 100 lecturers on using the curriculum framework and case studies material; and ( e) supporting the mainstreaming of the project outputs into curricula . About 20 percent of SEANAFE member institutions have conducted curriculum reviews of existing agroforestry courses and/or programs to mainstream the outputs of the projects using the M AFTP and AFLA Teachers Guides. SEANAFEs project experiences have proven that building capacity to develop region -wide curriculum frameworks and teaching materials using the case study approach is feasible. The approach has also helped promote participat ory curriculum development, maximize experiential and peer -based learning among teachers in the region, and enhance collaboration among SEANAFE member institutions .

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