CSIT Resources
The Climate-Smart Innovation Tool is a tool for supporting transformative learning in agricultural colleges in times of climate change. The driving factor for the development of the tool was the need to establish the level of Climate-Smart Agriculture policy and approach integration into the agriculture curriculum throughout the agricultural system. The aim was to develop a tool that could enable users to gain an insight into the ‘whole’ picture of Climate-Smart responsiveness within the agriculture curriculum and to support and track innovation towards a Climate-Smart responsive curricula and policies. It is useful for surfacing contradictions, and identifying absences, and thus for charting out the start of reflexive learning and change processes needed for introducing climate responsive knowledge in the agricultural education system. The reviewer, teaching staff, curriculum developer or management can use the tool to review the responsiveness of his or her specific or overall curriculum outline and content, teaching approaches, community engagement, assessment, staff expertise, operations, policies and management of the college. The tool can be used by management to assess the agricultural training institute’s overall Climate-Smart responsiveness.
Section A and B of the tool focuses on the curriculum content and teaching approaches whereas Section C reviews the management practices of the institute. The tool facilitated a quick identification of the agricultural training institute or individual actors of the system’s Climate-Smart responsiveness. It allows the detection through the tool indicators of specific areas of strengths and areas that may require future development in relation to Climate-Smart responsive concepts, principles and policies. It therefore simplifies more complex emergent properties but helps to identify areas of innovation and success through a relatively easy review technique. Thus, the tool is a type of “rapid assessment” that allows for catalysing reflexive deliberation and further investigation and discussion of the findings that merge from the tool.
The tool was developed to track and support curriculum innovation and transformative learning within the agricultural learning systems as part of a Phd research project integrated in the Amanzi For Food programme. The thesis is available here. Unit-Based Sustainable Assessment Tool (USAT) developed by Dr. Muchaiteyi Togo was used as a framework to develop this tool. The USAT Tool is available here.
