Field Guide of Discovery-based Exercises for - Aseanipm ...

Section 1 • Introduction
share our Experiences
We must never forget that farmers may already have plenty of experiences on a particular topic.
We need to listen to and learn about farmers’ experiences. We will gain new ideas and insights
from local practices, as well as having a better idea of areas where farmers are lacking in technical
information or understanding.
what Do Farmers want and Need?
The people who are discovering in FFS are primarily FARMERS!
People remember 3 : 20% of what they HEar
40% of what they sEE
80% of what they DIsCoVEr For THEmsElVEs.
Some of the things that FFS group discovers are also new to us. Nevertheless, ‘discovery-based’
exercises aim to help participants remember more of what they are learning. Therefore, we must
choose exercises based on what FARMERS want and need to discover for themselves!
Discover, Evaluate, and Understand!
We do not want to start any exercise with the assumption that there will be a correct answer or
outcome. If we do this, then we cannot expect participants to learn from what they have observed.
Instead, they will just tell us what they think we want to hear, based on what we told them to say!
An example: If we want to run a session on ‘Record Keeping,’ we cannot start the session by
saying, ‘Record keeping is important, so what records do you think we should
keep?’ Even if this seems participatory, it is not discovery-based, because we
have started by instructing farmers that record keeping is important! Instead,
we need to guide farmers to discover that record keeping may be useful for
them.
By discovering information ourselves and then evaluating if and how it could be useful, we can start
to look more critically at what we observe or hear.
3 Hope, A. and Timmel, S. 1994. Training for Transformation 1: A Handbook for Community Workers. Mambo Press, Gweru, Zimbabwe. pp99-120.
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