Development lab for high-impact biodynamic training courses

Changing the World for Real: Awakening students’ will for Biodynamic Agriculture

Teachers of biodynamic agriculture have a calling to spread this method and worldview to wider circles and in particular to the next generation of biodynamic practitioners. However, reaching new people and inspiring them is not always easy. Teachers of biodynamic agriculture face many questions and challenges:

→ How to pass on the often complex spiritual ideas of biodynamic agriculture?

→ How to keep students motivated and engaged in their own learning?

→ How to create deep, meaningful learning experiences that lead to implementation in real life?

→ How to generate real-world impact through teaching biodynamic agriculture?

All these questions cannot be solved by developing more biodynamic know-how alone. Solving the riddles of how to cause real learning and generate transformation in students’ lives’ depends on the development of ever-deeper skills of adult education. Good intention alone does not suffice; we need to become skillful masters of adult education to reach the impact we yearn for.

Since teachers of biodynamic agriculture play such a key role in growing the Biodynamic movement, the Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum and the Biodynamic Federation Demeter International (BFDI) joined forces to offer training in adult education for biodynamic educators who wish to reach higher: "The high-impact course development lab".

Participants of the high-impact course development lab will learn:

→ Key concepts and criteria of adult education that will empower them to make better choices of what methods to use to best suit their students and topics;

→ How adults learn based on the seven learning processes;

→ How to design a course based on the seven learning processes;

→ How to activate and engage students’ "I" throughout the learning process;

→ How to catalyse real insights with will character for their students;

→ To motivate, inspire, and support students to make changes in their lives and work.

This will have teachers feel more competent and empowered to design learning processes and accompany students in their learning. The increased impact they generate will create a positive feedback loop, motivating teachers and having them feel on purpose with their work.

The lab is specially designed for new teachers and those who are keen to develop the meta-skills of reaching, inspiring, and impacting their students more deeply, giving them foundational training in anthroposophical adult education.

As a first endeavour to develop a foundational adult education curriculum for biodynamic teachers, the lab is designed as an action-research project, that is monitored, evaluated, and improved upon based on the evidence gathered.

The course will be held online from August 2025 to February 2026, with an optional live finale taking place in Dornach on 1st and 2nd February 2026.

COURSE DATES AND TOPICS*

*The program may be subject to change.
 

COURSE DETAILS

Cost: €450 - This includes all online sessions

A reduced fee is available - please consult our eligibility criteria

Language: English

Course Teacher: Dr. Ambra Sedlmayr

Dr. Ambra Sedlmayr trained as a Biologist and pursued a Master’s and PhD in Environmental Sciences in the field of Agricultural Sociology. In parallel to her PhD, she trained as an anthroposophical counsellor, gaining her Dipolma in ‘Intuitive counselling and Colour Therapy’ in 2010. In 2014 she took an adult education training at the Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, leading to her obtaining the Swiss Certificate of adult education (issued by SVEB – Schweizer Verband für Erwachsenenbildung). Since 2017 she works as an independent counsellor and workshop facilitator in Portugal in her project ‘Cores da Alma’. Most recently she was awarded the certificates in Transformational leadership (2020) and Transformational facilitation (2023) as a student of Claire Zammit of Evolving Wisdom Ldt. Due to her work at the Section for Agriculture from 2012 to 2016 she is deeply connected to the Biodynamic movement worldwide and has become a recognized biodynamic advisor in August 2024.

If you would like to participate in the course, please tell us more about yourself by filling in this brief survey.

For more information, email paz.bernaschina@demeter.net.

If you want to get an idea about the approach of anthroposophcal adult education you will learn on the lab, you can study the table below, that compares the traditional paradigm of adult education with the new paradigm inspired by Anthroposophy. The table portrays the extremes; in practice the mainstream approach to adult education has been developed a lot over the last decades, and especially the humanistic schools also inspire and inform anthroposophical adult education as you will learn it on the lab.