Informal learning

Introduction

• The reality of living nowadays changes quicker and more frequently than in the past. Technology keeps offering new tools in order to simplify our lives. Nevertheless, teaching strategies are out of step with the times and students cannot adapt their learning to fit today’s complex work environment.
• Although the formal forms of instruction such as lessons in class and the emerging e-learning techniques will be still used for many years it is becoming always more important to pay attention to the more informal methodologies that students are using.

• The reasons why informal learning is becoming so popular have to do with immediacy and relevancy. Informal methods of learning are often found right in the work environment as they are seen as techniques that a learner can take advantage of right away and with immediate application to their job. Another reason consists in the fact that learners can drive their learning in a more meaningful and self-directed manner. (Bob Mosher, 2004)

Definition

• According to Veronica McGivney Informal learning is:

- Learning that takes place outside a dedicated learning environment and which arises from the activities and interests of individuals and groups, but which may not be recognised as learning.

- Non course-based learning activities (which might include discussion, talks or presentations, information, advice and guidance) provided or facilitated in response to expressed interests and needs by people from a range of sectors and organizations (health, housing, social services, employment services, education and training services, guidance services).

- Planned and structured learning such as short courses organized in response to identified interests and needs but delivered in flexible and informal ways and in informal community settings. ( Informal Learning)

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• "Informal learning accounts for over 75% of the learning taking place in organizations today. Often, the most valuable learning takes place serendipitously, by random chance." ( Marcia L. Conner )

• Informal learning describes a lifelong process whereby individuals acquire attitudes, values, skills and knowledge from daily experience and the educative influences and resources in his or her environment, from family and neighbors, from work and play, from the market place, the library and the mass media. ( Marcia L. Conner)

• Informal learning is very much related to workplace learning and incidental learning.

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• According to Mark K. Smith [1] , Informal education:
  • works through, and is driven by, conversation.
  • involves exploring and enlarging experience.
  • can take place in any setting.
  • purpose

What is informal learning?

According to Hawkings (2004), “it is far too simplistic to assume that learning is either formal or informal. At the very least, both learner affiliations and teaching/learning activities may each be divided into formal and informal, providing a two-by-two matrixone”:

	Activity
Affiliations		formal	informal
	formal	Lectures for groups of students	Free-choice exploration of exhibits
	informal	Adult education courses	Interactions with gallery characters

Table 2.1 Simple analysis of formal/informal learning in museums (Hawkings, 2004).

According to Conner “most learning happens through processes not structured or sponsored by an employer or a school.” Informal learning is the term she uses to describe what happens the rest of the time. Conner differentiates between formal and informal and simplifies what is learned intentionally and what is learned accidentally. “The distinctions between formal, informal, and non-formal were first developed in the 1950s by people working in the area of international development.

• Formal learning includes the hierarchically structured school system that runs from primary school through the university and organized school-like programs created in business for technical and professional training.

• Informal learning describes a lifelong process whereby individuals acquire attitudes, values, skills and knowledge from daily experience and the educative influences and resources in his or her environment, from family and neighbors, from work and play, from the market place, the library and the mass media.

• Intentional learning is the process whereby an individual aims to learn something and goes about achieving that objective.

• Accidental learning happens when in everyday activities an individual learns something that he or she had not intended or expected.

• Non-formal learning is any organized educational activity outside the established formal system whether operating separately or as an important feature of some broader activity intended to serve identifiable learning objectives.”

(Conner, 2004)

Literature on Informal Learning

There are many forms discussed in the literature. Below are related articles:

• Knowledge management
• Mentoring
• Incidental learning
• Museum learning
• On the spot learning
• What happens in a community of practice, community of interest etc.
• What happens in informal teacher development

Research

Organizations that have studied informal learning.

• The Teaching Firm: Where Productive Work and Learning Converge was a landmark 1998 study on workplace learning by Education Development Center (EDC) in Newton, Massachusetts. Based on research conducted at seven manufacturing companies, the EDC study found that informal learning takes place spontaneously and continuously, not just in times of crisis, but in the course of everyday activities and routine procedures.

• The June 10, 2004 Economics Group (LEG) featured a presentation by Jeff Kelley. He referred to some of the research that he and Ted Kahn did on informal learning when they ran CapWorks.

Links

• introducing informal education

• jarche.com

• Informal learning at distance

• Informal Learning

References

For now, please consult more specialized articles (e.g. follow links of various types of informal learning).

• Conner, M. L. "Informal Learning" Ageless Learner, 1997-2005. . Good article with pointers.

• Cross J., (2003), Learning – the other 80%

• Hawkings, Roy (2004), Learning with Digital Technologies in Museums,Science Centres and Galleries, Futurelab SERIES, Report 9. HTML

• Jeffs, T. and Smith, M. K. (1996) Informal Education. Conversation, democracy and learning, Ticknall: Education Now.

• Mark K. Smith, Introducing informal education, (Short introduction)

• Mark K. Smith, practicing informal education, (A list of scenarios)