including non-formal learning environments

including non-formal learning environments

by Richard Schwier -
Number of replies: 7

Thanks for this, Terry. I've scanned the comments so far, and I don't know where this fits, so I'll just drop it in here. Our current agendas seem to emphasize formal, institutional learning environments. That's understandable, but I do think there is an opportunity to learn a lot from non-formal settings -- how and why people learn outside of the boundaries of institutional learning. I think we can learn a lot by examining non-formal learning environments in their own right, not just as support structures for formal learning.

(Edited by Sylvia Currie - original submission Monday, 12 May 2008, 09:45 AM Note: Richard I noticed the "don't know where this fits" so I moved it to a new discussion topic)

In reply to Richard Schwier

Re: What's this conference all about?

by Glen Gatin -
I agree Richard...
"we can learn a lot by examining non-formal learning environments in their own right, not just as support structures for formal learning."

I think this is a crucial idea, formal learning should support "non-formal" learning rather than the other way around. I hope that non-formal learning would be viewed as the real learning and it be elevated from the bush league status that the paternalistic term "non-formal" seems to imply.

Learning is a basic human social process and to view it as the exclusive domain of experts working in institutions is problematic.

The "experts" have been grinding away at this for a while. Time to figure out how to open a channel to engage some of the cognitive surplus that exists in people and communities who have been watching and thinking and waiting.







In reply to Richard Schwier

Re: including non-formal learning environments

by Deirdre Bonnycastle -
I think this is an untapped area as well. I've spend most of my educational life in self-directed learning. Online resources have been a major asset for me, since I joined my first listserve in 1990.
In reply to Deirdre Bonnycastle

Re: including non-formal learning environments

by Terry Anderson -
Thanks Glen and Richard for your comments and suggestions for including (or integrating) the non formal in our research agenda. Many of us in tyhis conference probably look at the world through institutional lenses, but as you state, learning is too important and too pervasive to assume that it exists only or even primarily in formal education contexts.

Canada has a tradition of research in non formal learning perhpas best demonstrated by the work of Allen Tough His important 1967 book Learning without a Teacher and other writings are available at the link above. The Europeans have a number of large scale research projects under their " Lifelong Learning Programme. With a significant budget of nearly EUR 7 billion for 2007 to 2013," Note the number of zeros in 7,000,000,000 and these are Euros not dollars!

What specific type of participation in non formal learning do you think should be noted in our e-learning research agenda? Is it presumptuous of us mostly institutional type researchers and formal educational types to create an agenda for informal learning? On the other we are all lifelong learners, so have some expertise...
Terry


In reply to Terry Anderson

Re: including non-formal learning environments

by Annemarieke Hoekstra -

Dear Terry Anderson,

Coming from a European research communitee at Utrecht University in the Netherlands,  I just obtained my PhD with a dissertation on Experienced teachers' informal learning in the workplace. In my study I found that informal learning is 'how we usually learn'. I believe that educational institutions should focus more on 'how we usually learn' and accomodate this learning, rather than focussing on instruction.

In out future society it will be more important to know how to learn than to know a lot. Especially since today's knowledge is not sufficient to solve tomorrow's problems. Teaching our students what we know is not enough. They need to know how to learn, how to be resourceful, what to do if nobody knows the answer....

Despite formal education, people in today's society develop all sorts of strategies to learn how to cope with situations that formal education does not prepare them for. Let's find out what these strategies are. We need to know how people 'usually' learn online, on facebook, through gaming, so that we can learn which strategies are successful and which are not. We also need to know which factors enhance or inhibit such 'informal' learning. 

So I don't think its presumptuous to create an agenda for the study of informal learning, I think it is a necessity.

In March I presentedat the American Educational Research Association conference in New York. Our symposium was on the methodology of research into informal learning. If anyone is interested in our papers, please let me know.

Annemarieke Hoekstra; research consultant at Nait, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

In reply to Annemarieke Hoekstra

Re: including non-formal learning environments

by Sylvia Currie -
Annemarieke, we are VERY interested in your paper. Is it available online? Or are you willing to share it here? (in which case it does become available to the public). You can add a URL or attach the document to a forum post.

In reply to Terry Anderson

Re: including non-formal learning environments

by Glen Gatin -
Thanks Terry, It seems to me that one of the major points of Learning Without Teachers, (Tough,1967) is that people engage in self-teaching all the time.

I do not think that it is presumptuous for academics to consider informal learning. As you point out, we are all life long learners and, as a group, this conference represents considerable personal experience with learning of every variety.

When I encounter someone that I consider to be a good teacher, in formal or informal settings, I am curious to know how they teach but I am just as curious about how they learn and how do they teach themselves. It might be interesting to ask a group of highly sophisticated learners questions like "How do you teach yourself?" and "How did you learn to teach yourself?" "How much of your self-teaching involves ICT?"

Qualitative analysis of the responses might allow some core variables to emerge that could form the basis of explanatory theory for eLearning. The theory thus derived could be tested by the appropriate method.


In reply to Terry Anderson

Re: including non-formal learning environments

by Peter Ball -

Terry and all,

like the others who started/contributed to this thread, my interest is beyond the academic situation.  Specifically, I am interested in how e-learning is part of or supports organizationa learning, knowledge management, etc.  Within this, there is so-called formal learning (much current focus academically and in business - education or training), and non-formal learning.  Others include in-formal learning as daily work-related.  See the following from OECD at

http://www.oecd.org/document/25/0,2340,en_2649_37455_37136921_1_1_1_37455,00.html

Formal learning: Refers to learning through a programme of instruction in an educational institution, adult training centre or in the workplace, which is generally recognised in a qualification or a certificate.

Non-formal learning: Refers to learning through a programme but it is not usually evaluated and does not lead to certification.

Informal learning: Refers to learning resulting from daily work-related, family or leisure activities.