Informal learning v formal education?
18th January, 2008It’s now widely accepted that children and young people are learning all the time — with many of the messages from the DCSF calling for educationalists to recognise and engage with the existence of a 100% curriculum.
This 100% curriculum is said to constitute the 15% of time school-aged children spend in formal education together with the 85% of time they spend engaged in other experiences outside of school in a diverse range of settings – at home, in the park, at a youth club or even as a member of a sports team.
But many commentators have suggested that the experience most young people gain outside school is more positive than that within — naming higher aspirations, greater self-esteem, higher confidence, greater well-being and specialised knowledge, skills and competencies as just some of the benefits.
A recent study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (Wikeley et al, 2007) found that the relationships between learners and their educators has an important impact on their overall learning experience. Significant numbers of young people reported that they had more positive experiences from learning in informal settings compared with learning within the formal setting of school.
Furthermore, the findings indicated that learners viewed their informal educators as ‘experts’ who treated them as ‘co-learners’, whereas their formal educators were seen as simply delivering a ’system’ where the relationship was more one way – that of teacher to learner.
But is this really true? And, if so, can formal education learn from its informal counterpart, utilising the technologies that young people use outside of school, to offer a diverse, flexible and relevant curriculum? And can school realistically take a co-design approach to lesson planning, with teachers and students acting as co-learners?
Futurelab ‘Ideas Incubator’ focuses on informal learning
This year, in recognition of the educational need to make informal learning more visible, Futurelab’s annual call for ideas is focusing on ‘Imagine a way to support learning outside school’. Anyone with an interest in education, including school staff and students, is welcome to enter. The most innovative ideas will be developed with a team of experts and showcased through a series of high profile events and the media.
Open from 21 Jan–29 Feb 2008. For details on how to enter, go to www.futurelab.org.uk/ideas
Futurelab is always looking for ideas. Find out how you can 
Bob Harrison
Ben Williamson
Dan Sutch
Richard Sandford
Leon Cych
Martin Owen
Sarah Grier
Tim Reader
January 18th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
This really chimes with me; I recall being treated much more like an adult in my extra-curricula activities (notably choirs and orchestras) and consequently was more inclined to learn and participate.
Is the mixing of age groups a factor here?
- being around a range of ages, usually older kids, in out-of-school pursuits was really rewarding and in contrast being surrounded only by peers at school I found pretty tedious =]
January 18th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Perhaps one thing we need to keep in mind here is that the enjoyment derived from informal learning might be due to the sheer fact that the ownership of the learning is that of the child. We seem very keen to invade and police the informal spaces of children. Ultimately, if we continue to do this we will have a detrimental effect on our kids. If the question is ‘can we learn from their lives beyond school?’ great, if it is to ‘formlaise’ and invade thier space beyond school, asking them to reflect and record their experience, it is only then one step to assessing it etc – this would be disasterous as they would then have even less freedom and opporutnity to explore, understand and navigate the world on thier own terms. We must enter this informal space with care!
January 21st, 2008 at 6:01 pm
The trick here is to celebrate and utilise, rather than catalogue and assess.
I have something I’m working on at the moment to submit. Hopefully it’ll meet the criteria!
January 21st, 2008 at 7:56 pm
[...] But is this really true? And, if so, can formal education learn from its informal counterpart, utilising the technologies that young people use outside of school, to offer a diverse, flexible and relevant curriculum? And can school realistically take a co-design approach to lesson planning, with teachers and students acting as co-learners? (zie de Futurelab blog) [...]
January 24th, 2008 at 9:47 am
I think the point about learners viewing their informal educators as ‘experts’ who treat them as ‘co-learners’, with formal educators seen as simply delivering a ’system’, fits well with personal experience, common sense and simple logic.
Informal educators tend to teach by example. They are usually practitioners demonstrating a skill or knowledge that they themselves regularly use to good effect.
It’s only natural to trust and respect a piece of knowledge if you can see someone using it to their advantage.
This is all very well but the trouble is, knowledge gained in the classroom is often quite abstract and the benefits gained from it can be quite distant. Also, it’s not really possible to be a full time teacher of, say, physics and also be a practicing physicist.
So I guess there are always going to be some kinds of knowledge about which we are always going to have to say “trust me, you’ll thank me for this later.”
January 24th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Good points Steve, ots of informal learning is about unknowns like improvising when teaching a musical instrument; the excitement of *not* knowing the outcome. Unpredicatable outcomes often don’t sit well with formal teaching, but there is room for this in the classroom.
February 5th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
[...] How can playing an FPS become a informal learning experience, and lead to other learning experiences? Granted, there are those games such as Portal that provide a reasonably new experience (ever heard of Narbacular Drop?) that requires you to learn the rules, which are based at least in a physics that at least is partly grounded in this universe, in order to succeed, but what game doesn’t do that to some degree? [...]
February 6th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
[...] Umso interessierter habe ich den Blogbeitrag Informal learning v formal education? von Laila Walker im flux Weblog des Futurelabs gelesen, wo sie auf eine Untersuchung von Wikeley et al (2007) hinweist. Als Ergebnis dieser Untersuchung wurde festgestellt: “that the relationships between learners and their educators has an important impact on their overall learning experience. (…) Furthermore, the findings indicated, that learners viewed their informal educators as ‘experts’ who treated them as ‘co-learners’, whereas their formal educators were seen as simply delivering a ’system’ where the relationship was more one way – that of teacher to learner.” [...]
February 13th, 2008 at 11:57 am
i find this article v intestresting i am at the moment doing a short piece on infomal and formal learning.
i beleive there should be a balence of both in order for people to acheive their potential.
schools and other formal learning need to bring into their ’system’ new ways of teaching, although little changes are now starting to happen.
howard gardner and his multiple iteligences is a hot topic in schools and lessons the curriculum is taking on some ideads on how to cater for other learning styles.
i beleive the two can be be brougtht together and learn as john dewy beleives that Dewey believed that students should be involved in real-life tasks and challenges: Maths could be learnt via learning proportions in cooking or figuring out how long it would take to get from one place to another by mule. Dewey had a gift for suggesting activities that captured the center of what his classes were studying.
February 26th, 2008 at 5:51 am
informal learning is when we as learners take the intiative and make our own personalised method of learning.
no one tells us what,where,how,why and when to learn. we make our own choices and as a result feel we are treated as equals and as adults.
this makes us feel more intregrated in our learning and we feel independent.