Keep your hands off! Instead watch, listen and be informed…
16th June, 200815% of a young person’s time is spent in school.
Every day, young people are involved in developing skills, competencies and knowledge outside school - whether learning from parents or siblings, from friends or online communities, whether through formal activities such as clubs or community groups, or through formal activities, such as hobbies and personal passions. One young person might learn through being an online games master; another by helping out in a shop. One young person might learn how to care for and support a relative; another might harbour a personal passion for music or dancing.
But what role should formal education take — if any — in the 85% of time young people spend learning outside the classroom?
There has been a lot of rhetoric about a 100% curriculum of late, which only sends shudders up my spine! Surely what makes informal learning unique - learners choosing what, how, where and when they learn- is something that must be preserved? Otherwise, we risk averting young people away from the very activities they enjoy - simply because we feel the need to interfere in every aspect of their lives.
That said there are potential lessons that teachers could learn by simply being aware of what their learners are choosing to do away from more formal spaces and curricula. As learner voice gathers more pace in our schools, opportunities for teachers to inform their practice by listening to their learners is more evident. And with the ever growing use of technologies both in and out of school, the ability to make links between these two spaces seems to be growing.
But to prevent my spine folding let’s keep the discourse around informal learning and formal learning moving in one direction. In other words, let informal learning lead formal learning but under no circumstance should formal education be allowed to direct what learners do outside of school. Otherwise we risk the very existence of informal learning and all the benefits it brings with it.
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Bob Harrison
Ben Williamson
Dan Sutch
Richard Sandford
Leon Cych
Martin Owen
Tim Reader
June 16th, 2008 at 9:23 am
I agree - the phrase 100% curriculum is, well, 100% wrong.
We need to examine the relationship between formal and informal learning, but that must be done from the basis of a clear understanding of what is special about informal learning. Otherwise we risk this potentially valuable agenda being co-opted to extend the reach of schooling (and qualifications) further into young people’s lives.
June 16th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Another in violent agreement. But I think we should do more to provide teachers with insight into just how sophisticated and exciting some of the online informal learning that our students engage in can be. The we can raise the stakes from some of the less-than-exciting ‘let’s create a powerpoint’ of the formal classroom environment!