Informal learning

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Informal learning is to be understood as unorganized and not formally defined learning at home and at work. It is how you learned to speak. Some people say it is the basic "natural" self-learning of human beings, characterized as follows:

• It does not take place in special educational establishments standing out from normal life and professional practice;

• it has no curriculum and is not professionally organized but rather originates accidentally, sporadically, in association with certain occasions, from changing practical requirement situations;

• it is not planned pedagogically conscious, systematically according to subjects, test and qualification-oriented, but rather unconsciously incidental, holistically problem-related, and related to situation management and fitness for life;

• It is not unrealistic stockpile-learning, but is experienced directly in its "natural" function as a tool for living and survival.

In international discussions, the concept of informal learning, already used by Dewey at an early stage and later on by Knowles, experienced a renaissance, especially in the context of development policy. At first, informal learning was only delimited from formal school learning and nonformal learning in courses (Coombs/Achmed 1974). Marsick and Watkins take up this approach and go one step further in their definition. They, too, begin with the organizational form of learning and call those learning processes informal which are nonformal or not formally organized and are not financed by institutions (Watkins/Marsick, p. 12 et sec.). An example for a wider approach is Livingstone's definition which is oriented towards autodidactic and self-directed learning and places special emphasis on the self-definition of the learning process by the learner (Livingstone 1999, p. 68 et seq.).

At least eighty percent of how people learn their jobs is informal. (The Institute for Research on Learning, 2000, Menlo Park). Workers learn much more from watching others, trial and error, asking colleagues, calling the help desk, and happenstance than from formal training.

[edit] Literature:

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–Coombs, Ph.; Ahmed, H. (1974): Attacking rural Poverty. How nonformal education can help. Baltimore

-Cross, Jay. (2006) : Informal Learning: Rediscovering the Natural Pathways that Inspire Innovation and Performance. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.

–LIVINGSTONE, D. W. (2001): Adults’ Informal Learning: Definitions, findings, Gaps and Future Research. Toronto: NALL Working Paper 21/2001. Auch: http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/depts/sese/csew/nall/res/21adultsifnormallearning.htm (30.8.03).

–LIVINGSTONE, D. W. (2002): Mapping the Iceberg. NALL Working Paper # 54 – 2002. Marsick, V. J./Watkins, K. E. (2001): Informal and Incidental Learning. In: New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education Nr. 89, S. 25-34

–Overwien, Bernd: Informal Learning and the Role of Social Movements. In: International Review of Education, Vol. 46, 6, November 2000, S. 621-640

–SCHUGURENSKY, D. (2000): The Forms of Informal Learning: Towards a Concep-tualization of the Field. Draft Working Paper October, NALL Working Paper 19/2000. http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/depts/sese/csew/nall/res/ (August 2003).

–SOMMERLAD, E. & STERN, E. (1999): Workplace Learning, Culture and Perform-ance. London.

–Watkins, K./Marsick, V. (1990): Informal and Incidental Learning in the Workplace. London