Session 11: Informal learning

EDU1006: Education in Developing Countries

Session 11: Informal learning

Dr James Stanfield

• Introduction• Projects Hello World!• Big Question

• Group presentations• Assignments

John Dewey, 1916

‘one of the weightiest problems with which the philosophy of education has to cope is the method of keeping a proper balance between the informal and the formal, the incidental and the intentional, modes of education.’

Learning to be, UNESCO, 1972• Highlighted the wide-ranging

efforts of individuals in developing countries to better themselves through self-education without state support and outside the context of school provision.

• non-institutionalised forms of learning and apprenticeships were the dominant means of education and training

• called for a broadening of education and training prospects

Characteristics of informal learning

• Less organised, more spontaneous• There is no formal curriculum.• Informal learners are often highly motivated to

learn.• Not dependent on qualified teachers• Essential to a child’s early development and to

an adult’s lifelong learning.• Its difficult to quantify

Learning that takes place in dedicated educational institutions such as schools is seen as formal, learning which occurs beyond the school walls is ‘informal’.