2.6 Theories of informal learning
Informal learning includes situations where you involved people without a formal certification to teach you what you learned. Informal learning is more likely to happen where learning is not the main purpose.
In contrast, formal learning tends to take place when people with special qualifications provide learning at places such as schools and colleges whose main business is teaching and learning.
Coombs and Ahmed describe informal learning as:
… the lifelong process by which every individual acquires and accumulates knowledge, skills, attitudes and insights from daily experiences and exposure to the environment – at home, at work, at play: from the example and attitude of families and friends; from travel, reading newspapers and books; or by listening to the radio or viewing films or television. Generally informal education is unorganised, unsystematic and even unintentional at times, yet accounts for the great bulk of any person’s total lifetime learning – including that of a highly ‘schooled’ person.
The nature of informal learning is that it can happen almost anywhere and involve the widest range of people. For example, a huge amount of informal learning goes on at work. Boud and Middleton point out that:
There is a diverse range of people that we learn from at work, very few of whom are [recognised] by the employing [organisation] as people with a role in promoting learning …
In contrast, formal learning includes the structured, authorised courses and workshops that take place in dedicated educational institutions such as schools, colleges and training departments. These units and workshops often include assessments, such as exams, and lead to certificates, degrees or qualifications.
Being involved with formal learning does not mean that informal learning stops. Coombs and Ahmed (1974) suggest that we are continually learning. They also suggest that there are other important differences in learning apart from the distinction between formal and informal learning.
They suggest that we sometimes deliberately set out to learn new things. This is referred to as deliberate learning.
In contrast, other learning may be accidental, occurring as a result of something that has happened. For example, if your house is broken into, you will learn a lot about how the local police force works. Each experience will be a different mixture of these different aspects – each will lead to a different form of learning.