Informal learning is characterized by a low degree of planning and organizing of the learning context, learning support, learning time, and learning objectives. It differs from formal learning, non-formal learning, and self-regulated learning, as it has no set objective in its learning outcomes, but an intent to act from the learner's standpoint (e.g., to solve a problem). The term is often conflated with non-formal learning and self-directed learning. It is widely used in the context of corporate training and education in relation to return on investment (ROI), or return on learning (ROL). It is also used when referring to science education, in relation to citizen science, or informal science education.
Typical mechanisms of informal learning include trial and error or learning-by-doing, modeling, feedback, and reflection.Tannenbaum, S. I., Beard, R. L., McNall, L. A., & Salas, E. (2010). Informal Learning and Development in Organizations. In S. W. J. Kozlowski, & E. Salas (Eds.), Learning, training, and development in organizations (pp. 303-332). New York: Routledge. This includes heuristic language building, socialization, enculturation, and play. Informal learning is a popular learning method that incorporates participation or learning through knowledge creation, in contrast with the traditional practice of teacher-centered learning via knowledge acquisition. Estimates suggest that about 70–90% of adult learning takes place informally and outside educational institutions.
The conflated definition of informal and non-formal learning explicates mechanisms of learning that organically occur outside the realm of traditional instructor-led programs. This may include participating in self-study programs, navigation of performance support materials and systems, practicing incidental skills, receiving coaching or mentoring, seeking advice from peers, or participating in communities of practice.
Informal learning is common in communities where individuals have opportunities to observe and participate in social activities. Cited advantages of informal learning include flexibility and adaptation to learning needs, direct transfer of learning into practice, and rapid resolution of work-related problems. For improving employees' performance, task execution is considered the most important source of learning.
Characterizations
Informal learning can be characterized as follows: It usually takes place outside educational establishments; It does not follow a specified curriculum and is not often professionally organized but rather originates accidentally and sporadically in association with certain occasions from the changing of practical requirements; It is not necessarily planned pedagogically, which adheres to a system oriented around subjects, tests, and qualifications, but rather, it is planned after unconsciously incidental or consciously intended intuition that is holistically problem-related and related to actual situations and fitness for life; It is experienced directly in its "natural" function of everyday life; It is often spontaneous and creative; It is a key component to an alternative learning system coined as the Learning by Observing and Pitching In (LOPI), which is based on the learning methods observed to be common in many Indigenous American communities.
History The origin of informal learning has been traced back to John Dewey through his theories about learning from experience. The American philosopher Mary Parker Follett broadened the context of informal education from school to all areas of everyday life and described education as a continuous life task. Building on this work by Dewey and Follett, the American educator Eduard C. Lindemann first used the term "informal learning".Eduard C. Lindemann, 1926 The term was later introduced by Malcolm Knowles when he published his work, Informal Adult Education in 1950.
At first, informal learning was only delimited from formal school learning and nonformal learning in courses.Coombs, P.H., & Ahmed, H. (1974). Attacking Rural Poverty: How Nonformal Education Can Help. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 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 non-formal or not formally organized and are not financed by institutions.Watkins, K., & Marsick, V. (1990). Informal and Incidental Learning in the Workplace. London. pp. 12 et seq. 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. Livingstone explained that explicit informal learning is distinguished from tacit informal learning and socialization in the sense that the individual seeks learning in this setting and creates the conditions for it by putting himself or herself in situations or engaging with others so that learning is possible.
Differences between informal and non-formal learning
As noted above, informal learning is often confused with non-formal learning. Non-formal learning has often been used to describe organized learning outside of the formal education system, either being short-term, voluntary, and having few, if any, prerequisites. However, they typically have a curriculum and often a facilitator.
Other perspectives Merriam et al. in 2007 stated:
In 2012, Bennett extended Schugurenksky's conceptualization from 2000 of informal learning by recommending four modes of informal learning:Bennett, Elisabeth E. (2012, June). A Four-Part Model of Informal Learning: Extending Schugurensky's Conceptual Model. In the proceedings of the Adult Education Research Conference. Saratoga Springs, NY: AERC. self-directed, which is conscious and intentional incidental, which is conscious and unintentional tacit, which replaces socialization and is both nonconscious and unintentional integrative, which is nonconscious and intentional. Drawing upon implicit processing literature, she further defined integrative learning as "a learning process that combines intentional nonconscious processing of tacit knowledge with conscious access to learning products and mental images" and theorized two possible sub-processes: knowledge shifting and knowledge sublimation, which describe the limited access learners have to tacit knowledge.
However, the assumption that informal learning can also be non-intentional contradicts more recent definitions of informal learning. If the learning person has a learning goal in mind and independently monitors goal achievement, it is self-regulated learning.
In American Indigenous communities People in many Indigenous communities of the Americas often learn through observation and participation in everyday life of their respective communities and families. Barbara Rogoff, a professor of psychology, and her colleagues describe the ways in which children in Indigenous communities can learn by observing and participating in community endeavors, having an eagerness to contribute, fulfilling valuable roles, and finding a sense of belonging in their community. These learning experiences rely on children's incorporation in the community and the child's attentiveness. This form of informal learning allows the children to collaborate in social endeavors, which grants the child the opportunity to learn by pitching in.
Learning occurs through socialization processes in one's culture and community. Learning by Observing and Pitching In (LOPI) is an informal learning model often seen in many Indigenous communities of the Americas. Children can be seen participating alongside adults in many daily activities within the community. An example is the process where children learn slash-and-burn agriculture by being present in the situation and contributing when possible. Noteworthy is children's own initiative and assumption of responsibility to perform tasks for the households' benefit. Many Indigenous communities provide self-paced opportunities to kids, and allow exploration and education without parental coercion. Collaborative input is highly encouraged and valued. Both children and adults are actively involved in shared endeavors. Their roles as learner and expert are flexible, while the observer participates with active concentration. Indigenous ways of learning include practices such as observation, experiential learning, and apprenticeship.
Child work, alongside and combined with play, occupies an important place in American Indigenous children's time and development. The interaction of a Navajo girl assisting her mother weaving and who eventually becomes a master weaver herself illustrates how the child's presence and the availability of these activities allow the child to learn through observation. Children start at the periphery, observing and imitating those around them, before moving into the center of activities under supervision and guidance. An example of two-year-old Indigenous Mexican girl participating in digging-the-holes project with her mother highlights children's own initiation to help, after watching, and enthusiasm to share the task with family and community. Work is part of a child's development from an early age, starting with simple tasks that merge with play and develop to various kinds of useful work. The circumstances of everyday routine create opportunities for the culturally meaningful activities and sensitive interactions on which a child's development depends. Children of the Chillihuani observe their environment as a place of respect, and learn from observation. Many of them become herders by informal learning in observation.
Children in Nicaragua will often learn to work the land or learn to become street vendors by watching other individuals in their community perform it. These activities provide opportunities for children to learn and develop through forms of social learning which are made up of everyday experiences rather than a deliberate curriculum, and contain ordinary settings in which children's social interaction and behavior occur. Informal learning for children in American Indigenous communities can take place at work where children are expected to contribute.
Nonverbal communication as a learning tool In terms of the cultural variation between traditional Indigenous American and European-American middle class, the prevalence of nonverbal communication can be viewed as being dependent on each culture's definition of achievement. Often in mainstream middle-class culture, success in school and work settings is gained through practicing competitiveness and working for personal gain.Wynia, E. A. (2000). Teach the way the student learns: Culturally relevant teaching strategies appropriate to the Native American student in the speech communication classroom. North Dakota Journal of Speech and Theatre, 14. The learning and teaching practices of traditional Indigenous Americans generally prioritize harmony and cooperation over personal gain. In order to achieve mutual respect in teachings, what is often relied on in Indigenous American culture is nonverbal communication.Hwang, C. Philip, Michael E. Lamb, and Irving E. Siegel. "Learning Respect for Everything: Navajo Images of Development." Images of Childhood. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996. 167-83.