Educational theory and practice have long been dominated by the requirements of formal learning. This book seeks to persuade readers through philosophical argument and empirical examples that the balance should shift back towards the informal. The arguments and examples derive from informal learning in diverse situations, such as leisure activities, as a preparation for and as part of work, and as a means of surviving undesirable circumstances like dead-end jobs and incarceration.
"This book will examine how individuals and organizations are using Web 2.0 tools to create informal learning and professional development opportunities"-- Provided by publisher.
Informal Learning at Work reflects the growing interest in changing the way the workplace encourages and enhances learning and professional development. Due to societal, economic, and technological developments, organisations face the pressure of growing knowledge-intensity and the need for innovations. As a result, employees are expected to adapt to new situations and constantly update their skillsets within an increasingly challenging environment. This book brings together cross-disciplinary perspectives from leading international researchers, drawing on a range of theoretical and empirical studies. Extensively researched and expertly edited, this new addition to the EARLI New Perspectives on Learning and Instruction series outlines the starting points for future research, and highlights the benefits and implications for those aiming to foster informal learning at work, covering areas such as: professional judgement improving the structure of work tasks facilitating innovative work behaviour the place of informal learning within teaching Informal Learning at Work presents original quantitative and qualitative studies as well as integrative analyses of worldwide research and is an invaluable introduction to this highly topical subject.
Informal learning has become an extremely important issue as post-industrial workplaces seek to harness its productive potential. Managers and HRD practitioners have attempted to deploy informal learning in the design of corporate cultures, however, most discussions of the subject have tended to be uncritical expositions which do not challenge the underlying economic, philosophical and organisational rationale. Uniquely, this book goes against this tendency. It critically examines definitions of informal learning, and focuses on its application in a variety of workplace contexts. It features: * theories of informal learning * the unmasking of contemporary corporate rhetoric * the implications for accounts of workplace learning of poststructuralist and post-modern perspectives. Incorporating case studies based on interviews with practising managers and HRM practitioners, and a detailed glossary of key concepts and issues, this book will be a valuable reference for students of workplace learning.
Informal science is a burgeoning field that operates across a broad range of venues and envisages learning outcomes for individuals, schools, families, and society. The evidence base that describes informal science, its promise, and effects is informed by a range of disciplines and perspectives, including field-based research, visitor studies, and psychological and anthropological studies of learning. Learning Science in Informal Environments draws together disparate literatures, synthesizes the state of knowledge, and articulates a common framework for the next generation of research on learning science in informal environments across a life span. Contributors include recognized experts in a range of disciplines-research and evaluation, exhibit designers, program developers, and educators. They also have experience in a range of settings-museums, after-school programs, science and technology centers, media enterprises, aquariums, zoos, state parks, and botanical gardens. Learning Science in Informal Environments is an invaluable guide for program and exhibit designers, evaluators, staff of science-rich informal learning institutions and community-based organizations, scientists interested in educational outreach, federal science agency education staff, and K-12 science educators.
This book deals with the relevance of recognition and validation of non-formal and informal learning education and training, the workplace and society. In an increasing number of countries, it is at the top of the policy and research agenda ranking among the possible ways to redress the glaring lack of relevant academic and vocational qualifications and to promote the development of competences and certification procedures which recognise different types of learning, including formal, non-formal and informal learning. The aim of the book is therefore to present and share experience, expertise and lessons in such a way that enables its effective and immediate use across the full spectrum of country contexts, whether in the developing or developed world. It examines the importance of meeting institutional and political requirements that give genuine value to the recognition of non-formal and informal learning; it shows why recognition is important and clarifies its usefulness and the role it serves in education, working life and voluntary work; it emphasises the importance of the coordination, interests, motivations, trust and acceptance by all stakeholders. The volume is also premised on an understanding of a learning society, in which all social and cultural groups, irrespective of gender, race, social class, ethnicity, mental health difficulties are entitled to quality learning throughout their lives. Overall the thrust is to see the importance of recognising non-formal and informal learning as part of the larger movement for re-directing education and training for change. This change is one that builds on an equitable society and economy and on sustainable development principles and values such as respect for others, respect for difference and diversity, exploration and dialogue.
Environmental awareness and social mobilization is a growing issue in Latin America. This book discusses how co-operative recycling practices have been increasingly used as a strategy to contest both the waste problem and urban poverty. Selective waste collection and sorting materials out of the garbage stream has become a widespread survival strategy for the economically excluded population. While severe and chronic occupational health problems and risks are very common among the recycling workers, thousands of people exclusively depend on accessing these resources. By examining experiences from Brazil and other Latin American countries, this book questions what can be done to improve the environment and livelihoods for these excluded citizens, examines the specific health and risk implications and looks at the many innovative recycling co-ops and associations which have recently emerged, creating an exciting new form of solidarity economy. In doing so, it uncovers the landscapes of despair populated by the urban marginalized, but also the landscapes of hope, where solidarity and collaboration make a pathway to a better way of life.
The monograph From Formal to Non-Formal: Education, Learning and Knowledge presents a review of selected aspects of non-formal education and learning, and is written by António Fragoso, Petra Javrh, Polona Kelava, Taja Kramberger, Nives Ličen, Marko Radovan, Drago B. Rotar, Klara Skubic Ermenc, Tadej Vidmar, Igor Ž. Žagar, Tihomir Žiljak and Sabina Žnidaršič Žagar. These authors are all anthropologists, sociologists, philosophers, political scientists, education scientists and historians of education. As such, the subject covered is a broad one and reaches into fields that at first glance appear to be very distant from each other. It is precisely this diversity of approaches that offers the best promise of new findings regarding non-formal learning, education and knowledge and that represents a fruitful basis for further reflection on these topics. The monograph thus offers answers to some starting points for reflection on the increasingly varied dimensions and possibilities of formal, non–formal and informal knowledge and learning.
The current edition of Teaching Adults, 3e provides an overview of teaching adults in a range of different contexts. In doing so, the author aims to cover the key principles that he believes teachers of adults will encounter and may find useful to know. The new edition will retain the strengths of the current edition: •Engaging writing style •Clear links between theory and practice •Accessible nature •Comprehensive overview of teaching The new edition will also feature the following: •Up to date further reading and references •The authors plan to strengthen the CPD coverage in the new edition The new edition aims to retain the overall theme of what is distinctive about adult education.
Worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has been an enormous shock to mortality, economies, and daily life. But what has received insufficient attention is the impact of the pandemic on the accumulation of human capital—the health, education, and skills—of young people. How large was the setback, and how far are we still from a recovery? Collapse and Recovery estimates the impacts of the pandemic on the human capital of young children, school-age children, and youth and discusses the urgent actions needed to reverse the damage. It shows that there was a collapse of human capital and that, unless that collapse is remedied, it is a time bomb for countries. Specifically, the report documents alarming declines in cognitive and social-emotional development among young children, which could translate into a 25 percent reduction in their earnings as adults. It finds that 1 billion children in low- and middle-income countries missed at least one year of in-person schooling. And despite enormous efforts in remote learning, children did not learn during the unprecedentedly long school closures, which could reduce future lifetime earnings around the world by US$21 trillion. The report quantifies the dramatic drops in employment and skills among youth that resulted from the pandemic as well as the substantial increase in the number of youth neither employed nor enrolled in education or training. In all of these age groups, the impacts of the pandemic were consistently worse for children from poorer backgrounds. These losses call for immediate action. The good news is that evidence-based policies can recover these losses. Collapse and Recovery reviews governments’ responses to the pandemic, assessing why there was a collapse in human capital accumulation, what was missing in the policy architecture to protect human capital during the crisis, and how governments can better prepare to withstand future shocks. It offers concrete policy recommendations to recover losses in human capital—programs that will end up paying for themselves in the long term. To better prepare for future shocks such as climate change and wars, the report emphasizes the need for solutions that bring health, education, and social protection programs together in an integrated human development system. If countries fail to act, the losses in human capital documented in this report will become permanent and last for multiple generations. The time to act is now.
