Key Concepts of Informal Learning

Informal learning is the process by which we learn freely, creatively and passionately. Unlike a structured and defined four-year university program, for example, it is a natural exercise through which we gain an even deeper understanding of our subject matter.  But what are the key concepts of informal learning that distinguish it from formal learning? Isn’t knowledge just knowledge, after all?

There are four key concepts that make informal learning unique:

1. Movable learning environment – You can learn informally within a classroom setting, but you are not confined to that. You can also learn informally by doing a volunteer project with a group, or around a workplace water cooler, or from a friend or a community.
2. High degree of spontaneity - Informal learning sometimes happens accidentally because of your exposure to a certain situation or occasion. It can have a curriculum, but it is not limited by that. Learning arises through discussion, through doing, and through participatory conversations that encourage us to see the relevancy of the subject in our everyday life.
3. Holistic approach to learning - When you learn informally, you do not set out to study just one subject. Rather, you take on an endeavor, join a group, commit to a project or some other informal enterprise, and in the process, you learn many things about many subjects spontaneously.
4. Focus on shared communication – As opposed to a lecturer speaking and the learner listening, informal learning involves a high degree of communication based on shared references and coordination among participants. The information shared is placed into the context of the challenge at hand.

Proponents of informal learning, however, believe that its most amazing aspect is that it is responsible for the “aha moments” we experience.

​In an article called “At the Water Cooler of Learning,” David Grebow, describes it as a kind of “real learning” that involves our brain connecting all the dots in an amazing experience that includes our memory, synapses, endorphins and encoding. Real learning, which he describes as the kind that sticks to our brain, is almost always informal and it happens all around our formal learning process.  It can also make a huge difference in our lives and in our businesses.

Frank Coffield, author of The Necessity of Informal Learning, insists that informal learning should never be considered inferior to formal learning.He suggests instead that it needs to be seen as essential, fundamental and valuable in its own right whether it happens in our workplaces or within the rest of our lives.

Education consultant Charles Leadbeater also writes that more informal learning needs to be accomplished at home and in offices and factories and other places where the knowledge is put to immediate use to solve problems and create value in peoples’ lives.  Leadbeater, author of Living on Thin Air. The New Economy, believes that our most important capability in life, and the one which traditional, formal education is worst at delivering, is “the ability and yearning to carry on learning.”
He encourages schools and universities to become more like hubs of learning capable of branching out into the community.

Grebow comes to the same conclusion which he expresses as a 75/25 Rule of Learning. He suggests that we get 25 percent of what we need to know in our jobs through formal learning and the rest from informal learning. However, his point is that corporations tend to invest much more in formal training, a habit that is not serving us well if we want to be an innovative nation.

Sources:

1. Grebow, David. 2002. “At the Water Cooler of Learning.” http://agelesslearner.com
2. Coffield, Frank. 2000. The Necessity of Informal Learning. The Policy Press. Bristol
3. Leadbeater, Charles. 2000. Living on Thin Air. The New Economy. P. 111-112. Penguin, London