Lifelong learning is a key to success. In this short presentation I discuss three (out of many) contexts of learning.

1. My perspectives

2.  On completion of this talk learners would be able to
discuss formal, informal, and community-based
aspects of learning and their role in life-long
education

3.  Learning aspects as “everything from skill upgrading
to organizational reform to innovation to critical
analysis and organized resistance” (Nesbit et al., 2013,
p.227)
 What is it: informal, non-formal and formal learning –
and the boundaries between them

4.  Learning as a broad term that “refers to any elements that
together produce a change in mental constructs or
behavior” (Spencer &Lange, 2014, p.7).
 Education as a formal or “planned” (Spencer & Lange, 2014,
p.7) way to obtain knowledge, “the entire body of organized
educational processes, whatever the content, level and
method, whether formal or otherwise, whether they
prolong or replace initial education in schools, colleges and
universities as well as apprenticeship, whereby persons
regarded as adult by a society to which they belong...”
(Spencer & Lange, 2014, p.8).

5.  Teacher ‘s role in a formal education –
“someone presumed to have greater knowledge …when
a teacher has the authority to direct designed learners
to learn a curriculum taken from a pre-established body
of knowledge” (Livingstone, 2007, p.2).

6.  Selman et al. in The Foundation of Adult Education
defined purposes of adult education as following (pp.
29-30):
 - Academic, credential, and vocational
 - Personal interest and development
 - Citizen action and social change

8.  “43% of Canadian adults aged 25-64 reported being
enrolled in some form of adult education” (Knighton,
Hujaleh, Iacampo,& Werkneh, 2009, cited in Nesbit et
al, 2013, p.239).
 Livingstone (2007) discussed that “educational courses
and intentional informal learning activities related to
employment, housework, community volunteer work,
and general interests” (p.1) or training in the working
setting shifted from “know-how to work process
knowledge” (Spencer &Lange, 2014,p.64).

9.  However:
Does this type of learning adds much to
“understanding of the production process beyond a
particular worker’s own job” (Spencer &Lange, 2014,
p.65) – that formal education does?

11.  Mark Seaman (2008) discussed differences and
similarities and roles in adult education of two types of
communities: communities of practice and knowledge
communities
 Community of practice as “the set of relations among
persons, activity, and the world, over time and in
relation with other tangential and overlapping
communities of practice” (Jean Lave and Etienne
Wenger, 1991, cited by Seaman, 2008, p.270).

12.  Outsider in a community of practice:
“questions such as “How are we relevant to one
another?” and “Who are we and where are we going?”
are answered first, and by the group itself” (Akerman et
al., 2008, p.383).

13.  Knowledge communities as “personal practical
knowledge” (Seaman, 2008, p.271); according to
Connelly and Clandinin (1988) is “a particular way of
reconstructing the past and the intentions for the
future to deal with the exigencies of a present
situation” (cited in Seaman, 2008, p.271).

14.  Akkerman, S., Petter, C., & de Laat, M. (2008) Organising communities-of-
practice: facilitating emergence Journal of Workplace Learning 20. 6, 383-
399. DOI:198416199 Retrieved from:
http://search.proquest.com/docview/198416199/fulltext/8C535649ADB44
C97PQ/1?accountid=142373
 CUV (2005) Aiming high, quality in community learning, guidance for
partners, Community University of the Valleys Partnership, Swansea, UK
 CUV (2005) Aiming high, engaging communities with learning, guidance for
partners, Community University of the Valleys Partnership, Swansea, UK.
 Fenwick, T. (2010) Re-thinking the “thing”: sociomaterial approaches to
understanding and researching learning in work, Journal of Workplace
Learning 22, No. 1-2, 104-116. Retrieved from:
http://search.proquest.com/docview/198504134/fulltext/2F027B9A132849
E0PQ/1?accountid=142373

15.  Hoskins, B. & Deakin Crick, R. (2010) Competences for learning to learn and
active citizenship: different currencies or two sides of the same coin?
European Journal of Education 45, No. 1, 2010, Part II, 121-137.Retrieved
from:http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=url,
cookie,ip,uid&db=a9h&AN=47842158
 Livingstone, D.W. (2007) Re-exploring the icebergs of adult learning:
Comparative findings of the 1998 and 2004 Canadian surveys of formal
and informal learning practices, The Canadian Journal for the Study of
Adult Education 20, No. 2, 1-24.
 Malcolm, J., Hodkinson, P. & Colley, H. (2003) The interrelationships between
informal and formal learning, Journal of Workplace Learning 15, No. 7/8,
313-318. Retrieved from:
http://search.proquest.com/docview/198448063/fulltext/85B882ED45784
935PQ/1?accountid=142373

16.  Nesbit, T., Brigham, S.M., Taber, N. & Gibb, T. (Eds.) (2013) Building on critical
traditions: Adult education and learning in Canada. Toronto: Thompson
Educational Pub.
 Seaman, M. (2008). Birds of a feather?: Communities of practice and
knowledge communities. Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue, 10(1), 269-
279,306. Retrieved from:
http://search.proquest.com/docview/230449414/fulltext/BE2AE8E930634
DFBPQ/1?accountid=142373
 Selman, G. et al. (1997). The Foundation of Adult Education in Canada. (2nd
Ed.) Thompson Educational Publishing, Inc.
 Spencer, B. &Lange, E. (2014). The Purposes of Adult Education. An
Introduction (3rd Ed.). Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing Inc.