Informal learning contexts provide rich learning opportunities outside of traditional classrooms. These contexts include parks, museums, historical monuments, playgrounds, music rooms, and planetariums. They allow voluntary, self-directed learning through exploration and hands-on experiences. Key benefits include developing social and problem-solving skills through play, gaining understanding of culture and history, and enhancing science knowledge in immersive environments. Informal learning plays a crucial role in intellectual development from childhood through adulthood.

1. INFORMAL LEARNING CONTEXT
INTRODUCTION :-
Informal learning are typically places where learning takes place outside of a formal
Classroom, possibly in museums , parks, zoos, aquaria, science and technology cent clubs, play ground
etc. They are characterized as places where motivation is internal, the content is variable and possibly
un-sequenced attendance is voluntary, displays and objects are provided, learners are of all ages and
there is more diversity in the learners backgrounds. Informal educational settings also can offer rich
learning opportunities for our students. Field experiences provide environmental context and land ethic.
Further, field experiences can reach students who have difficulties in grasping subject matter, and
provide holistic experiences that are retained. Therefore, science educational research subjects that
learning benefits can occur in informal environments.
As students, most of us thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to step outside the
classroom for a day filled with new places to visit and fun-filled activities. Outside the school there are
many opportunities to participate in science related experiences that are designed to provide science
based explanations to the people who engage with them. Science museums, science centers, zoos,
aquaria and similar places are designed for people to pursue their interest and engaged in science
related activities. Informal education , which is composed of an individuals interaction with his/her
environment in not planned, scheduled or controlled, it is something more efficient that formal
education in the process of gaining new behaviors. The aim of this study is to emphasize the importance
and benefits of multidimensional and effective learning in environments for informal learning. Thus we
are going to deal with various informal learning context.
1,PARKS:
Parks and green space are an integral part of daily life, from taking a walk in the local park
and enjoying the fresh air and the surrounding wildlife of a country park, participating in sports at the
local recreation ground, a family trip to the playground or a picnic with old friends or new neighbours at
a park and green spaces offer something for everyone. During times of economic hardship the range of
freely available activities and opportunities provided by parks and the diverse range of other informal
and community managed green spaces becomes particularly important. Like new born animals, children
are genetically predisposed to move, to explore the space around them, and to discover it contents. All
parks offer physical activity and free-range learning. The richer the park environment, the richer the
learning will be Parks are inherently attractive to children because they permit escape from the light
structures of daily life.
ADVANTAGES
1.Parks offer children the daily benefits of direct experience with nature.
2.Parks offer children a sense of place, self-identity and belongingness.

2. 3.Park engage children in informal experimental learning through play and shared experiences with
peers.
4.Parks provide valuable resource for closing the educational achievements gap in communities.
2.MUSEUMS:-
Informal settings such as museums offer potential for communicating social, cultural and
scientific information, correcting misconceptions and improving attitudes and cognitive skills. Here
learning is driven by curiosity, discovery, free exploration and sharing of experiences with companions.
Museums facilitates the voluntary learning of a variety of cognitive skills such as divergent thinking,
critical analysis, better understanding of the past and the complexity of the natural world. To motivate
and communicate in museums, considerable knowledge is necessary about how visitors behave and
learn in leisure oriented settings. It is important to remember that the unguided learning that occurs in
museums is a by product of independent and usually intrinsically rewarding exploratory activities. There
are no grade, no top-down control and there is no reason for visitors to pay attention except for its own
sake. Museums have not just a role to play in learning. Their collections, be they dinosaur eggs, medieval
kitchen implements, the first map of the world or local textile designs and the scholarship and expertise
surrounding those collections, offer an invaluable, original and thrilling learning resources.
ADVANTAGES
1.Museums make us feel good and smarter.
2.Museums provide an effective way of learning.
3.Museums help bring change and development to communities.
4.A museums may be our next community partner or business endeavour.
5.Museums are free sometimes but they all need our support to keep their doors open.
HISTORICAL MONUMENTS
One of the most important aspects of heritage education is experiencing our
culture first hand by visiting a historical building. A historical monuments is a rich source of history. It
gives us a sense of wonder and makes us curious to know more about the past connected with it. The
activity generates interest in historical buildings and develops observation skills. It also develops the
aesthetic sensibilities and installs an appreciation of elements of architecture and our cultural heritage.
Historic places have powerful and active stories to tell. As witnesses to the past they recall the events
that shaped history and the people who faced those situations and issues. These places help students
develop skills as well as knowledge students learn to observe, gather facts, compare and contrast,
synthesis and analyze, evaluate sources of evidence, developand test hypothesis and draw conclusions.

3. ADVANTAGES
1.Historic monuments provides a setting for a great variety of local activities.
2.It gives us a long term view of social and environmental change .
3.The historic characters is not only attractive in its own right, but it can act as a catalyst for creative
new designs.
3.The historic environment provides focus and resource for lifelong learning about the human past and
how people have inhabited the landscape and used the natural resources.
4.Archaeological and historic sites are popular places for recreation, attracting local people and visitors
alike.
PLAYGROUND :
Children are experts at play. Play is how children interact with others and experiences the
world around them. Play is experimenting, co-operating, observing, taking risks, achieving success,
learning from failure and of course having fun. While play is essential to the physical and emotional
growth of children, it is also central to adult social interactions and continued development throughout
life. Play is characterized by intrinsic motivation active engagement, attention to means and freedom
from external rules. Bruner described play as a means for acquiring information about and experiencing
the environment. In his view, play provides opportunities for children to try new combination of
behaviors and to master routines that make later observational learning possible. By working outdoors
children build a vocabulary of routines and experiences that relate to and enhance their understanding
of their everyday physical world. They are inexpensive and offer a wide variety of play options. Trees,
shrubs and ground covers can provide different scents, textures, shapes , colors and creative play.
ADVANTAGE
1.Children develop social skills to communicate, share, collaborate and empathise with others.
2.Children are creative about what and how games are played.
3.Playground assess risk and tackle new challenges in children by developing thinking and problem
solving skills.
4.Children master new skills and they play with other children and improve their competence and
confidence.
5.Play helps in managing physical and social challenges and keeping themselves safe.
MUSIC ROOMS
Informal popular music learning practices involve two main approaches, both of which
take place largely in the absence of adult supervision or guidance. The first is solitary and usually occurs

4. in the home. It involves learning music stretching from experimentation with instruments, to copying
from recordings , loose imitation, improvisation and composition. The other main learning practice takes
place in groups and involves conscious learning through peer-observation, imitation and talk. Listening,
performance, improvisation and composition are integrated at the individual and the group level. All the
activities revolve around music in which learners are thoroughly encultured . Through practices young
popular musicians can develop compositional and technical skills. They value personal qualities of co-
operation, responsibility and commitment. There is an increasing number of informal music studies
being performed, and many of these are observing styles of popular musicians.
ADVANTAGES
1.Learning based on personal choice, enjoyment, identification and familiarity with the music.
2.Means of musical transmission and skill acquisition.
3.Self-teeching and peer-directed learning, as distinct from adult supervision and guidance.
4.The assimilation of skills and knowledge according to musical performances.
5.Integration of listening, performing, improvising and composing throughout the learning process.
PLANETARIUM
Planetarium is a learning environment where both live and pre-recorded programs are
presented to introduce concepts in earth and space science to younger learners in earth and space
science and have prepared them for future science learning is through exposure to planetarium
programs designed for them Most planetarium are round theater –like structure with slightly rectined
seats that encourage the visitors to look towards the ceiling where media is projected. In these dark
environments, visitors are often shown vibrant images and stunning animations about the cosmos.
Planetariums have the ability to psychologically affect visitors sense of reality because the fully immense
their visitors in an audio-visual experience. Planetarium visitors are given the sensation of being
outdoors, flying through space, or observing astronomical phenomena without physically experiencing
these events. Planetarium can serve as valuable learning resources by planning learners in a sensory
immersive environment, can enhance their enjoyment, understanding, knowledge and engagement .
These can be used as a vehicle for story telling. Telling stories through a planetarium program helps
particular individuals connect with scientific content without fully acknowledging that it is an
educational lesson .
ADVANTAGES
1.Select realistic goals and effective teaching techniques for particular groups of students.
2.Involves students in active investigation during planetarium programs.

5. 3.Assess programs to find out which elements are working best in helping students learn from the visit.
4.Students acquire experiences, perspectives interests and learning abilities.
5.Students can experience with concrete objects and events, such as a model helps a person to accept a
different viewpoint from his own.
ANERT :
It is the agency for Non-conventional energy and Rural Technology. Almost all villages of
India are thirsty and hunger for power long their township/city counterparts. Everybody needs power to
energize day to day life with ample facilities. In India 50 crore people have access to learn than six hours
of electricity everyday. Indian villages reel under immense energy poverty. Regarding cooking, 70 core
materials like cow dung for cooking. According to planning commission of India, the highest cause of
premature deaths in India is due to asphyxiation, because of household air pollution caused by cooking
with bio-mass, with this a new realization has dawned that unless we turn to an ecologically sustainable
development, the future of mankind will be at stake. The present study is primarily an explanatory on
environmental communication which combines description and narration of the experience of a wide
variety of voluntary, scientific organizations and the innovative methods used by them for the
dissemination of environmental concepts. It deal with many ways in which the people of India are
interacting with one another by sharing thoughts and ideas an environmental issues in general. This
involves the physical, biological and social interaction for selling the idea of environmental education
and conservation to the people of varied backgrounds.
ADVANTAGES
1.Conservation and preservation of natural environments.
2.Deforestation and re-afforestation.
3.Improvement in kitchen and living condition.
4.The sustainability of small-scale rural industries using bio-mass fuel.
CONCULSION
Here the main focus of interest has central on informal learning as a means of generating
positive attitudes to education, especially for people who have been excluded from mainstream of
education or who have had bad experiences at school. Interest in informal learning in childhood has
traditionally dealt with how parents socialize their infants into culturally approved ways of behaving.
Even more impressive are the cognitive understandings and skills that are learned informally, including
language, basic literacy and numeracy, the beginnings of scientific understanding, a sense of humour
game rule etc.. Therefore informal learning is obviously crucial for intellectual development in early
childhood has an important role in adult learning.
REFERENCE :

6. www.fcti.vcf.edu/teaching and learning resources
www.science educationreview.com
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency for non-conventional Energy and Rural development
www.ezinearticles.com
www.igi global.com