This document discusses informal learning in developing countries. It highlights John Dewey's view that education requires a balance of informal and formal learning. A 1972 UNESCO report found that in developing nations, informal self-education and apprenticeships were the main forms of learning outside of schools. Informal learning is characterized as less organized and without a curriculum, but learners are highly motivated. It is essential to early childhood development and lifelong adult learning, though difficult to quantify. The document contrasts informal learning beyond schools with formal learning that occurs in institutions.

1. EDU1006: Education in Developing Countries
Session 11: Informal learning
Dr James Stanfield

2. • Introduction
• Projects Hello World!
• Big Question
• Group presentations
• Assignments

3. John Dewey, 1916
‘one of the weightiest problems
with which the philosophy of
education has to cope is the
method of keeping a proper
balance between the informal and
the formal, the incidental and the
intentional, modes of education.’

4. Learning to be, UNESCO, 1972
• Highlighted the wide-ranging
efforts of individuals in
developing countries to better
themselves through self-
education without state support
and outside the context of
school provision.
• non-institutionalised forms of
learning and apprenticeships
were the dominant means of
education and training
• called for a broadening of
education and training
prospects

5. Characteristics of informal learning
• Less organised, more spontaneous
• There is no formal curriculum.
• Informal learners are often highly motivated to
learn.
• Not dependent on qualified teachers
• Essential to a child’s early development and to
an adult’s lifelong learning.
• Its difficult to quantify
Learning that takes place in dedicated educational
institutions such as schools is seen as formal,
learning which occurs beyond the school walls is
‘informal’.