As educational designers that have also provided in-class educational services we’ve seen a lot of different styles and setups for learning. From in-school, to libraries, to science centres, museums, universities or even adult learning workshops we’ve done it all. This has given us a really broad perspective of why, where and how people learn. It’s been a delight to work with thousands of teachers and non-school educators and see their techniques, tricks and styles, and hopefully learn something from them all.
The biggest difference in style is formal vs informal learning. This is more a case of system than style. In general terms formal means school and informal means out of school, but that’s just a simplification.
So these terms can give us some broad strokes of the major systems or ways people get exposed to knowledge and learning. But what more can thinking about learning in these two ways do for us? Well, lets look deeper at the two systems and we’ll see how they’re influencing learning across society, and how we can place each in regards to the other so we can understand their respective strengths and weaknesses.
Formal Learning
Formal learning is your basic classroom, lecture or directed workshop style learning. It focuses on set curriculum and learning goals, with guidance, direction or mentorship. This is the kind of learning formal institutes are built around, whether elementary, middle, or high school, or a post-secondary institute. It provides a lot of structure, which allows it to be great for learner support and evaluation. It’s no wonder that we use this as the basis of all our professions, in fact our systems of learning largely developed from the training structures and institutes for medicine, law and philosophy, a strong pedigree indeed!
Formal learning’s strength is consistency, learner support and evaluation. Without the structures of formal learning, or it’s reliance on a guide/teacher/mentor figure, it would be hard for us to consistently produce literate, informed and capable citizens. But thanks to institutionalization we can provide standards and standardized methods which allow us to provide consistency and provide for learning pre-established facts and standards. The structure and planning strengths of Formal Learning are key to a society built on standards. Timelines, expectations, structures, curriculum all provide a baseline of interoperability for citizens through standard education. We can make some level of assumption about understanding, capability and knowledge thanks to these standards and methods. Critics have plenty to point to in the system, but there’s a reason the entrenched systems exist. We can recognize both the strengths and the failures of it.
Formal education is important because of it’s guided approach to learning. Exploring one’s way into proper grammatical English doesn’t work, it’s a complex system that’s already established. While constantly evolving, it has enormous pre-established conventions and facts; words and their meanings, the rules of syntax and grammar, let alone all the works produced using it. A learner cannot purely self-direct or explore themselves into knowing it, it requires at least some access to someone who can crack the code for them, at least to begin the process.
The above example is a fairly traditional view of schooling. There are a great many philosophies and styles that attempt to move out from this concept and expand or invert it. Pedagogy and learning theories are constantly evolving, but the reality is, traditional school still exists because it does have value. It’s great to see the diversity of teaching styles and forms that have and are being developed, but the fundamental reality of pre-established conventions will always require some degree of traditional formal learning.
Formal learning has rapidly expanded and complexified over the course of the 20th century. Educational thinkers like Dewey, Bloom, Piaget, Bruner and others have worked to examine the structures, effects and potentials of learning. We’ve had both important re-examinings of our educational system as well as practical methods and structures designed and tested. Formal learning is a more diverse field than it has ever been. In large part this has included a lot of borrowing and incorporation of principles, methods and structures associated with Informal Learning. Constructivism, Blended, Experiential and Discovery learning and Flipped Classrooms all have sought to increase student agency and exploration, traditionally hallmarks of Informal Learning. Social Learning, Unschooling, Communities of Practice and Learning Styles have sought to break down traditional teacher>student heirarchies and structures toward more open, communal, and socially interactive styles, again once the purview of Informal Learning.
Informal Learning
Informal learning is more self-directed, self-study, exploratory-style learning. It is mostly what happens outside our classic learning institutions, the things people teach themselves, stumble across, or explore on their own. This is a major focus for museums, libraries, science centres, as well as any kind of drop-in events.
Without the structure and institutional basis, informal learning is a lot more personal, in the experience, implementation and design. It has as much flexibility in the experience of the learner as it does for the host or designer. Everyone in some way is an informal learner, and an informal learning designer. As we each explore the world, and choose how we explore and interpret it. We are authors of our own learning journeys, interpreters of the world and free agents. We can find lots of help on these journeys. From the relatively obvious museums, science centres and libraries, to our parents, friends and neighbours, to authors, television shows and games (you can learn more about games for learning in our previous article – Games in the Classroom or Are Games Good For Learning?). The world is full of learning opportunities, recognized or not.
We all become ourselves through the learning journey we choose for ourselves. This agency is at the heart of informal learning. Good informal learning is about supporting those seeking answers and choosing to participate. It doesn’t have to, nor successfully can, force people to learn. But through good design it can engage, inform and inspire people. Good design is the key. Informal learning is empowered by great design, making the most of opportunities by ensuring information is clear, accessible, and able to be practiced, internalized and incorporated.
Engagement demands the learner has motivation and appreciation of what’s on offer. This can be helped by both priming the subject, inspiring about the potentials, and through direct design intent for clarity, accessibility and proper scaffolded learning. Informing the learner happens through clear conveyance of information, and through supporting their comprehension through appropriate language, provision of multiple avenues of learning and the ability to explore, practice and integrate the learning.
The inherent drive of an informal learning is a big advantage over formal learning, but Informal Learning has it’s own significant challenges. Less structure can work against scaffolding and learning paths. The diverse options provided to ensure best engagement can be overstimulating or distracting. The mobility, social dynamics, and lack of guidance can all create an inconsistent audience for designers, who have to design around irregular timing, attention issues, family and friend social dynamics, and competing possibilities.
The Bottom Line
Both Formal and Informal Learning offer critical tools for comprehensive education and holistic development of the self. If one system was wholly superior we’d have completely adopted it. But both systems are not just important, but I believe, are complimentary. We can learn the power of structure and discipline from traditional Formal Learning, so that we can internalize those tools for greater learning as well as adopt the established best practices and culture we live in. Given the world of Informal Learning to learn from we can pursue our passions and become our most fulfilled individual selves.
We see Formal Learning adapting to lessons learned from Informal Learning in the way Blended Learning, Flipped Classrooms and Genius Hour concepts that have become popular in schools. One can also see Informal Learning adopting the strategies of Formal Learning – the popularity of workshops for learning these days, TED talks as lectures for the general public, or how the internet has developed Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), tutorial series and video courses (like our Teacher’s Guide to Scratch web course) as popular, and profitable, sectors.
We need strong Formal and Informal Learning systems in play to be the best we can be. Good design in both Formal and Informal materials is key to their success. If you’re looking to design learning material, either Formal or Informal and you need help, Massive Corporation is here to help! We don’t just make digital interactive materials, we’re also educational experts. We’d be happy to help design and produce educational materials for you whether you’re looking for Formal or Informal content. Send us an email today (info at this URL) and we can provide a free consultation to help you get started!