Formal Systematic Learning versus Informal Learning - Literature review Example

Formal Systematic Learning Is of Less Importance Than Informal Learning Introduction In this paper, I review various theories of learning and propose to establish that Formal systematic learning is of less importance than the Informal learning. This I am going to achieve by closely examining the process of learning and then comparing the various theories, along with the findings they propose in terms of learning processes. Then, by comparing the findings and the definitions of formal and informal education I try to measure the importance of one of these leanings. For this, I begin with an explanation about learning. Literature review of three theories of learning i.e. Behaviourism, Cognitivism, and Experiential theory of learning. Then I discuss the present scenario and view about these two forms of learning, adding my opinion which I gain through the study of the three theories. In the end, I conclude that formal systematic way of learning is less important than informal learning, as the excellence which a student achieves in formal learning is some how dependent on his informal learning. Learning Learning - “comprises of a mixture of knowledge, skills and abilities, all of which is pretty obvious, but it also refers to attitudes and behaviours which are not so readily thought of as learning (Evans 2003).” It is an activity intrinsic to man, as man is given the power to think, to rationalise, to create and re-create, to build, to theorise, etc. Having been a natural part of man’s growth and development, learning comes to man without realising that indeed he/she is actually learning, especially so that traditionally, learning is equated with schooling. Accordingly, with the rapid progress of Information Technology, learning is now evidently taking place anywhere at any time (Ramey-Gassert 1997; Bentley 1998, cited in Chen, Millard, & Wills 2008, p. 339), as it happens during leisure time, as it happens in the workplace, in the home (Halliday-Wynes & Beddie 2009, p. 2), defying the traditional classroom-based learning. These developments have subjected the understanding of learning to a different perspective other than the traditional view. Learning could be well-understood based on its three domains known as the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor, which could be better understood in its current formulation as follows: Remembering: Retrieving, recognizing, and recalling relevant knowledge from long-term memory. Understanding: Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic messages through interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining. Applying: Carrying out or using a procedure through executing, or implementing. Analyzing: Breaking material into constituent parts, determining how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose through differentiating, organizing, and attributing. Evaluating: Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing. Creating: Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning, or producing. (Anderson & Krathwohl 2001) Now, that we have gained an insight into what learning is, it would be useful to first define the two kinds of learning forms: Informal learning and Formal learning. According to Conner, Formal learning can be defined as: “Formal learning includes the hierarchically structured school system that runs from primary school through the university and organized school-like programs created in business for technical and professional training.”(2009). On the other hand, Informal learning can be defined as: “informal learning describes a lifelong process whereby individuals acquire attitudes, values, skills and knowledge from daily experience and the educational influences and resources in his or her environment.” Informal learning’s environment is wide –ranged as it may come “from family and neighbours, from work and play, from the market place, the library and the mass media” (Conner 1997-2009). A comparison between the two types of learning is summarised as below: Formal Learning Informal Learning Use of research based theories and techniques for solving the problems Common sense, observation and previous experience are used to solve the problems deals with highly technical knowledge requiring so much attention, academic excellence and discipline Deals with the real life problems which have higher importance in man’s life Only tackles the problems on surface level It tackles the problem by reaching in the depth of that problem It includes the hierarchical system of learning and it is the learning which is finished in a typical time span This is an unending and continuous learning and starts from the life of the man and ends only after the death of man. Now, we will be revising various Learning theories i.e. Behaviourist Theory, Cognitivism Theory and Experiental Theory to gain a deeper knowledge about the manner in which humans learn. Behaviourist Theory “Behaviourism is a worldview that assumes a learner is essentially passive, responding to environmental stimuli” (Behaviourism 2010). Hence, the behaviourist mainly focused on observing the behaviour of life forms (which included humans as well as animals) under different circumstances. They focused on discovering and generalising universal laws of learning, for this, animals were mostly used for carrying out studies as it’s possible to observe their behaviour in a restricted environment (that of a lab). The man particularly observes the behaviour attitudes as well as the emotional reactions of the other people and thus he learns. Same case is with all the other animals. They observe the behaviour of their mother and make her model and thus learn the things essential for fulfilling their basic needs and their survival. The child learns his mother tongue in the same way that is through observation and constant listening to the other people. The natural process of learning happens unknowingly Hence, it was established through this theory that the behaviour of individuals and the response given by them depends upon their social conditioning, their surrounding environment and the behaviours of their first teachers like parents and siblings. This means individuals from different environments would interpret events and actions in different ways, and hence learn different things through a same situation. (CLMS, M1, U2:18). A formal systematic learning system, designed by qualified professionals and educationists, is static in nature. Each student is supposed to study according to it, unconditionally. Now, according to the behaviourist theory, since each individual has different approach to learning depending upon the social conditioning ; students coming from a family background of scholars and well educated parents may perform well in this system while students belonging to lesser educated or weaker section of society may not benefit much from this system (Machin 2006). According to Heckman and Wax (2004) “Like it or not, the most important mental and behavioural patterns, once established are difficult to change at school” Thus, Informal learning, “which occurs frequently in process of daily living, sometimes coincidentally” (Evans 2003) is important as it forms the basis of formal learning. As it is “learning resulting from daily life activities related to work, family, or leisure” (Colardyn & Bjornavold 2004, p. 71) such as bearing a child, planting rice, parenting, managing a home, etc., it is also often referred to as experiential learning and sometimes incidental learning. Therefore, children, who are unable to learn much at initial stages in an informal way, stand a lesser chance of excelling in learning at progressing levels in a formal systematic system. So, Informal learning process deserves much importance but unfortunately the methodology used in most of the schools all around the world is formal learning. The child though involves in mostly the informal learning it is not assessed in the school and thus if he fails to achieve success in the traditional typical syllabus he is declared as a dumb child. Thus traditionally learning is equated with schooling. Cognitivism Theory Cognitivism is a theoretical approach to interpreting the mind’s activities. “From the cognitive perspective, the emphasis has been primarily on trying to map and explore the mental processes underlying human learning, such as perception, memory, concept formation, language, symbolisation, problem solving and reasoning.” (CLMS, M1, U3:20). This theory suggests that human are not just “programmed beings”, but are capable of processing information stored in memory, then respond accordingly. Theorist Gagne’s work is seen as a link between the behaviourist theory and cognitivism theory. He undertook the task of examining the transition from simple to complex skills, and proposed a hierarchical model of learning. Following is a table showing the Gagne’s Hierarchy of Learning: S.no. Skills Description 1. Signal learning The establishment of a single connection in which stimulus takes property of a signal(classical conditioning) 2. Stimulus-response learning The establishment of a connection between a stimulus and a response where the response is a voluntary movement and the connection is instrumental in satisfying a need or a motive (operant conditioning) 3. Chaining The connection of a sequence of two or more previously learned stimulus-response connections 4. Verbal association The learning of chains that are specifically verbal, important for the acquisition and use of language. Enables a number of learned connections involving words to be emitted in single sequence. 5. Discrimination learning Making different responses to similar stimuli. Involves more than simply making isolated stimulus-response connections because it is necessary to deal with the problem of interference between similar items. 6. Concept Learning Learning to make common response to stimuli that form a class or a category. Requires representing information in memory, classifying events, and discriminating between them on the basis of abstracted properties. 7. Rule learning A rule is a chain of two or more concepts (e.g. if ‘A’ then ‘B’) 8. Problem solving Involves recombining old riles into new ones, making it possible to solve problems and answer questions, especially important for real life human problem-solving situations As can be seen from the table, problem solving is a resultant of learning through a sequence of eight stages of learning. Each level is preceded by a simpler skill which is utmost essential or prerequisite in a comparatively complex process of learning. It can be observed that the information is stored in a systematic way in the mind, and the continuous storing of new information would make the mind capable of solving newer problems. The table also indicates that the kind of knowledge a mind receives and stores must at some time stimulate the mind (either in a positive or a negative way). In fact, the stimulus is the initiating point of the learning process. The stimulus is then related to a desire or need which guide the response of an individual. Some academics when studied the transition from novice to experts found, based on cognitive theory, that there is a significant difference in the way in which the two stored knowledge in their minds. ‘The general view here is that experts represent their job knowledge in meaningful groups (chunks or cognitive units) according to abstract underlying principles whereas the novices structure their knowledge in terms of descriptive features” (CLMS, M1, U3:23). From this it can be inferred that formal learning is also important and can play a vital role in providing students with a structured and well chosen pieces of knowledge. All the students receiving education through a Formal system would possess some common knowledge chunks in their memories based on some common human stimulus. For instance, almost all children are able to learn basics of reading and writing while their styles and time taken to learn may differ. This is because at early age, stimulus like, impressing the parents, or teacher or siblings are enough to make a child respond and absorb knowledge provided to them. Another realisation that we came across is that: as a child grows there’s a greater need (for example that of self actualization, sense of belongingness etc.) that replaces their childish needs. So, a deeper insight to learning that centres on the well-being and transformation of the individual learner, believing that “there is, in the person, an ability to actualize the self, which, if freed, will result in the person solving his or her own problems” (Zimring 1994, p. 411) is emphatically expressed by Carl Rogers (1983, 18-19) in his book Freedom to learn for the 80s accentuating the process of knowledge search. Here the emphasis is given upon freeing the person while solving his problems and as far as formal education is concerned it is again restricted in a particular pattern. Hence, for those whose stimulus related to formal learning were based on childish needs and does not match with greater and more realistic needs of theirs, formal learning would provide little help. The cognitivism theory describes the natural function of mind in which it works, so if someone finds formal learning not at all stimulating but still continues to try and follow it forcefully, then his mind may become dull. Since, the more powerful the stimulus, the more rapid would be the activity of the brain. It can be stated then that informal learning which is a natural and unintentional process of learning is more effective as it is based on natural (and sometimes unknown) stimulants. Thus, keeps the mind active. One doesn’t need to try hard when learning informally, and the metaphor, ‘all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’, also gets explained here. Experiential Learning While cognitive learning theory explores the mental processes, and memory structure; experiential learning is concerned with the application of the acquired knowledge. “It is learning that is achieved through reflection upon everyday experience and is the way that most of us do our learning” (CLMS, M2, U3:16). Psychotherapist Rogers stated these qualities of experiential learning: personal involvement, self-initiated, evaluated by learner, and pervasive effects of learner (Kearsley 2010). Following are the principles of experiential learning application as given by Rogers: 1. “Self-initiated learning is the most lasting and pervasive. 2. Significant learning takes place only when the subject matter is relevant to the personal interests of the learner. 3. Learning which is threatening to the self (e.g., new attitudes or perspectives) are more easily assimilated when external threats are at a minimum. 4. Learning proceeds faster when the threat to the self is low.” (Kearsley 2010). These principles indicate that learning is more of a personal process that is continuous and never ending. Also, learning requires an environment that is adequate for carrying out this process. It also explains that in some individuals this process can take place faster while for some it may prove be slower according to their surrounding environmental and social influences. Overall, this theory supports both the behaviourism and cognitivism theory and provides an extension to these in terms of, learning in the practical life, of an individual. The Lewinian experiential learning model given below supports our observation of learning as a continuous process: Concrete experience Testing implications of concepts Observations and in new situations reflections Formation of abstract concepts and generalisations (CLMS, M2, U3:17) This cycle, provides a clear picture of a person’s development through learning. Instead of limiting the definition of learning, this cycle provides an explanation of varied learning among different individuals since ‘according to the cycle, the process of learning is active and passive, concrete and abstract’ (CLMS, M2, U3:17).What it clearly indicates is that good learners do reflect on what they had learnt, and may change that according to what they experience in the present. Hence, this explains how a child, following this cycle of learning, becomes mature and more intelligent as he grows. And how a person may reconstruct his beliefs and attitude when given a chance to interact with a new environment; and hence progress and reach a higher level of understanding, interrelating, analysing, etc. Moreover, how much and in what way, an individual learns and applies his/her learning to achieve set objectives also depends upon the amount of self-belief they possess, regarding their capabilities. The extent of self-confidence possessed by a person also determines his/her performance level (which usually increases with experience) does depend on their previous experiences rather than the theoretical knowledge gained by them. This theory draws our attention to the contrasting methods used by the two forms of learning in problem solving. Wherein, formal systematic learning approaches problems according to research-based theory and techniques, while informal learning simply utilises common sense practical solutions learned from previous related experiences. Hence, this theory supports the informal learning since about formal learning is said, informal learning is more effective because it is personal” (Cross 2003). On the differentiated importance each contribute to life’s problems, indicating that informal learning is dealing more with more relevant life problems which are of higher importance to man’s well-being. Such, analogy also illustrates the irony of learning: that formal systematic learning, which deals with highly technical knowledge requiring so much attention, academic excellence and discipline is in fact only tackles the surface of life’s problems, unlike informal learning which appears so simple and natural is actually dealing with the essence of life. Today’s scenario in learning methodology: Formal learning is at the centre point and it is given higher importance in modern educational system. It is basically because the knowledge you gain through formal learning helps you to get the job. The better skill you acquired the better chances of getting lucrative jobs are there. But again it is only for getting entry into good company. Formal learning can be the first step of your career or it can be the gateway of entering the good company. After that whatever you learn is through the constant observation, experience and through your mistakes. After entering in the company, your actual learning process starts and that happens only through informal learning. That is why in any company the weight is given to the experienced person. With the development of the “knowledge-based economy, new technologies, the growing speed of technological changes and globalisation... the need to improve the population’s skills and competences” (European Commission, 2002; OECD, 2001, cited in Colardyn & Bjornavold 2004, p. 69) has become imperative, suddenly making informal learning a subject of a number of researchers and policy pundits (Informal Learning and Non-formal Learning 2003), as more and more employees specifically adult employees gain skills required by the current technology through informal learning. However, formal learning is not necessarily school-based, as there are varied formal training being developed and utilised by companies to enhance employees’ performance. Probably, what makes formal learning formal is not much on the location where it is being held but more on the systematic organisation of its content guided by a well-defined objective and the trainer-trainee relationship necessary to achieve desired goals. Unlike informal learning which is prone to trial and error, as its basic premise is learning from mistakes; formal education on the other hand, raises matters into scientific theory, thereby enabling it to reduce uncertainty and error. Anyway, it is through scientific experimentation to which we owe the modern technology we are enjoying right now. The other one is “to enlarge the student's portfolio of transferable abilities and generalized attributes which must be kept primed with regular practice” (Hosen et al. 2002, p. 236).” In other words, formal learning is only to provide the necessary tools for us to efficiently explore and exploit everything around us. On the other hand, informal learning provides us life’s challenges by which we are to make use of the tools developed in us by formal learning. Confronted with a wide-range media of learning introduced by modern technology, a ‘hybrid approach’ in the school setting could help bridge the increasing gap between formal systematic learning and informal learning. For now, formal systematic learning may appear less important than informal learning (Hosen et al. 2002, p. 236) as the traditional way of providing formal learning has yet to reinvent itself in order to be more responsive to the fast-changing demands of the modern world and to be able to integrate the wide-range medium created by modern technology which informal learning has easily maximised. The inadequacy of formal systematic learning to provide what the multi-faceted and highly complex modern world today requires – life skills, which is defined by the World Health Organisation as "the abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life” (cited in Life Skills 2004, p. 7-2) such as problem solving, critical thinking, effective communication skills, decision-making, creative thinking, interpersonal relationship skills, self-awareness building skills, empathy, and coping with stress and emotions (UNICEF, UNESCO & WHO, cited in Life Skills 2004, p. 7-2), is the main reason why it has been dethroned by informal learning. Formal learning has been given unnecessary importance in the traditional pedagogy which needs to be changed. The learning process should always be in an informal way. In formal education also one can use various informal methodologies of learning process. For example already almost all the eminent business schools such as Harvard Business School and others are adopting the special pedagogy for management students and that is case study model. Here being in the classroom the students are made aware of the different real life cases for study. Students then come to know what problems can occur in real life. The language is also taught through various games and activities in stead of traditional method. Thus all the modern educational institutions are focusing on informal way of learning and it is proved to be effective. Total adoption of informal learning, though difficult, is not impossible at all. Right from nursery if the students are taught through informal way they will be able to grasp more and more knowledge. The role of the teacher should be more than a teacher. It means that the teacher should be the mentor of the students. First of all the teacher should find out the interest of the student. He or she should learn to play a role of a guide whose work is just to show the proper direction and give necessary guidance to the students to acquire the skill. The educational system also should not be restricted with a particular syllabus but the students should be encouraged to learn out of their curriculum also. Specially, the students who are weaker and low scorers must be paid special attention. They should be provided with special counselling, and after assessing their personal and family or social background, an attempt may be made to change those beliefs or perceptions which are hindering their learning process. Conclusion & Suggestions The experiential theory, establishes the role of a teacher and a learning environment, which are necessary and which are provided in the formal systematic set up, in order to provide a great learning experience to students. But the definition of ‘great learning experience’ would differ from one individual to another (according to behaviourist theory). Hence, the shortcoming of formal education and importance of informal education is again established. Cognitivism theory was quite successful in establishing the fact that formal learning may provide good learning by providing students with an appropriate stimulus. But again, the ‘stimulus’ also varies from an individual to another. As seen by the review of various theories of learning, we observe one very important point, that is, the root of any formal learning is always informal learning. It means that whatever formal learning we take is based on the research, experiments, experiences and observation of the person who is the first one to acquire the knowledge in that particular subject. For example Newton’s theory of gravity is taught in the classroom in a formal manner. Students read it, and teachers teach it but Newton was the first person who understood the theory through his own experience and observation means through informal learning. Knowledge is unlimited like a sky and it is not right to restrict it within the periphery of certain curriculum. You cannot take the sky in your arms but what you can do is you can only roam with pleasure in the sky. Same thing is with the knowledge. Let the students wander in the vast space of knowledge and let them pick up whatever they can, and I think it is possible only through informal learning. In order to achieve this, what teachers and trainers can do is: recognise the fact that ‘learning is a natural process and each human being is a born learner’. So, instead of imposing the known ways of learning ,each individual should be encouraged and provided the right kind of environment best suited for him/her to grow and discover his/her way of learning. Instead of expecting from students to learn in a particular way, they must be allowed and inspired to learn in the most unexpected ways. REFERENCES 1. Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessing: A revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of educational objectives: Complete edition, New York : Longman. 2. Behaviorism, Learning Theories knowledge base (2010, March). Behaviorism at Learning-Theories.com. Retrieved March 22nd, 2010 from http://www.learning-theories.com/behaviorism.html 3. Chen, Wen-Pin, Millard, David E, and Wills, Gary B. 2008, ‘A Four Dimensional Model of Formal and Informal learning’, Learning Society Lab, school of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, UK viewed, 23rd march 2010 Read More