Informal learning: genealogy, concepts, antagonisms and questions

Starting with ‘informal education’ promoted by UNESCO at the end of the 1940’s, the term became ‘informal learning’ linked recently with increasing attention to education policy at European and national levels. However, there are different meanings associated with ‘informal learning’. To map the field, a general learning concept is introduced, focussing on the individual and her/his socio-culturally shaped environment. From that perspective ‘informality’ and ‘formality’ have to be located in conditions external to the learner, characterised by the ‘extent of educational arrangement’, ‘certification’ and ‘approved by public regulations’. This view is supported by combining the three criteria with explicit, implicit and incidental learning, none of which are exclusively related to the characteristics of informality. Therefore, ‘informal learning’ is a metaphor with a severe problem, namely the lack of systematically and empirically grounded valid evidence on why, where, when, how and what is learned under ‘informal conditions’. (DIPF/orig.) Inzwischen ist vom ‚informellen Lernen’ die Rede, das gegenwartig in der europaischen und nationalen Bildungspolitik einen hohen Stellenwert annimmt. Unter ‚informellem Lernen’ wird jedoch auserst Unterschiedliches verstanden, sodass zur Strukturierung ein allgemeiner Lernbegriff eingefuhrt wird. Er geht vom Individuum als dem Dreh- und Angelpunkt des Lernens aus und berucksichtigt systematisch die sozio-kulturell geformten Umgebungsbedingungen. Aus dieser Perspektive sind ‚Formalitat’ und ‚Informalitat’ in den Bedingungen auserhalb des Individuums zu verorten, die gekennzeichnet sind durch: ‚Ausmas padagogischen Arrangements’, ‚Zertifizierung’ und ‚offentlich-rechtliche Regulierungen’. Diese Sichtweise wird gestutzt, wenn diese drei Kennzeichen mit explizitem, implizitem und zufalligem Lernen in Beziehung gesetzt werden. Informelles Lernen ist insofern eine Metapher, die ein gravierendes Problem in sich birgt: der Mangel an systematischen empirischen Befunden, die valide belegen, warum, wo, wann, wie und was unter informellen Bedingungen gelernt wird. (DIPF/Orig.)

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