The Base of the Iceberg
Informal Learning and Its Impact on Formal and Non-formal Learning
1st Edition
Published on 22. October 2014
Book
Hardback
97 pages
978-3-8474-0632-7 (ISBN)
Description
Alan Rogers looks at learning (formal, nonformal and informal) and examines the hidden world of informal (unconscious, unplanned) learning. He points out the importance of informal learning for creating tacit attitudes and values, knowledge and skills which influence (conscious, planned) learning - formal and non-formal. Moreover, he explores the implications of informal learning for educational planners and teachers in the context of lifelong learning. While mainly aimed at adult educators, the book's arguments apply also to schooling and higher education, in both industrialised societies and developing countries where large numbers of children and adults are not and have not been in school and so rely on informal learning to manage change.
Reviews / Votes
[...] I would strongly recommend this book to all adult educators in general because as Rogers concludes, "Without informal learning, none of us would grow; and without the products of informal learning, none of our planned learning programmes would be effective" (p. 79).Adult Education Quarterly 66/2016
In conclusion, Rogers calls for a revision of the way we look at learning in order to cease interpreting it as what happens in agency-organised contexts and open its meaning to all learning, with special attention to what goes on outside plannedlearning experiences.
International Review of Education 61/2015
The base of the iceberg [...] is a thick and deep theoretical discussion on education by Alan Rogers, a well-known author in the field.
International Review of Education - Journal of Lifelong Learning 5/2015
More details
Person
Professor Alan Rogers, has worked in adult education in Western and developing country contexts for over forty years;the is Visiting Professor, School of Education & Lifelong Learning, at the universities of East Anglia and Nottingham, UK, and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge.
Content
I: Introduction: "Unsettling tradition" 1.1 From 'education' to 'learning': a change of Discourse 1.2 The dangers of confusion II: The iceberg: Exploring the relationship between formal, non-formal and informal learning 2.1 Three kinds of learning 2.1.1 Expanding definitions 2.1.2 Intention and agency in learning 2.1.3 The learning continuum 2.1.4 Relationships between formal, non-formal and informal learning 2.1.5 A tool of analysis 2.2 What is learning? 2.2.1 Learning as process 2.2.2 Learning what? 2.2.3 Learning as change - domains of change 2.2.4 Learning contexts III: The base of the iceberg: Informal learning, its nature and processes 3.1 The nature of informal learning 3.2 The processes of informal learning IV: Informal (prior) learning: what is being learned 4.1 What learners bring 4.1.1 Pre-understanding 4.1.2 Funds of knowledge and banks of skills 4.1.3 Frames of reference 4.1.4 Imaginaries and Discourses 4.2 Prior attributes have been and are being learned V: Interactions between informal learning and formal/non-formal learning 5.1 Relations of Formal and Non-Formal Learning 5.1.1 Teaching and learning 5.1.2 Similarities and differences 5.1.3 Changing balance between formal and non-formal learning 5.2 Relations between formal/non-formal learning and informal learning 5.2.1 Similarities and differences 5.2.2 Contemporary dominance of formal learning 5.3 Taking account of informal learning 5.3.1 The demeaning of informal learning 5.3.2 What learners bring to new learning from informal learning 5.4 The interaction between informal learning and formal/non-formal learning: four approaches 5.4.1 using informal to assist formal/non-formal learning 5.4.2 using formal and non-formal learning to redress informal learning 5.4.3 giving recognition and value to informal learning 5.4.4 promoting continual dialogic learning 5.5 Some questions for teachers VI: Conclusion: Does it matter? 6.1 Why is this discussion important? Bibliography