When most people think about learning, they focus on what is done in a classroom. Most students if you tell them that they are always learning things outside of the classroom, they will look at you funny. The truth is, learning never stops and in some cases, people learn more outside of school than they do inside of school. Informal learning is the name researchers have given to learning that is done outside of the traditional classroom setting. I look at this more as what are known as "Street Smarts". There is a stigma that goes with people who have spent more time focusing on informal learning compared to formal learning. I am always very quick to tell my students that while you can get by in life without a formal education, unfortunately our society has it structured in a way that dictates that your life will be much more difficult if you have less formal education. I also like to use the example of my grandpa though to show how things have changed as we put more of an emphasis on formal education. My grandpa dropped out of high school after 9th grade in the early 1950's. Society at that time was more accepting of this which allowed him to still find a job working for a contractor until he was old enough to get a job at a GM plant. He worked for that contractor and GM for a combined 45 years before retiring in the late 1990's and was able to raise a family of five off of a single income. This is not something that happens as often today but it is a great example to show how getting an informal education can still lead to success if you have the right conditions. While my grandpa's jobs were focus on more situation based learning, he still was able to contextualize these skills and become a man with a very high informal intelligence.
References:
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Resnick, L. B. (1987). Learning in school and out. Educational Researcher, 16(9), 13-20.
TedX Talks. (2017, February 7). Informal learning: The future | Girish Gopalakrishnan | TEDxNITTrichy [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn-5OFcwpkM
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