A case for building awareness of informal learning
Could we expand our lens on learning, and increase our capacity of what and where we receive learning from?
Recently, I’ve taken a fascination to the manifestation of learning and the environment of promoting learning. Here in my homeland (Singapore — yes it is a country), we are hyper-focused on education, and we are drilled on it more or less a short while after we learn how to walk and talk.
To the average man on the street, however, “education” is seemingly equated to “learning” and unfortunately, there is an over-emphasis on paper qualifications here, and that education is indeed a means to an end — obtaining said paper qualifications (Lim, 2019; Lung, 2018). While I am certain that this quandary is not unique to Singapore, I find this troubling because formal learning is just one of the types of learning out there. Would we be limiting ourselves and other learning opportunities with this association, that “one only learns when one is in a classroom”?
Even with the advent of our “workplace skills” learning framework, the Workplace Skills Qualifications (WSQ) under a term of “SkillsFuture” that is originally designed to increase our competencies, be it in depth (level of skill) or width (number of skills), we still have a predisposition of seeing the upgrading of competency vis-a-vis its relation to our current scope of work/path to promotion or a change of job (Lim, 2019; Ang, 2018). This is not necessarily bad, as indeed practical relevancy is important given how our resources are limited, but I wonder if more can be achieved. Tynjälä (2008) also highlights the importance of formal training for workers in the workplace, and its integral necessity to improvement and career advancement.
This much is obvious.
Still, we view this “upgrading of competency” through the lens of formal learning, and in some cases even requiring a certificate. Would it be too far-fetched for me to say that perhaps a large proportion of participants in these programmes are only there for immediate and practical gains, and perhaps missing out on the opportunity to receive more than the programme itself?
I don’t dispute the need and importance for evidence of learning (artefacts, demonstrations, and perhaps assessments to a lesser extent), and formal learning in general. However, I wonder if other forms of learning can dovetail “competency” and “formal learning” together – that it can be a holistic experience of learning. Learning becomes how we live, learning becomes being rather than solely doing. When we breathe learning, we continually improve ourselves and become better, either in terms of skills, character, personality et cetera.
Quick definitions.
There are other forms of learning that I suspect we are aware of, but may not notice its manifestations as quickly/significantly compared to formal learning perhaps due to our exposure and over-saturation of formal learning. As a quick bite:
Formal learning: Learning that is organized (delivery, curriculum et cetera), and takes place in educational institutions.
Non-Formal Learning: Similar to formal learning, non-formal learning is organized learning except without items such as curriculum, assessments et cetera.
Informal learning: Learning that takes place outside of educational institutions, and is usually taking place naturally and/or spontaneously. Informal learning is unintentional, with no learning outcomes or assessments.
I am fascinated by the potential of informal learning — its mechanisms and presence — within our usual day-to-day routines, and these informal learning sites and opportunities may not necessarily translate to practical, immediately-actionable skills. From an interpretation of public space (sidewalk and scenery placement along sidewalks), audio/visual exposure to the world around us (advertisement boards, the use of music in shopping centres, shops, lifts) to designated public pedagogical spaces such as museums and theatres in which knowledge and/or history is curated and delivered in a specific form for engagement and reflection.
How can informal learning work? I believe informal learning does not teach us outright, but it exposes us to the bigger world out there, its machinations and possibly teach us something new and it is more effective once we are aware that it’s happening.
Let’s take a very simple example to demonstrate informal learning:
Queuing.
Queuing is in the DNA of Singaporeans— we are very prone to joining in the hullabaloo to queue, usually without knowing what we’re even queuing for at the outset. We see a queue, and we would think to ourselves:
Got queue, must be good lah.
Aiya if I don’t queue, I might miss out on something good, then I will lose out (incidentally, this is kiasuism — the fear of losing out — at its core)
(Yes indeed I’ve added in Singlish slang for that Singaporean flair.)
Given our current public health predicament, the nature of queuing has evolved in Singapore. Markers are now demarcated on the floor for safe distancing, some shops have a maximum capacity of patrons at any point of time. Now, people will instinctively line themselves according to the markers on the floor whilst queuing and we are generally more patient in queues as well. I have observed in some cases where people would even willingly hold the place of the person in front/behind them in the queue as they pop out of line to grab something else from the shelves, lest they lose their place in the queue and have to go all the way to the back and queue all over again.
Now imagine yourself in such a queue in a supermarket. Upon critical examination, we notice our brains taking note of the following:
- There are markers I need to follow to queue
- A longer queue doesn’t necessarily mean “more people” since there is social distancing implemented for queueing
- There is less legitimacy to be impatient with the cashier/service staff for longer waits, because of the health and safety measures that must be implemented
- We may have a propensity to help others if we are not too inconvenienced ourselves
These non-exhaustive four points signal the interpretation from our sensory experience, and we start trying to find meaning from the interpretations — can our current experience so far in life explain the interpretations? Informal learning starts from this, in which we explain what our senses have relayed to us, and we find reasonable principles, theories and other objective explanations to make sense of our sensory observations. Should we face cognitive dissonance, we have a choice to pursue the root of the dissonance or let things be as they are, in tension.
We may even begin to question why to some of these, such as points 3 and 4. Why do I need to help others in the queue anyway? Your brain will then go through the same processes, and more often than not, we use our own understanding and interpretation of the world we see, as we perceive it, in an attempt to justify our whys. We will naturally be pulled to reflect, but whether reflection is actually done is another matter altogether (perhaps for another post down the road).
As mentioned earlier, informal learning isn’t about explicitly obtaining new information/perspective/skills but it processes the ton of information we are exposed to, and helps us make sense of the world around us. We then have the opportunity to improve our actions and words, and become better — if not a better worker in the workforce, then an improved version of the self, now armed with new knowledge and application from the period of informal learning.
Informal learning is taking place all the time around us and we are naturally doing it. My position is to increase the awareness of its workings, and how we can use it better. I aim to share some examples of informal learning that I have experienced in my own life (this is after all not a journal article) in subsequent entries and action steps for honing one’s skill to build on informal learning.
Oh, one more thing:
Having said that, I believe an awareness and appreciation towards informal learning cannot happen overnight, and it’s not a passive or simply emotional endeavor. It starts off with both curiousity (a willingness to explore and engage in said informal learning) and discipline (in the examination of thoughts, objectively obtaining and processing of explanations, and critical reflection). Since the mechanics of informal learning is happening regardless of our awareness on it, its effectiveness in the conscious will be the brass tacks — careful exploration and application of this new knowledge, usually done through active reflection (Ganly, 2018; Mishna & Bogo, 2007; Sawyer, 2014). I believe that learning becomes vibrant and exciting once we are willing to release the shackles of “necessity and immediate application” on learning as a whole, even at least once in a while.
I am cautiously optimistic that we can learn better, and we can be better.
References
Ang, J. (2018, November 1). SkillsFuture initiatives to boost quality of adult education training. Retrieved from https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/education/skillsfuture-initiatives-to-increase-quality-of-adult-education-training
Ganly, T. (2018). Taking time to pause: Engaging with a gift of reflective practice. Innovations in Education and Teaching International. 55(6). 713–723. doi: 10.1080/14703297.2017.1294492
Lim, A. (2019, April 25). Singapore can be world leader in cultivating lifelong learning, says Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Retrieved from https://www.straitstimes.com/politics/singapore-can-be-world-leader-in-cultivating-life-long-learning-says-tharman-shanmugaratnam
Lung, N. (2018, March 27). Singapore Minister of Education on the importance of higher education reform for Industry 4.0. Retrieved from https://opengovasia.com/singapore-minister-of-education-on-the-importance-of-higher-education-reform-for-industry-4-0/
Mishna, F., & Bogo, M. (2007). Reflective Practice in Contemporary Social Work Classrooms. Journal of Social Work Education, 43(3), 529–541. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/23044772
Sawyer, R. K. (2014). Introduction: The new science of learning. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (pp. 1–18). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Tynjälä, P. (2008). Perspectives into learning at the workplace. Educational Research Review 3, 130–154. doi: 10.1016/j.edurev.2007.12.001
