This article reports on a mixed methods study that investigated aspects of formal, non-formal and informal learning for workers and adult high school learners seeking literacy and essential skills. Three key themes emerged from the qualitative data: motivations for participation in various forms of learning; seeking out informal learning…

This publication is the outcome of the international conference organized by UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), in collaboration with the Centre for Validation of Prior Learning at Inholland University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands, and in partnership with the French National Commission for UNESCO that was held in Hamburg in…

For the majority of adults, the media constitute their main source of information about science and science-related matters impacting on society. To help prepare young people to engage with science in the media, teachers are being exhorted to equip their students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to respond critically to science-related…

Social networking sites (SNSs) have increasingly become an important tool for young adults to interact and socialize with their peers. As most of these young adults are also learners, educators have been looking for ways to understand the phenomena in order to harness its potential for use in education. This is especially relevant in Malaysia…

Life in the contemporary society and ongoing globalisation processes result in growing demands on educators, including language teachers in higher education. The frequently accentuated so-called postmethod approach to foreign language teaching gives teachers a lot of freedom and flexibility but also creates a large space for various types of…

This study aims to explore Chinese international students' academic and personal transformation under the influences of formal education in schools and informal education outside of the classroom. A qualitative inquiry using in-depth, semi-structured interviews was employed with eight senior undergraduate Chinese international students attending…

There is no doubt that mediation has become a central issue outside formal music education. An outstanding example of this is digital music and its dependence on the new technologies of production, dissemination, and consuming. In this paper, the author argues that (1) mediation is one of the most important aspects of digital artistry and that (2)…

Discussions of "game literacy" focus on the informal learning and literacies associated with games but seldom address the diversity in young people's gaming practices, and the highly differentiated technologies of digital gaming in use. We use available survey data to show how, in South Africa, income inequalities influence consumption…

For most of the nineteenth century, county agricultural fairs had little to do with schools and schooling; nevertheless, they served as potent sources of learning. During the post-Civil War generation, most of the learning county agricultural fairs generated had little to do with livestock, crops, and cultivation; nevertheless, farmers and others…

Social exclusion can be defined in different ways, but a prominent definition--in relation to young people in particular--is exclusion from formal learning and paid employment. This ignores the role of informal learning and the informal economies. In England, career guidance services were remodelled to deal with the issue of social exclusion by…

The field of the learning sciences appears to favor cognitive and social approaches to the study of human learning. In this article, the author proposes that a deep cognizance of cultural influences on learning is vital if formal and informal learning are to make vital connections to learners' lives and their personal need for meaning making in…

What makes a successful informal learning space is a topic in need of further research. The body of discourse on informal space design is drawn from learning theory, placemaking, and architecture, with a need for understanding of the synergy between the three. Findings from a longitudinal, quantitative, and qualitative study at Sheffield Hallam…

This study demonstrates the understandings that result from teachers' explanations of how they learn when they encounter everyday situations that evoke their learning. The study renders these explanations as a framework for further research on teacher workplace learning in informal settings. The framework emerged from a constant-comparative…

This study explored the nature of the relationship between a fifth-grade teacher and an informal science educator as they planned and implemented a life science unit in the classroom, and sought to define this relationship in order to gain insight into the roles of each educator. In addition, student learning as a result of instruction was…

This study explores how informal inquiry among teachers occurs in pursuit of their professional development within a learning community that has been voluntarily constructed by South Korean teachers. To this end, the study investigates what leads teachers to participate in a self-organized learning community, how informal inquiry occurs in the…