Adult education's attention has shifted from old social movements such as unions to new social movements (NSMs) such as environmental groups. However, informal learning provided by unions is not very different from that of NSMs. In addition, labor represents the working class whereas NSMs are dominated by the middle class. (SK)

Responses from 46 of 262 administrative office support workers showed that a majority were involved in providing office technology training to subordinates, peers, and superiors, although it was in only one-third of the job descriptions. More than 95% was informal training/question answering. (SK)

Defines workplace learning and outlines conditions and characteristics. Identifies learning paradigms and models and discusses the role of workplace learning in the development of learning organizations. (SK)

Responses from 53% of 2,300 British Columbia physicians were used to create a list of 375 educationally influential physicians. These opinion leaders will serve as resources for formal and informal continuing medical education. (SK)

Outlines components of workplace learning environments: individual/collective skill learning, learning to learn, and higher-order organizational learning. Suggests that studies counting only formal training discount older workers' participation in informal and work-based learning. Related learning environment characteristics to assumptions about…

Interviews with 16 apprentices and 8 trainers focused on the extent to which they perceive the workplace as a learning environment. A clash between production and learning goals meant learning was undervalued and incidental to the process of production. This jeopardizes the development of continuous learning attitudes. (SK)

An interpretive study of two practitioners on construction sites uses postmodern and critical perspectives as counterpoints. The study investigated why informal learning is a current focus in human resource development, how informal learning is defined, and contested notions of industrial relations and training. (SK)

Studies of informal and incidental learning demonstrate that it takes place wherever people have a need, motivation, or opportunity for learning. Context is central to the process. Despite its unstructured nature, adult educators can assist learners by identifying conditions that hinder or enhance it and by fostering critical reflection. (Contains…

Examines practice play, symbolic play, games with rules, and constructions and their relation to Piaget's active education, the intentional social process of constructing understanding involving interest, experimentation, and cooperation within the play context. Recommendations for identifying the type of knowledge being constructed (physical,…

Supervisors who are effective facilitators use their own learning and interpersonal skills to encourage informal learning in work teams. Use of facilitation skills can be inhibited by lack of organizational support and reluctance to change power relationships. (Contains 66 references.) (SK)

Focuses on the way learning about genetics and evolution raises ideas that pupils and adults should relate to themselves whether what is learned helps reveal what science can and cannot say about human nature. Reviews the impact of informal learning after exploring the role and influence of informal learning channels. (Contains 79 references.)…

In this paper, the authors focus on informal learning as it is situated in and derived from everyday life experience (Lave, 1988; Lave and Wenger, 1991). Their concern is with informal musical learning and its link to health, well-being and the care of self, an area that has already received some attention from research in music therapy,…

ITEA's Standards for Technological Literacy (STL) document is generally thought of as a tool for K-12 schooling that identifies what students should know and be able to do in order to achieve technological literacy. And that is true. However, the standards in STL are moving into another, broader venue, one that will potentially reach youth and…

Informal learning refers to "science learning that occurs outside the traditional, formal schooling realm." Sites such as museums, zoos, aquariums, parks, science centers, planetariums, the school yard, and others all have the potential to shape young people's minds. Parents might see a day at the beach as a recreational opportunity while biology…

This article focuses first on fundamental trends weakening the European--specifically, the Slovenian--economy and social structure, which are creating a two-class system consisting of an undereducated/uneducated population unable to compete for employment in an economy increasingly requiring more education to update employees' skills. Learning and…