(1888PressRelease)
June 18, 2008 - Education innovator Futurelab is calling for the UK education system to recognise the value of young people’s learning and skills achieved though informal activities outside of school. Although welcoming the government’s personalisation agenda and Every Child Matters programme as positive steps forward, the organisation (www.futurelab.org.uk) is raising concerns over the move towards an enforced 100% curriculum that could take away the freedom that characterises informal learning.
The buzzwords ‘home-school learning’ are frequently referred to in political and education agendas. As a result however, directed learning activities are increasingly encroaching on children’s free time outside of school. This one-way flow of learning from school to home raises a number of concerns for educators who have researched informal learning.
Dr Leila Walker, Senior Researcher at Futurelab, comments: “Research indicates that students gain many benefits from participating in learning activities and experiences outside of school, from clubs such as Brownies and Scouts to general social interaction with both peers and adults. Such benefits include higher aspirations, greater self-esteem and specialised knowledge, skills and competencies. A young person’s formal education also gains from this experience since many of the skills, from greater resilience when facing difficulties to improved social skills can be transferred. Evidence also suggests that disengaged and low-achieving pupils may benefit from being able to learn in different ways outside of the school setting.”
Informal learning was central to Futurelab’s 2008 Ideas Incubator which sought ideas on how to help young people recognise what they are achieving outside of school. Selected ideas, which will be trialed by Futurelab this year, include Dream Catcher and Shoutbox. Dream Catcher is a watch-like device that records young children’s creative play and experiences. Tapping into the rich and revealing tapestry of their world (both imaginary and real), Dream Catcher supports very young children to communicate and learn with parents, other children, and early years’ professionals. ShoutBox is a tool involving both web and mobile technologies that enables older children to generate and collate a variety of forms of information that can then be shared with peers on Facebook.
Mobile games developers Mobile Pie were the originators of the idea for ShoutBox and Richard Wilson, Company Director, comments: “Recognising informal learning is important, not necessarily to showcase in school, but to help young people understand what their strengths are and to help build confidence. It is also an opportunity to give children plaudits and to celebrate success without the normal pressures of exams and coursework. With ShoutBox, we aimed to use technology that young people are already familiar with to bridge the gap between formal and informal learning – mobile phones and social networking seemed the obvious choice.”
Futurelab also advocates that there is space and opportunity within the National Curriculum for schools to innovate and take inspiration from informal learning. Futurelab’s Enquiring Minds project (www.enquiringminds.org.uk), supported by Microsoft, offers a new approach to teaching and learning where children work in partnership with teachers to decide their own curriculum and how they will be taught. The aim is to engage pupils through their own interests, encouraging them to want to learn and to find out things for themselves. Futurelab worked closely with 10 teachers and 120 pupils in two secondary schools to develop this new approach and now it is available for all educators to adopt, by using a practical Guidebook which is available from enquiringminds.org.uk.
Leila Walker concludes: “Young people are engaged in all sorts of informal learning, from debating with friends to playing sports and online social networking. It is something that happens all the time but unfortunately is often off most schools’ and teachers’ radars. The big question for educators now is how to value these activities and bridge the gap between formal and informal learning without implementing a 100% curriculum. All we are advocating is that teachers inform their planning by asking their young learners about their outside school interests and activities. What we are not saying is that teachers should direct young people’s out of school learning – this ‘informal learning’ should remain solely owned by the young person. In addition, we wish to explore ways in which young people may be able to see the benefits of their informal learning by being recognised for it, if they so choose.”
To join in the debate on the value of informal learning, go to Futurelab’s blog Flux at flux.futurelab.org.uk.
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