Informal_Education

Informal education consists of accidental, unclear, measurable information. It usually has a quantitative aspect than a qualitative one. This kind of information can be received everyday. It is not selected by a competent person and it is accumulated in person's mind on the unconsciousness level. Informal education exceeds formal education in content and knowledge. An important role in informal education is played by mass media. In order to make information that comes from mass media useful, you need to analyze, synthesize and then accept the result. Informal education refers even to emotions, feelings, beliefs, superstitions, etc. Gained knowledge as the result of formal, non-formal educations sooner or later is passed through the prism of informal education and takes the form of values, beliefs, traditions, etc. In the center of informal education concept is situated the individual. The reaction of different persons to similar information can be different in each case. This is why it can't be predicted or controlled. Evaluation of the individuals in this case can be observed in his/her abilities in a certain field or area. The three presented types of education (formal, non-formal, informal) are fully used indifferent of the fact that they are different in content, impact and feedback. The main differentiation that can easily be seen is the degree of control. So the informal education is the least controlled, that's why this type of education can not be excluded of somebody's life. At the same time formal education can be excluded totally, while non-formal just partially. These types of education are meant to prepare person for social and professional life. Each of education aims specific area of a person's life. The informal education offers the following: - responsiveness when interact with environment; - possibility to freely act in unknown situation; - possibility of an individual learning, without any obligations; - free choice ad change of interests; - freedom of self-formation; Let's see what can offer the combination of the three types of education: - ability to react to different situations; - ability to understand and control new situations; - a complete understanding of self and group needs and necessities; - combination of certain social entities that has as basic goal education. Of course, as in many cases there are pros and cons regarding positive educations combination impact on individuals. The cons opinion explains that the combination of education will mean a centralized approach towards education that will result in loss of individuality of each type of education. Briefly, it is impossible to totally control the entire process of education, and even centralizing all three types will not assure a full control over this process. Because it is a vast and long lasting process and human being is created to independently learn and assimilate what it is the best for him /her. Informal education talks at its centre of a new set of relationships between the "teacher" and the taught. Formal education is based on an extremely hierarchical relationship between the teacher - seen as the fount of all knowledge - and the students, seen as blank pages that have to be filled up by the teacher's wisdom and knowledge. In an informal educational setting those relationships are changed to lessen the distance between the two "sides" and indeed to change the perception of the relationship between them as one of "sides". Now the teacher and the students become much more of a learning partnership. The teacher/educator becomes a facilitator whose task is to help access the world for the student and to help direct the student towards a self-learning process. He or she does not have to pretend to be omniscient - it is legitimate for a teacher or an educator to say "I don't know - let's find out about it together". This is done on the basis of stimulation, which encourages the student to see the whole of the world as a potential learning framework rather than the walls of the classroom and the voice of the teacher alone. Another aspect of the system is a mutual humanisation of the teacher and the taught. Both begin to perceive each other not as the subject and the object of a learning process but rather as partners - of different status to be sure and with different life experiences - on the same side of the learning process. Moreover, in informal education, more control of the learning process is handed over to the students. They are brought into the decision making process and given more of a say in issues relating to their own studying. This makes for increased responsibility and, if this responsibility is genuine as opposed to merely cosmetic, it increases the involvement of the student and enhances motivation. An informal educational experience loosens the usual norms that we find in many classrooms. For example, first names tend to be used rather than titles and last names, seating arrangements are more flexible, discussions and small group work are prevalent. It is, however, important at this juncture to clarify something that is often misunderstood about informal educational frameworks. Norms are changed - they are not cancelled out. Informal education replaces the norms of formal education with different norms - not with no norms! On the level of the techniques of learning we can stress a number of major things. Firstly, the attempt is made to put the learner in the centre of the learning process. As much as possible, the attempt is made to link up the body of knowledge to be taught with the life situation of the learner. The educator tries to make things relevant. The educator's main responsibility is to the child/student rather than to the body of material. Secondly, the attempt is made to vary as much as possible the techniques of teaching and learning. Any technique that can enhance and stimulate the learning process is seen as legitimate. Drama and role-play, music, art, games - all are seen as legitimate ways to help the student internalise the material that is being presented. The learning is integrated to a maximum extent. The different techniques are seen not as external techniques that should be mastered by the student and thus - as in the case of art and drama for example - can be taught independently as separate disciplines, but as integral parts of the learning process employed to enhance the understanding of the material and the issues being explored. A third variation from the prevailing norm is a wider use of resources outside the classroom and outside of the school to enhance the learning process; children learn from the world and the attempt is made to break down the artificial barriers between the learning environment and the outside world. The learning environment is broadened out to include the wider community involving visits to institutions and to people in the community, and more observation and analysis of the world of "real people" in work-places, community and welfare institutions and actual involvement in certain aspects of the wider community, through group projects and the like. Another major aspect of informal education relates directly to the question of goals. The goals of informal education are always rooted firmly in values. Whatever information is being transmitted through the process, the attempt is made always to link it into a set of values, which represent the calling card of the institution in which the learning is taking place. Knowledge is certainly important but at the top of the pyramid is a series of values that represent the sort of human being that the educational process is trying to produce. Knowledge is at the service of the values; it does not stand independently. This in brief is the world of informal education and even a cursory glance will immediately make clear the difference between the formal educational school system that exists throughout the (Jewish) world and the ideas outlined here.