INFORMAL EDUCATION takes place outside schools and is mediated by resources and resource people in the community. The first several sites provide in-depth thinking from Great Britain, where education for the full flourishing of human potential has become the core idea. Other conceptions, including museum and exploratorium resources in math and science, and dropout prevention follow.

Suggested implications for education?

We must move away from a view of education as a rite of passage involving the acquisition of enough knowledge and qualifications to acquire and adult station in life. The point of education should not be to inculcate a body of knowledge, but to develop capabilities: the basic ones of literacy and numeracy as well as the capability to act responsibly towards others, to take initiative and to work creatively and collaboratively. The most important capability, and the one which traditional education is worst at creating, is the ability and yearning to carry on learning. Too much schooling kills off a desire to learn.... Schools and universities should become more like hubs of learning, within the community, capable of extending into the community... More learning needs to be done at home, in offices and kitchens, in the contexts where knowledge is deployed to solve problems and add value to people's lives. (Charles Leadbeater, The Weightless Society, 2000: 226-227)

INFORMAL EDUCATION

  1. The Informal Education Homepage
  2. Keywords -- Central ideas of informal education
  3. Calling and Informal Education
  4. A Brief Introduction to Holistic Education
  5. Institute for People's Education and Action Bookshop
  6. Popular Education ToolKit
  7. Cobscook Community Learning Center
  8. The Odyssey School -- An Expeditionary Learning Community Chartered by Denver Public Schools
  9. What Is Expeditionary Learning?
  10. The Whole Child Catalog Project
  11. Project Coffee -- An Alternative Education Program Specializing in Dropout Prevention and Reconnection
  12. Informal Science Education

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