A Study On Adult Informal Learning

Learning, often than not, presents itself in the adult world as regulative, selective, future-oriented, and vocationally rewarding. For adults, learning is mostly associated with the adult education for diplomas and certificates. Not only does the formal educational system dominate learning resources, learning contents, and learning space for an adult, but it also misplaces the basic value of adult learning, and it even regulates the adult as a person.However, school learning is not necessarily the single way that can appear in adults'life and mind. Informal learning is to bring a different perspective and a fresh world of learning for adults. From the thoughts and practice of Dewey, Knowles, and Lindeman in the beginning of the twentieth century to Marsick and Watkins in the end of the same century, many researchers brought forth their own definitions and theories of informal learning, basically falling into two categories:descriptive definitions of formal and informal learning separately; formality and informality as attributes of learning. Whether informality or informal learning, the recognized feature in common is the increasing control by the learner.Since the 1960s, countries like the US, Canada, and Australia have done large-scale surveys and related researches, which repeatedly verified the prevalence, activeness, and diversity of adult informal learning. Those surveys and researches have nourished the basis and tradition of the inquiry into adult informal learning. Among all this, the research done by Marsick and Watkins has been particularly systematic and in-depth.Outside the school system, informal learning is happening every moment and everywhere. Its frequency and quality inevitably influence the the boundary and richness of adult life. Only by associating informal learning with the development of adults and society can the human significance of informal learning be embodied. Informal learning is interwoven with adult life in his actual living environment and through his social roles. It helps the adult to become whole in his natural state. This wholeness is in agreement with the "being" rather than "having" value, which highlights humanity in its vitality. At the same time, informal learning enables an adult to face the roles that he will fulfill and discover in his lifetime, to realize and liberate himself in his life development and through the times.The process and the result of informal learning directly influence the behaviors of adults, and thus indicate its far-reaching social significance. If the whole society is to be a learning one, learning needs to be joining all the elements of such a society. Informal learning facilitates such connections between people and organizations in a most natural way, formulating a learning society in a genuine sense.In 2009, the British government launched a national adult informal learning movement. The government advocated learning for learning's sake and upheld informal learning as the most practical realization of adults'learning rights. It took the supporting of such learning as its duty, and called upon families, communities, public sectors, working places, etc. to put together funds and technology in an effort to build a friendly and harmonious environment for adult informal learning.In order to bring about more adult informal learning, on the one hand, adults themselves need to realize the importance and charm of informal learning and gain the impetus of learning with more personal control; on the other, official and unofficial forces need to come together and support adult informal learning in terms of policies, publicity, resources and organization. If adult informal learning is not to remain as a utopia, the government, other social forces, and adults themselves need to get into action, releasing the potential power of informal learning, and welcome a learning, and thus a happy China.