Typology of community-based education as formal, nonformal, and informal processes¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The paper differentiates community-based education into three categories. Formal providers are bureaucratic organizations delivering credential-bearing education with professional educators and little learner control; nonformal providers such as libraries, museums, and YMCAs offer education as a secondary function with voluntary participation and some learner control; informal education is independent of institutional providership, with the community itself as educator and the learner in complete control. The paper states that "Lifelong educational opportunities exist in each community in three distinct educational forms: formal, nonformal, and informal."

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Each process is presented as a valid means of assisting lifelong learners in acquiring and meeting their educational needs

Constraints¶

• In formal settings learners have little control over what and how they are taught; in informal settings a professionally trained educator is in most cases absent

Target Learners¶

• youth and adult community learners

Target Learning Objectives¶

• credential attainment
• voluntary skill and interest learning
• self-directed personally meaningful learning

Claims¶

Related Theories¶

• Framework connecting lifelong education and community through formal, nonformal, and informal providers
• Three-type framework of informal, formal and non-formal education with non-formal education as bridge
• Three dimensions of lifelong education: vertical integration, horizontal integration, and learning to learn
• Coombs' three-category typology of formal, informal and non-formal education, with informal learning as an overarching concept including incidental learning

Examples¶

-

Key Sources¶

• Galbraith, M. W. (1995). Community-Based Organizations and the Delivery of Lifelong Learning Opportunities. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED385253