Three-type framework of informal, formal and non-formal education with non-formal education as bridge¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 1 claim (1 for) · 1 study (1 review), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description¶

The article defines informal education as the ongoing transmission of knowledge, skills, values and attitudes woven into day-to-day community life, and formal education as its systematized, specialized, professionally organized counterpart. Non-formal education is positioned as a third type that "involves a systematization of knowledge, but that kind of knowledge that has immediate and practical relevance and value to learners, mainly adult or out-of-school." The framework holds that non-formal education is "in a good position to bridge these discontinuities" between formal and informal education because it shares systematization with formal education and immediate community relevance with informal education.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Requires knowledge content with immediate and practical relevance and value to learners, mainly adult or out-of-school

Constraints¶

• Because its purpose is short-term and immediate, non-formal education is best equipped to address improvement of current community activities and solution of problems, not long-term disciplinary formation

Target Learners¶

• Adults and out-of-school youth in Philippine communities

Target Learning Objectives¶

• Functional literacy and practical skills relevant to community life and livelihood

Claims¶

• Rizal Experiment showed literacy achieved more quickly in local and national languages but finding glossed over [+W]

Related Theories¶

• Typology of community-based education as formal, nonformal, and informal processes
• Framework connecting lifelong education and community through formal, nonformal, and informal providers
• Coombs' three-category typology of formal, informal and non-formal education, with informal learning as an overarching concept including incidental learning

Examples¶

• Schematic taxonomy of eight types of adult education in the Philippines (Table 2)
• Seven aspects to consider in designing a context-specific community-based literacy and functional education program

Key Sources¶

• Doronila, Maria Luisa C. (1997). A Research and Development Approach to the Delivery of Comprehensive Functional Education and Literacy in the Philippines. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED418217