Informal Learning: A New Model for Making Sense of Experience

Citation

Holden, R. (2009), "Informal Learning: A New Model for Making Sense of Experience", Education + Training, Vol. 51 No. 1, pp. 84-85. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400910910931850

In this new text on informal learning the author revisits experiential learning on the grounds that that it is simply the most important process for each and every individual in their journey through life. The case is powerfully made. In much of the developed world learning is synonymous with the formal, structured processes that involve teachers, lecturers or trainers. Thus, any text which seeks to re‐dress this balance is worthy of our attention and that from Davies is no exception. At the heart of the book is a notion that simplicity – we all learn experientially all the time and often unconsciously – masks a degree of complexity. It is Davies's goal to “unpack” this complexity, to provide the reader with a “common sense”, but not simplistic, understanding of this critical process.

It is the model which provides the structure of the book. Having just assessed over 60 “reflective portfolios” for a group of second year undergraduates, 90 per cent of whom took me round the Kolb cycle, it is just so refreshing to see a new take on this – highly influential but over‐used – model. The essence of the model addresses twelve “elements” and the dynamics between these elements. These can be grouped, roughly, into three. Some, for example, “own observations”, “fellow participants observations”, “formal knowledge”, have a similarity in that all are potential sources of information. The second group are a more disparate bundle of factors including, for example, expectations, emotions and learning orientation. It was useful to see the author including memory as one such factor. I sometimes think this gets overlooked in discussions of experiential learning; relegated to relevance only within earlier cognitive and behavioural thinking on learning. The third group is not really a group because it is just one factor: reflection. Davies acknowledges that this element is central to most of the writings on experiential learning, tending to be dealt with at some length. Again this text is no exception. His notion of reflection as some kind of prism I found useful. Just as a prism splits light into a number of components so reflection might be thought of as separating out “discrete streams of lessons from an experience”.

This said, it is nonetheless this theme that ultimately I found somewhat disappointing in the book. Reflecting on why I felt this was the case I drew the conclusion that it was probably because of my “learning orientation” (a factor in Davies model, see above) as I read the book. Having to design a new skills module within a Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development programme I was half hoping for some neat device or simple solution to overcome what seems to have become a problem in recent years – an apparent negative reaction on behalf of students to reflective learning and a disdain for learning logs etc. No such “easy” solution is to be found in this text and almost certainly it is an unrealistic “expectation” (to note another of Davies's model elements).

A conundrum facing many teachers and educators who acknowledge the power of informal learning is whether and how they can add value to the informal by making it more formal. The danger, of course, is that this laudable aspiration can backfire. Davies steers clear of this “trap” by keeping his analysis firmly anchored in the informal. The approach adopted is research based, albeit with a fairly “select” bunch of respondents. Depth interviews were undertaken with the author's “research colleagues” as he pursued a doctoral programme at Lancaster University. Indeed we get to know some of Davies respondents quite well – they, and their scenarios usefully re‐appear throughout book

The material is plainly written and excellently illustrated – in part through these short case scenarios drawn from the author's respondents. The author also includes a series of “points for exploration” at the end of each chapter. My only criticism of these would be of a missed opportunity to push the reader to “explore” additional and related literature/research.

Who might the find the book useful? The publicity material accompanying new books such as this often makes hugely ambitious claims as to its readership. For “Informal Learning” it says “the book is written for a wide readership that includes both learning practitioners and students”. I would not disagree with this. I shall certainly use the book both in the design and delivery of the skills module I refer to above and more widely in my teaching of human resource development.