Informal Learning Engagement Research Articles

Learning engagement interventions to enhance diversity, equity and inclusivity culture at workplace

Purpose The aim of this study is to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusiveness (DEI) culture by using individuals’ learning engagement (ILE) as a catalyst with formal and informal learning engagement interventions for sustainable learning and performance. Design/methodology/approach As part of a transdisciplinary study (DEI and learning), a mixed method was used. The data from 16 semi-structured interviews (SSI) with corporate professionals was analysed to create the ILE framework for enhancing DEI culture. A focus group discussion and experimentation were used for validation as triangulation. Findings The suggested ILE framework had a considerable impact on DEI. Findings revealed a positive, statistically significant association between ILE and DEI cultural enhancement describing how participants' ILE experiences impacted their DEI perspectives, demonstrating compelling evidence of DEI culture enhancement. Practical implications This study proposes a sustainable learning approach for a multi-cultural workforce by using the ILE framework for business, HR, DEI and L&D experts to enhance DEI culture. Originality/value The study contributes to DEI and learning engagement domains with a framework for integrating all three elements of DEI by using impactful ILE interventions.

Leadership practices and support structures enabling teachers’ informal learning for educational technology use: an appreciative inquiry approach

ABSTRACT Teachers increasingly turn to informal learning but often encounter challenges in their agency to improve technology integration practices. Through a qualitative paradigm and partly adopting the strength-based Appreciative Inquiry (AI) method, this study explored best leadership practices and considered how teachers’ self-directed learning might be enabled to better support technology use in pedagogy. Applying the discovery and dream phases of AI, the study engaged Ghana’s teachers, headteachers and education officials in constructive phone dialogues to identify practices that foster teachers’ informal learning. Different shared themes emerged through thematic analysis, revealing enabling leadership and support mechanisms contributing to teachers’ self-directed learning. Leadership support from key individuals at home, the district, and the school ecosystem surfaced as enablers for engagement in informal learning during the discovery phase. At the dream stage, teacher motivation, access to computers, headteachers’ leadership for collaborative learning, and dedicated time for independent and informal collaboration were envisioned to nurture teachers’ cointinuing self-directed learning. Findings have implications for education researchers and leaders to transition from deficits towards a strength-based inquiry as a promising tool to uncover inspiring leadership practices, actors, and support structures that cultivate and reinforce teachers’ self-directed learning to supplement formal professional development for technology integration.

The Pedagogy of Intimacy: Mother's Contribution to Academic Parenting during Student's Learning from Home

This essay strives to articulate the pedagogy of intimacy born from mothers' engagement in academic parenting when formal learning shifts from school to home. Redefining parenting and intimacy, mothers implicitly articulated an alternative pedagogy when the space and time of learning during the Covid-19 pandemic move to home. Listening to the self-narratives of mothers who work full time at home, at least part-time, as informants in thisqualitative study, the words "parenting" and "intimacy" were prominent inthe semi-structured interviews. In the pre-pandemic seasons, these wordswere identical to activities at home and were seen as unrelated, at leastlimitedly related, to formal education. Learning from home, especially withmothers' engagement in informal learning during the Covid-19 pandemic,challenges the boundaries of maternal involvement in the formal educationspace. Mothers re-centralize home both as space and as a time for learning.Mothers reiterate their central role as informal teachers, further pedagogues,in children's education. Articulating intimacy's pedagogy, they reclaim homeboth as the steaming time and ubiquitous space for self-determined learning.

Out-of-school experience categories influencing interest in biology of secondary school students by gender: exploration on an Abu Dhabi sample

This study employed the international Relevance of Science Education questionnaire to survey the interest in biology and the out-of-school experiences of Abu Dhabi secondary school students (median age 17, mean age 17.53 and mode age of 16) in the third semester of 2014. It included 3100 participants. An exploratory factor analysis was used to categorise the items for both interest in biology and out-of-school experience. Ten interest in biology and 12 out-of-school experience factors were extracted. The summated means for each factor indicated that ‘health and fitness’ and ‘disease control’ enjoyed highest interests among students. For out-of-school experiences, the two factors of ‘digital applications’ and ‘medical treatment’ received the highest scores. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed that all factors for both interest in biology and out-of-school experience exhibited significant differences between boys and girls. More girls than boys were interested in disease control, reproduction (human biology), alternative science, health and fitness, zoology, and applied cosmetic biology. No significant differences were observed for the remaining five other categories. Furthermore, analysis of variance revealed significant differences between boys and girls with regard to individual items comprising each of the factors. The highest correlations were between the two factors of out-of-school experiences of ‘the natural world’ and ‘learning through observation’ and the interest in biology factor related to ‘plant and animal farming and agriculture’. Results suggested that more emphasis must be placed on students’ out-of-school experience and their engagement in informal learning in contextual outdoor environments to enhance their interest in learning more about biology and the living environment in general.

What are drivers for informal learning?

Purpose – The topic of informal learning at work has received increasing attention in the past years. The purpose of this study is to explore in which informal learning activities employees engage and what are the drivers for informal learning. Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured interviews were taken from ten human resources (HR) and ten marketing employees working at a German machinery manufacturer. Findings – Employees mostly learn informally by talking or collaborating with others, searching information online, feedback giving and seeking from colleagues and supervisors and reading. Next, it was found that organizational drivers, task and job drivers, personal drivers and formal learning influenced employees’ informal learning. Background characteristics on the contrary were not found to influence informal learning. Overall, within these categories, the following drivers had the greatest influence on informal learning: commitment to learning and development, feedback as well as interactions with and support from colleagues and supervisors. Research limitations/implications – The design of this exploratory qualitative study brings some limitations. Based on the findings, suggestions for future quantitative and intervention studies are done. Practical implications – The results show how human resources development (HRD) professionals could better support employees’ engagement in informal learning and gives an overview of the determinants that could be influenced and in turn have a positive effect on employees’ informal learning. Originality/value – This study is one of the first studies unraveling informal learning as perceived by employees. It develops a comprehensive framework for categorizing drivers for informal learning.

TEACHER LEARNING WITHIN THE SCHOOL CONTEXT: AN ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract: Central to teacher professional development is teacher learning, which is situated in a classroom, a school, or an informal social setting. Using an ecological framework which incorporates a wide range of influences at multiple levels, including intrapersonal, interpersonal/ cultural, institutional, and physical environment, this research sets out to explore the influence of the school context on teachers’ engagement in informal learning activities. Data are collected through semi-structured open-ended interviews with six EFL teachers working in different upper secondary schools in Vietnam in an attempt to uncover what types of informal learning activities these teachers engage in and how the school context affects their engagement. Findings show multiple work-based factors that influence teacher learning in the school. The study provides evidence to teacher educators about the relationship between school context and teachers’ degree of engagement in informal learning. Keywords: ecological framework, professional development, informal learning, personal characteristics, teacher learning

Informal Learning among Engineering Technology Teachers

The purpose of this research is to investigate teachesr’ readiness in informal learning. A learning model was develop to help the teachers to understand the state of their readiness in teaching the Engineering Technology subject based on knowledge and management skills. The study was designed to answer questions on method used in of informal learning, factors that influence engagement in informal learning in the workplace, personal characteristic of the teachers, and the organization's learning culture. Using a set of questionnaire, data was collected from a group of Engineering Technology teachers and analysed using min score and percentage.

Work Situations Triggering Participation in Informal Learning in the Workplace: A Case Study of Public School Teachers

Interviews and site visits were conducted with 22 teachers to identify the work situations that trigger their engagement in informal learning and the personal characteristics that enhance their motivation to engage in informal learning when dealing with such situations. Analysis of the data found that three types of work situations triggered engagement in informal learning: new teaching tasks, new leadership roles, and adherence to policies and procedures. Motivation to engage in informal learning was enhanced by teachers' initiative, self-efficacy, commitment to life-long learning, and interest in their content area. Implications of the findings for theory, research, and the facilitation of informal learning are discussed.

Factors that influence informal learning in the workplace

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to investigate factors that influence informal learning in the workplace and the types of informal learning activities people engage in at work. More specifically, the research examined: the relationship between informal learning engagement and the presence of learning organization characteristics; and perceived factors that affect informal learning engagement.Design/methodology/approachWorkplace learning and performance improvement professionals were invited to respond to an anonymous online survey, and 125 professionals volunteered to participate in the study.FindingsThis study did not find a significant correlation between informal learning engagement and the presence of learning organization characteristics. While age and education level did not impact informal learning engagement, it was found that older workers tended to engage in more informal learning. There were also certain types of informal learning activities in which they were most likely to engage. The findings also include rank‐ordered lists of personal and environmental factors that workers perceived to influence their engagement in informal learning.Practical implicationsThe rank‐ordered lists of factors that influence informal learning engagement are likely to be useful to practitioners for prioritizing informal learning interventions. The results of this study suggest that the degree of engagement in informal learning alone would not be a sufficient construct for predicting the presence of learning organization characteristics.Originality/valueVery little empirical research has attempted to connect individual learning to the learning organization concept. This research addresses that gap by examining the relationship between individual informal learning engagement and the presence of learning organization characteristics.

Students' interest in biology and their out-of-school experiences

Interest in biology and the out-of-school experiences of Finnish secondary school pupils (n=3626, median age 15) were surveyed in the spring of 2003 using the international ROSE questionnaire. Likert-scaled items were categorised with an explorative factor analysis. The scores of eight interest-context factors and seven out-of-school experience factors were studied. More boys than girls were interested in basic processes in biology, whilst more girls than boys found human biology and health education interesting. Out-of-school nature experiences were the most important factor correlating with interest in biology. Out-of-school experiences in science and technology-related activities, such as using science kits and constructing models, had the highest correlation with an interest in basic processes in biology, such as ecology, cell biology and genetics. Out-of-school experiences of caring for farm animals correlated with an interest in applied biology, such as agriculture. Experiences linked to design and technology, or information technology, were the least important factors to correlate with any studied interest contexts. Thus to enhance pupils' interest in learning more about biology and the living environment in general, it is important to put more emphasis on pupils' out-of-school nature experience and their engagement in informal learning in contextual outdoor environments.