Formal Education Essay

According to my studies, if we examine the literature around formal education that has appeared in the last thirty years or so, three main traditions or approaches emerge. Each of these has something to say about the nature of formal education and bring out different aspects of the phenomenon (Smith, 2002). Three various approaches of education known as formal, informal and non-formal all play a role in today’s society. Formal Education, (F.E) in the late 1960’s, there was considered a world crisis (Coombs, 1968). Education growth and economical growth were not aligned with each other and it was not producing positive results in the job market. Meanwhile, people probably had loans to pay back and they were not making enough money to do so.

Sarah Eaton, (a key note speaker of informal education) learning that starts from the day we are born to the day we pass. It is often spontaneous, never organized; there are no set formulas or guideline. Examples of informal learning include activities such as teaching your child the alphabet, or how to brush his or her teeth. Informal learning is often spontaneous. Learning happens anywhere, any time. The learner is inspired to learn because of an immediate desire to know how to do something or understand a topic. Or an informal “teacher” sees an opportunity to share their knowledge or wisdom with someone else. There is no curriculum, the person who is teaching has no background, credentials in the specific area and teaches on their lifetime experiences. The world is your classroom. Critics believe informal education is basically worthless and they have the opinion that informal learning is less valuable than formal, prescriptive learning due, in part, to the fact that it is difficult to quantify… and they believe that if it cannot be quantified, it has no value (Eaton, 2012). I understand examples of informal education are, simply having a learning conversation by coincidence, learning from parents, friends and the community or during a company picnic. I believe is it is equally important to have common knowledge as opposed to book knowledge. It is also a variety of specialized programs and institutions for full-time technical