The Research Evidence Against Informal Learning

Asking WHY 5 Times...

• Should you go the Informal Learning route?
• Should you deliberately invest in THAT approach?
• And forgo other investments in Formal Learning?

It is a Business Decision after all. Aren't the "numbers convincing?"

• IF informal learning DID account for 80% or more of "how people learned to do their jobs" - does that make IT the approach to actively support?

Well then...

• IF informal learning DOES account for 80% or more of "how kids learn about sex" - does that make IT the approach to actively support?

Perhaps not.

IF, as Richard Clark, PhD of USC says:

"..., the evidence from the past 50 years of research on this issue is unequivocal – unguided or minimally guided discovery and constructivist learning programs simply do not work for more than a very small percentage of people.

...why is Learning left to chance so much of the time? Why indeed?

Is it possibly due to the "Costs of Non-Conformance" (the costs of doing nothing at all) not comparing well for the "Costs of Conformance" (the costs for doing something: training, incentives, etc.) in an ROI - Return on Investment calculation?

Where is the "Money Being Exchanged?" in the Informal Learning movement...and here you'll find the proponents despite the science....



















I'm all for Formal Learning. But not for every Task for every job.

I'd leave plenty to informal means...where Risks and Rewards don't entice me away to less risky means: Formal Learning.

I'm also more sceptical about concepts such as Learning Styles - because the RESEARCH tells me to be sceptical.

Again...from R. Clark: "Most of our highly popular and successful research-based interventions may work only in very specific settings and only under special conditions. In different settings and conditions they are ineffective and, in some instances, they may significantly damage performance (examples are described in Clark & Estes, 2002)."















Some things to think about.

My book lean-ISD is about a 3-level approach to Instructional Systems Design (ISD) that is: performance-based, accelerated, customer-stakeholder-driven, training & development

The book is available as a free 404-page PDF at http://www.eppic.biz/

Book cover design by Geary A. Rummler.