Background/Context: Rural districts often struggle to provide organizational structures that support knowledge-building and sharing among educators, contributing to the challenge of change implementation in rural contexts. Although prior scholarship identifies social relationships centered on trust as important for fostering educator learning, we…

Qualifications frameworks are tools for describing qualifications of an education or training system by classifying them into levels. Each level provides a clear description of what the holder of a qualification knows, understands and is able to do. They are important tools for making qualifications transparent and comprehensible, within and…

The present article will examine informal learning in popular and jazz music education in Finland and evaluate it as a part of formal upper secondary vocational musicians' training, which is typically teacher directed. It is not necessarily the best model of working in popular and jazz music learning, which has traditionally benefitted from…

This study explores the establishment and evolution of an informal online community, tracing how it developed and evolved. More specifically, the study analyzed the characteristics of the online space, as well as how members engaged within the community, including participation patterns, preferences, and opinions and identity construction. The…

Informal learning in blended and online settings plays an increasingly important role in the continuous professional development of individuals. Yet, how do individuals engage into these types of activities? We argue that social capital theory can provide valuable insights into how people behave and decide to take part in (in)formal learning.…

Agency is a construct facilitating our examination of when and how young people extend their own learning across contexts. However, little is known about the role played by adolescent learners' sense of agency. This paper reports two cases of students' agentively employing and developing science literacy practices--one in Singapore and the other…

The purpose of this narrative case study was to describe the developing teacher identity of Nicole Downing, a first-year teacher in the US, in her use of both formal and informal learning processes. As music education continues embracing approaches like informal music learning, it should also reflect on the voices of teachers in the field. Data…

This dissertation investigated the learning required for individuals to onboard into self-managing organizations (SMOs). Using a qualitative case study approach, 15 participants from various SMOs were interviewed to gain insight into their experiences. In addition, data were collected from a document review and focus group. The study found that:…

Smart learning environments (SLE) provide students with opportunities to interact with learning resources and activities in ways that are customised to their particular learning goals and approaches. A challenge in developing SLEs is providing resources and tasks within a single system that can seamlessly tailor learning experience in terms of…

The use of video streaming services has exploded over the past several years. However, although the use of video is a well-studied topic in computer-assisted language learning literature, the use of video streaming for out-of-class, informal foreign language (FL) learning has received little attention. This study addresses this gap in the…

Making and tinkering is currently gaining traction as an interdisciplinary approach to education. However, little is known about how these activities and explorations in formal and informal learning spaces address the content and skills common to professionals across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. As such, the purpose of this…

The authors of this report explored children's informal learning outside of school and then investigated how this knowledge can enhance teaching and learning practice in the classroom. The authors worked alongside children to develop a conceptual framework of the variations in how Year 5 students learn informally in their everyday lives outside…

Although research has widely recognized the relationships between formal and informal learning and job performance, empirical studies have not paid sufficient attention to these relationships. In addition, there is little understanding how individual perceptions toward learning influence the relationships between the aforementioned two types of…

The purpose of this study was to examine how African American grandmothers caring for their grandchildren promoted literacy for themselves and for the children in their care. A descriptive-qualitative approach to collecting and analyzing data was deemed most appropriate for addressing the study questions. In-depth interviews were held with eight…

In this study, we examine the association between attending a Non-Formal Learning Center (NLFC) in Sokoto and Bauchi states for at least nine months and reading outcomes for out-of-school children (OOSC) who are mainstreamed into formal schooling by grade 4 (P4). We use Hierarchical Linear Modeling with data from 1,116 pupil Early Grade Reading…