You are cordially invited to a scientific conference "Outside the Box – The Informal Learning of Adults in a Research Perspective. Trends, Challenges, Opportunities". The event will be held on June 13, 2023 at the Institute’s headquarters and online.
Most Polish adults acquire new knowledge and develop skills through activities conducted outside educational institutions – often in a casual, unstructured manner. This type of learning – informal learning – is a fascinating phenomenon, giving the learner a great deal of freedom, but at the same time difficult to capture in research. Thus, although the percentage of adults learning in this way is, according to various studies, higher than that of participants in non-formal and formal education, informal learning is less frequently addressed in research and academic analysis than other forms.
The conference will provide the opportunity to exchange ideas and discuss various aspects of the informal learning of adults. It will bring together researchers representing both IBE and other academic institutions and serve as a meeting of different scientific disciplines, paradigms and approaches to the study of informal learning.
Conference presentations will focus on three main thematic areas:
● the theoretical and methodological challenges of research in the area of informal learning,
● the factors that foster and constrain informal learning,
● the contexts/circumstances of undertaking informal learning and the benefits it provides to adults.
The keynote speaker will be Prof. Maurice de Greef, head of the UNESCO Chair on Adult Education at Vrije Universiteit Brussels. He will deliver a lecture "The impact of learning: A lever for social inclusion and labour market position".
fot. Niels Cornelis Meijer
Prof. Dr Maurice De Greef is the UNESCO Chair on Adult Education at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, a project partner for TRANSVAL-EU. He published his dissertation (PHD) about the outcomes of adult education. In cooperation with Maastricht University, he realised more than 110 studies in more than 150 communities concerning the impact and success factors of adult education. He has managed local, regional and international projects in innovating learning- environments, strategic policy-making in adult education and developing strategies for approaching learners and realising new courses in local settings. Maurice focuses on conducting studies and initiating projects on the increase of social inclusion of vulnerable populations, (migrants, elderly people, people with lower levels in education or lower skills in literacy) especially through learning. He feels that everyone deserves a second chance by realizing his or her own learning process.
Details on the program and registration will be announced in the first half of May.