Convergence between Formal and Informal Learning Practices: State of the Art and Historical Heritage

The current reflection on the relationship between formal and informal learning brings back to the centre of the discussion a centuries-old contrast between the pedagogical-didactic positions of a cognitive and transmissive structure, and those that come from the practical experiences of activism, which has always been more aware of the needs of the student and of the idea of learning as a discovery and (re)construction of knowledge. Active schools have always been opposed to the managerial forms of traditional methods, favouring the recovery of intrinsic motivations of school work, to the point of theorizing a didactic action that arises spontaneously, informally, from the desires and needs of the students. Think of the experience of Jasnaja Poljana, of the free work for groups of Cousinet, or of the position of Freinet that aims at the convergence of work (therefore specific objectives) and play (therefore absence of constraint). The comparison between formal and informal is already here. To resume this debate means to go beyond the mainly occupational perspective suggested by the Cedefop Guidelines. Although fundamental, this perspective limits the field of reflection to the objectives (validation of learning for the acquisition of formal qualifications or for access to work positions), diverting it from the processes, which are instead the most interesting to hypothesize future educational scenarios in which formal and informal can converge or dialogue. Even the practices of validation of activities must therefore be rethought from the point of view of processes, because what must be interesting is the role of the informal as an element of development of the learning process, not its (inert) acquisition. The rigid regulations and organization of the school perhaps make such a virtuous involvement impossible, but this is not the reason why we cannot hypothesize scenarios in which the two extremes, formal and informal, taking their cue from the experience of activism and pragmatism, meet to reduce the hiatus and increase the general effectiveness of the system. The role of the method is crucial to managing this convergence.