Learning and enhancing the learning process is quite important cause it is directly related to the evolution of the individual as well as of a country as a whole. In an environment that is constantly changing and requires flexibility and adaptability, the importance of learning, and lifelong learning in particular, is becoming more and more prominent.Non-formal and informal education, which differentiate the framework of the strict educational model of formal education, abolishes the age, economic, and psychological factors that exclude individuals from the cognitive process.
Now, it’s easier than before, to change course, to specialize in something new, and to acquire new skills constantly.
Non-formal and informal education.
Non-formal education was gradually differentiated from the classical educational process of formal education (primary, secondary, tertiary and tertiary education), with three distinctive features:
- adaptation to the needs of specific groups
- targeting clearly defined purposes; and
- the adaptability of knowledge-based methods and providers.
Along with non-formal education, the informal learning process, which involves the individual’s knowledge and know-how from everyday activities (e.g. work), began to be considered as a form of education.
Lifelong non-formal and informal education gives individuals the ability to leverage their knowledge to be productive and flexible. The dissemination of online information, which helps to promote informal learning, has also contributed to this.
But one key question remains:
How do we evaluate the skills acquired through these learning processes?
Evaluation.
Assessment of knowledge and skills is a very important point for recognizing both formal and non-formal education. Efforts are being made to implement evaluation procedures, but especially in Greece, it is at an early stage.
PROFI, a new Erasmus+ KA2 Project, aims to develop an on-line tool to help students make self-evaluation in both formal and informal education. Through this tool, students will be able to create a personal e-portfolio.
