Purpose: Many studies point out that a complication in the professional training is connected with the division of education into the formal and non-formal part. There is a need to integrate these two components to achieve a greater learning effect. The aim of the study is to find out whether students perceive non-formal education as important and…

This study explored the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) attitudes and self-efficacy of secondary students identifying as Black South African, multi-racial or Afrikaans South African, or Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe nationals who participated in a non-formal STEM education camp programme. Using Bandura's social cognitive…

Non-formal learning settings like out-of-school labs provide students with insights into authentic learning situations. For example, in physics, students are engaged in experimenting as an authentic method. However, increasing the authenticity in experimentation can lead to overwhelming demands and hinder concept development and does not even need…

A reformed national curriculum has introduced transformative and sociocultural learning elements to the Finnish education system. In addition, sustainability and outdoor education remain pressing issues for Finnish educators. We conducted a content analysis of the views of outdoor education held by student teachers enrolled in first-year…

The Oswaldo Cruz Scientific Vocation Program is a scientific initiation educational program for High School students, in Biological, Health, Human, and Social Sciences areas. We consider that living in less advantaged neighborhoods impacts on the students, advisors and co-advisors' emotions. In this paper, to illustrate our hypothesis, we selected…

For many years empirical studies have repeatedly pointed to the need to improve the economic competence of adolescent and young adults. This demand is already reflected -- at least in part -- in the inclusion of economic content in the curriculum of general educational schools. However, the curricular implementation seems to be only partially…

The need for non-formal education (NFE), which does not result in a formal degree or certificate, is substantial as labour markets often require adult workers to take an initiative in advancing their job-related skills. Yet, NFE opportunities are more often pursued by high-income and high-skilled adults than their low-income and low-skilled…

This quantitative study examined the current level of literacy skills of three cohorts of learners after they completed a non-formal basic literacy programme in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The purpose of the study, conducted in late 2019, was to identify major factors that influenced the maintenance of their levels of reading and calculating skills. The…

Access to quality basic and tertiary education has been the primary concern of the Philippine government. The World Bank has reported that a high percentage of Filipino Alternative Learning System (ALS) graduates are enrolled in tertiary education. However, little is known on their transition from basic to tertiary education specifically focused…

In the last two decades, several studies have reported on the benefits of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) on students' affective and cognitive gains. These studies, however, have mainly concentrated on the implementation of CLIL within the formal (school) context, with very little research on its impact in non-formal…

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine a group of adult students' learning world languages, literacies, and cultures and their experiences in the World Language and Culture Program (WLCP) at a large western land-grant university in the United States during the spring of 2019. I (the author and primary investigator) am the developer and…

Student giftedness is a complex, developmentally dynamic and contextual phenomenon that teachers confront every day. In the classroom, teachers often meet students who have exceptional potential or achieve very high learning goals. The aim of this study is to illustrate the evaluation of inquiry-based learning activities in a specific context…

The Model International Criminal Court (MICC) was launched in 2005 and has been pushing boundaries of non-formal education. Topics such as crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide were adapted to a methodology and pedagogy suitable for high school students. This non-formal education project has also sparked successful spin-off educational…

The aim of the present study was to develop an attitude scale to measure students' attitudes toward out-of-school learning activities (OoSLA). The study was conducted with two separate study groups consisting of a total of 620 students. Expert opinion was sought on the content validity and face validity of the scale. An Exploratory Factor Analysis…

The primary objective of the current project was to convey authentic science to students in out-of-school student laboratories. High school students have diverse and partially wrong concepts of scientists' work. To convey more realistic concepts, we developed videos of scientists working on relevant and up to date scientific topics. These videos,…