The language of non-formal education

 Have you ever crushed down to the cognitive dissonance, whenever you wanted to express your opinion but didn’t receive the accurate information by expressing your opinion? Or probably you took part of some seminars or trainings,in the scope of Erasmus+ program or the ESK, where something wasn’t clear for you. 

Probably you did and it’s such a typical process for non-formal education. Almost every day I write a new text, a story about different workshops, training courses in the field of non-formal education. And everyday I get confused with some words, expressions, that have different meanings and perceptions. Especially for volunteers speaking a foreign language it can get confusing. So in non-formal education there is a special vocabulary, that can be useful while learning a language, and I would like to share some of it with you in order to express our opinions clearly.

Berlin Model

 Imagine, that you are a trainer, and you have to plan your workshop or training course: collect the materials, clarify the learning goals, gather the methods and tools, that you are going to use. The main idea of Berlin Model is to start such a planning from the development of goals and content clarification rather than searching for single methods. So, if you describe all of the processes in one expression you can just sum it up into Berlin Model.

Constructivism

 So as a trainer, you can start speaking about the main topic of your workshop. For example, if you speak about visual communication, you need to focus on the fact, that this concept can be perceived by others differently. It’s based on  background experience. So the main idea of the constructivism is, that learner can’t get the informationdirectly. So if you have a participant in your group  who is a musician, she/he can get a visual communication concept through music. From his/her point of view communication is expressed through music. 

 Or let’s consider on another example. When you speak about European Union, and you say, that it provides many opportunities people around you can perceive this information differently. Probably young people will agree to this position by considering on opportunities: participation of non-formal seminars, trainings, youth exchanges, travelling or studying abroad. So they don't get information directly and can perceive differently. 

Eureka effect

Have you ever suddenly found the solution to some recently incomprehensible issue and just shouted “Aha!!!”. So this process can be described with four defining attributes. After the first attribute, which is “Aha!!!”, there comes the second one: ”Finding a solution of the problem”, that can be solved easily. The third one is the impact of “Aha!!!”, which leads you to the fourth one, which is the experience of “Aha!!!”, that makes you convinced, that the solution is true. So it’s the same as enlightenment.

Empiric learning

According to our experience, empiric learning is the key learning approach. So you can create your knowledge by the interpretation or transformation of one’s own experience. It engages the learners in critical thinking, problem solving and decision making, that are personally relevant to them. So let’s say, it somehow connected the constructivism. You can create your imagination about the topic through the constructive approach, which means using empiric learning by focusing on  different experiences during the training.

Peer to peer- is learning approach and/or a timely restricted process, when well-trained and motivated people transfer their knowledge and form attitudes and skills among people of the same target group (according to the age, social position or interests). Such learning can be both formal, informal and non-formal. So all of these expressions are here to make our minds clear. And beforehand, it’s better to know special vocabulary. So for non-formal education there are some sources, that you can find below to enrich the vocabulary in order to express and perceive the information in a better way.

Sources:

file:///C:/Users/International/Downloads/THK-publications-In-Other-Words-ABC-Of-

Facilitiation-English-revised-small.pdf

http://evokepotential.in/empirical-learning.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_effect