Abstract:

The framework of the paper lies within the adult education, the combined forms of university study in particular. The study focuses on the perscpetive of particular non-traditional students in the field of andragogy and their interpretation of informal learning in the context of their studies. A qualitative research design based on semi-structured interviews helps to capture the process of these students´ informal learning in terms of the situations and ways of its presence. The results show that informal learning occurs in predictable and externally stimulated situations during commuting to work or to school as well as during instruction not excluding breaks. On the other hand, the gained data show that students´ informal learning emerges also in spontaneous situations, in the context of self-education. In these situations, the process awaits on the basis of the transfer and share tacit knowledge, based on practical activity and interpretation of reflected experience. Implications are thus made towards planned and realised university curricula as opposed to the current neoliberal pressures.

Keywords:

Informal learning, non-traditional students, andragogy, interview.