THE INFLUENCE OF PARENTS AND OTHER PEOPLE ON INFORMAL LEARNING AND NON-FORMAL EDUCATION OF CHILDREN 11–15 YEARS OLD

Paper deals with the part of results of wide research concerned on informal learning and non-formal education and leisure activities of children aged 11 – 15 in the Czech Republic. In this paper we discuss the influence of parents and other persons (such as teachers, grandparents, friends) on the decision to do some leisure activity with possible informal learning or non-formal educational effect. The research sample count 700 children and their parents from different counties across the Czech Republic. For the measurement of non-formal educational and informal learning activities we used the categorisation of leisure activities we developed before and which divides these activities into 7 main categories. The non-formal activities, according to Livingstone, were distinguished from those which are informal by the occurrence of curriculum of educational institution. Hypotheses were formulated differently for parents and other persons influence, because we believe there exist crucial difference between the role of parents and other people in this matter. The results of the research confirmed our hypotheses concerning influence of parents on both informal learning and non-formal educational activities of children. We can also declare the influence of teachers on these activities. On the contrary the positive influence of friends and any influence of grandparents and other people were not confirmed.