Home – Home – Jornals – "Philosophy of Education" 2019 number 1

Introduction. The intention of modern individual to permanent learning has caused a special kind of education - informal education. This kind of education needs a specific theory to form clear guidelines for the creation of educational spaces in any organization and to develop educational initiatives in an open society. The main goal of the paper is to identify the essential roots of informal education and to consider this education not only as an independent, unprogrammed promotion of cultural evolution of the person, but also as the directed and projected improvement of one’s professional and personal abilities. Methodology and methods of the research. The basis for such a study of informal education is the educational philosophy of Paul Natorp, the German thinker of the turn of the century. The problems of providing the possibility of ‘life-wide learning’ and ‘life-long learning’, faced by modern society, could be solved by means of social pedagogics, which is, according to Paul Natorp, «Social conditions of education and educational conditions of social life». Respectively, there is in modern humanities a methodical continuity of social pedagogics and informal education. The results of the research. The rules of informal education have been formulated; principles and methods of its development have been elucidated. In the opinion of the author of the paper, informal education has three forms - spontaneous, directed and projected. The spontaneous one is ‘at every step learning’, if the educational intentions of the individual are highly developed. The cause for spontaneous education can be a meeting with any object that requires getting knowledge. During the formation of an educational space, the organizers appeal to external motivations to stimulate curiosity of a person, deepen the experience of his or her interaction with the world. In this case, we deal with determinate ‘life-wide learning’: directed at any situation and projected for a long-term action. Conclusion. The materials of the paper are of practical value to the leaders of organizations of different types and can be used in teaching pedagogical courses not only for the students of pedagogical specialties of university education.