Informal Education in Preliterate Societies
Preliterate societies existed before the invention of reading and wiling. These societies have no written language and are characterized by very basic technology and a simple division of labor. Daily activity often centers around the struggle to survive against natural forces, and the earliest forms of education are survival oriented. People in these societies acquire knowledge and skills through informal education-« learning that occurs in a spontaneous, unplanned way. rough direct informal education, parents and other members of the group provide information about how to gather food. find shelter,
make weapons and tools, and get along with others. For example, a boy might learn skills such as hunting. gathering, fishing. and farming from his father. whereas a girl might learn from her other how to plant. gather, and prepare food or howto take care of her younger sisters and brothers. Such informal education often occurs through storytelling or ritual ceremonies that convey cultural messages and provide behavioral norms. Over time, the knowledge shared through informal education may become the moral code of the group.
Formal Education in Pr Industrial, Industrial, and Postindustrial Societies
Although postindustrial societies have a written language, few people know how to read and write. and formal education is often reserved or he privileged. Education becomes more formalized in postindustrial and industrial societies. Formal education is learning that takes place within an academic setting such as a school, which has a planned instructional process and teachers who convey specific knowledge, skills, and thinking processes to students. Perhaps the earliest formal education the social institution responsible for the systematic transmission f knowledge. skills.and cultural values within a formally organized structure.
cultural transmission the process by which children and recent immigrants become acquainted with the dominant cultural beliefs, values, norms, and accumulated knowledge of a society. Informal education learning that occurs in a spontaneous, unplanned way. formal education learning that takes place within an academic setting ch s a school, which has a planned instructional process and teachers who convey specific knowledge, skills, and thinking processes to students.
