The importance of informal learning

By Jill N. Reich, PhD
Executive Director for Education

It takes a community to grow a scholar. Several recent reports and events have caused this phrase to rumble in my mind over the past few weeks. It?s not because of the well-worn cliché about communities and the various permutations that circulate these days in Washington. Rather, I think that the start of another academic year again brings to the forefront reminders of all the people that contribute to the development of an educated person in general and a psychologist in particular.

Yet the more informal parts of our education system are often overlooked, in terms of both their supply and their demand. Few faculty have time for the Mr. Chips?s role of yore even if students were open to such intense scrutiny. So too, our students have complex lives of school, families and often heavy work schedules necessitated by the need to fund the schooling and feed the families. And too often we have not figured out what part of that informal education is essential to learning and scholarly development and what options there are for providing these kinds of learning opportunities consistent with today?s world, needs and pressures.

Opportunities to learn about mentoring

Beginning in the September Monitor, President-elect Dick Suinn initiated a series on mentoring that will make important contributions to this matter. Throughout this academic year, you will learn about a variety of ways that groups and individuals are serving as mentors across a wide range of interest areas, career questions, problem-solving and the many personal and professional social and emotional growth issues we all face throughout our careers. This series will bring attention to the work of mentors in traditional academic settings as well as mentoring opportunities available through technology, through APA divisions and state organizations, through networks and in community settings. Its range speaks to the scope of issues that we need to learn about and the range of people we can learn from. As I discover more about the creative ways our colleagues have solved problems and passed along their wisdom, I am once again struck by the richness of our discipline.

Crossing traditional boundaries

One aspect of mentoring that is often overlooked is that which occurs between and among students?advanced to beginner, young to old, or vice versa depending on the topic and expertise. An important part of mentoring is that it can cross traditional boundaries, depending on expertise rather than on rigid definitions of student and teacher. Surveys of college seniors regularly reveal that they feel they learn almost as much from their fellow undergraduates as they do from their textbooks and professors.

In this regard, I was struck by the learning opportunities underscored in the recent work of William G. Bowen and Derek Bok on the benefits of affirmative action. Most reports of their recent book, 'The Shape of the River: Long-term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions,' point to the important demonstration that black graduates of elite schools go on to successful and productive careers, earning advanced degrees and finding good jobs, leading civic endeavors of many kinds and 'giving something back' outside the workplace as well as in it. These results are not surprising to those of us who have had the pleasure of working with a diverse student body, but it is good to have the data on our side.

This study also reports that students in all three cohorts (the freshmen classes of 1951, 1976 and 1989) agree, black and white, that their education benefited from the presence of a diverse student body. Of the many thousands of participants in this study, well over half reported significant transracial interaction during their undergraduate years from which they got to know members of other races well. The vast majority of participants in this study believe that going to college with a diverse body of fellow students made a valuable contribution to their education and personal development.

In other words, affirmative action policies that are still so necessary to achieve diversity in our colleges and universities are necessary to enhance learning?for everyone. We all have a very personal stake in achieving diversity in our learning environment, not just because of equity?although that is very important. Not just because it means a more successful and productive group of minority professionals and contributors to the social good?although that is very important. But because it is necessary to the education and success of each and every American.