Formal, informal, and incidental learning: how recreational-diving instructors achieve competency

Abstract

Scholarly, commercial, and anecdotal argument around the tensions between formal and informal learning have produced perplexing perspectives on the validation of workplace competencies and qualifications. This chapter explores one site where these complexities produce various tales and notions of work readiness regarding instructors within the recreational-diving industry. The chapter begins with voices that extoll the virtues of formal learning through a set curriculum being pitted against those that highlight the value inherent in informal learning. It positions informal learning as the means through which gaps in the diving curriculum might be filled, and promotes raising the diving industry's consciousness on the use of incidental learning experiences as important activities that enable the production of all-round competent diving instructors. Data gained from interviews and observational studies indicate that in this context there is a presumption that informal and incidental learning processes work together more effectively to attain instructor competence as opposed to prior formal training. Although the informal processes are not entirely unpredictable, little recognition is given to their importance or the fact that improved leadership in this regard can create greater opportunity for both instructor development and organizational growth.