Abstract

Education in the informal educational environment is very important in terms of being able to provide essential knowledge that formal education cannot provide. But the reality is that there is no research on how the study of ISL has been done from the past to the present. Thus, this paper seeks to compare and analyze the recent research trends of papers relating to ISL published within a specific timeframe. The target research papers for analysis are based on ISL-related academic dissertations, articles and research reports, which were located via Google and Google Scholar, within the period of 2010 to 2019. Each research paper was classified into 8 indicators: ‘Paper Type’, ‘ISL Type’, ‘Research Design’, ‘Subject of study’, ‘GLO Type’ and ‘Country’, which were then analyzed accordingly and tested for suitability through 'Chi-Square Test'. The study of ISL was led by the United States and the United Kingdom and there was no significant difference by year. Most of the research samples tended to converge towards ‘Empirical research articles’ and ‘Position papers’, with studies on ISL also mostly containing information related to advice, recommendation and support. It was found that the researchers were using ISL in order to pursue ‘Knowledge and Understanding’ and ‘Attitudes and Values’, of the 5 indicators of the ‘GLO’. In contrast, they were found to have the least expectations for ‘Skills’ and ‘Enjoyment, Inspiration and Creativity’, suggesting the need for future improvement in these areas. Although this paper suffers from limitation with regards to time period as it focuses on research work published from 2010 to 2019, it attempts to suggest a direction for program development and research for various educational practitioners working in ‘ISL’. Also, it hopes to provide a good opportunity for institutions using ‘ISL’ in the field, as well as teachers and future researchers.

Key words: Education, Informal science learning, Out-of-school, Non-formal, GLO.