2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

A common belief developed throughout human history that children learn principally in schools. The perspective that they are learning primarily in school is being increasingly challenged. Researchers have revealed that children develop content understandings in daily, out-of-school contexts, which often differ from what is taught in classrooms. This means that informal methods may not be taught in traditional school settings. Children often engage in informal settings outside of school while simultaneously dealing with school-taught algorithms and their ineffective application. Although formal school teaching methods may offer powerful tools to enhance cognitive processes, it is vital to comprehend how to effectively connect formal and informal STEM learning. Different strategies have been highlighted in the literature to connect abstract representations in formal learning to practical contexts in informal setups.
A substantial body of research has highlighted the differences and lack of connection between what students learn in school and what happens outside of school. This underscores the importance of analyzing and synthesizing the existing literature by leveraging extensive knowledge to identify the common trends and themes that have developed over time. Themes were developed using qualitative analysis techniques. This review sheds light on the significance of context in formal and informal learning in STEM problem-solving and highlights the strategies for bridging the contextual divide that exists between formal and informal learning environments. The significance of this review is to provide educators with practical implications by providing a theoretical refinement of the concept of formal and informal learning contexts in STEM problem-solving.
Keywords: formal learning, informal learning, mathematics, problem solving, engineering, STEM