The Power of Non-Formal Teaching Methods and Strategies in Education

Nowadays it is important to have a look at different kinds of non-formal teaching methods and strategies to discover their potentialities in enhancing education effectiveness. Thinking beyond the brick-and-mortar walls of the traditional classroom when it comes to learning and preventing early school leaving, non formal education is “any organised educational activity outside the established formal system – whether operating separately or as an important feature of some broader activity – that is intended to serve identifiable learning clienteles and learning objectives” (Philip Coombs, 1973).

The new edition of the course “Non-Formal Education Teaching Methods and Strategies​” took place in  Palermo from 23/08/2026 to 29/08/2026. The participants came from all across Europe: Daniela with 0 Katarína and Denisa from Oravska knižnica Antona Habovštiaka v Dolnom Kubine in Slovakia and Javier from Escola Guillem Fortuny in Spain.

At first, we started exploring visual strategies. Using art and creative thinking in making collages or drawing some topics, the participants tried to stimulate their expression with the use of metaphor. Thanks to different visual activities, we discovered together how art can be an easy way to discuss some topics and to express difficult concepts.

Then, we learned together how role-playing games and storytelling can be used to understand implications of a particular behaviour in a specific context and how it helps to analyse the contribution that each person can give in a particular role position. 

We also learned the importance of team building and team working in education through action-bound activities within a non formal (course) environment: collaborating with other team members can be very productive and it gives each member the opportunity to give their contribute inside the group. 

Debate and speaking games are another kind of non-formal educational activity: these types of games are useful for enhancing cooperative learning and to develop a dialectic approach.

Also, the participants had the chance to get introduced to some ICT tools that can foster the non-formal education environment and serve them as a supporting material in their classrooms whenever they want to practice the non-formal teaching methods. 

After having analysed together the different tools and the various strategies of non-formal  education, each participant had the opportunity to autonomously develop a new tool, to use in their own school context. Thanks to the creativity and the effort of each participant, at the end of the course we collected new practical and creative tools ideated by the teachers.

In conclusion, during these days the participants had the opportunity to experiment innovative methods in a safe and stimulating environment, enhancing skills like teamwork, empathy, and critical thinking, and had the occasion to create new and unique non formal tools!

Discover more about this course here.