Determination of pre-service teachers' views on the informal learning environments

The aim of this research is to determine the pre-service teachers' views on the informal learning environments in the context of demographic characteristics and informal learning situation / tools. With informal learning as part of lifelong learning, individuals have the opportunity to improve themselves to keep up with changing living conditions. Informal learning environments provide rich learning content, thus they provide experiential learning and active participation. Screening model has been used in the research. The sampling of this research is the pre-service teachers' studying at the faculties of education of Yıldız Technical University, Bartın University, Anadolu University, Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University, Gaziosmanpaşa University and Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University in the academic year of 2017-2018. The data for the research have been obtained from the personal details forum and which has been developed by the researcher and from the "Informal learning environments Scale, which have been developed by the researcher. SPSS-25.0 packaged software has been used for the analysis of the statistical data. As the data obtained from the study did not show normal distribution, Kruskal Wallis H-Test and Mann Whitney U-Test which are non-parametric tests were used in the analyses. Mann Whitney U-Test and Bonferroni correction were used when there was a significant difference after the comparisons and the source of the difference was determined. According to the findings, it was determined that pre-service teachers have benefited from informal learning environments at medium level and they have had a medium level learning. While they had a high level of learning thanks to trips to historical places, nature centres, national parks and social club activities, they had a lower level of learning in trips to science centres, industrial establishments and production centres. According to the views on informal learning environments of pre-service teachers there was a significant difference in terms of gender variable in favour of the females pre-service teachers; in terms of university variable in favour of Bartın, Anadolu and Nevşehir Hacı Bektaşi Veli Universities; in terms of department variable in favour of science and social studies programs; in terms of mother's education level in favour of the mothers with university degrees and illiterate mother. Considering mother's job, father's education level and father's job variables, there was no significant difference. There is no significant difference in the opinions of pre-service teachers about the informal learning environments according to the daily time variable allocated for watching television and the programs they preferred to watch the most on television. There is no significant difference in the opinions of pre-service teachers in terms of the daily time spent visiting web pages and the pages of the most visited pages on the web sites variables. Considering spending daily time to read book variable, there is no significant difference in the opinions of pre-service teachers. In terms of the type of books variable, there is no significant difference. According to the findings of the study, the quantity and quality of the studies about informal learning and informal learning environments should be increased. Keywords: Life long learning, informal learning and informal learning environments, pre- service teachers