Lifelong learning

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Lifelong learning is a term that is widely used in a variety of contexts; however its meaning is often unclear^[1]. The term recognises that learning is not confined to childhood or the classroom, but takes place throughout life and in a range of situations. During the last fifty years, constant scientific and technological innovation and change has had a profound effect on learning needs and styles. Learning can no longer be divided into a place and time to acquire knowledge (school) and a place and time to apply the knowledge acquired (the workplace)^[2].

There are several established contexts for lifelong learning beyond traditional "brick and mortar" schooling:

• Home schooling where this involves learning to learn or the development of informal learning patterns.
  
• Adult education or the acquisition of formal qualifications or work and leisure skills later in life.
  
• Continuing education which often describes extension or not-for-credit courses offered by higher education institutions.
  
• Work-based learning which includes professional development and on-the-job training.
  
• Personal learning environments or self-directed learning using a range of sources and tools including online applications.

Contents 1 Metacognition 2 Learning economy 3 In practice 4 Lifelong learning professionals 5 See also 6 Further reading 7 Notes

[edit] Metacognition

Literally ‘thinking about the process of knowing,’ metacognition refers to “higher order thinking which involves active control over the cognitive processes engaged in learning.”^[3]

Metacognition involves:

• Knowledge: awareness of your own thought processes and learning styles, and knowledge of the strategies that might be used for different learning tasks.
  
• Control or self-regulation: keeping track of your thinking processes, regulating and evaluating them.^[4]

While the study of metacognition originally gave educational psychologists insights into what differentiated successful students from their less successful peers, it is increasingly being used to inform teaching that aims to make students more aware of their learning processes, and show them how to regulate those processes for more effective learning throughout their lives.^[5]

As lifelong learning is "lifelong, lifewide, voluntary, and self-motivated" ^[6] learning to learn (learning how to recognize learning strategies, and monitor and evaluate learning) is a pre-condition for lifelong learning. Metacognition is an essential first step in developing lifelong learning.

[edit] Learning economy

Lifelong learning may be most usefully thought of as a policy response by largely western governments to a changing world. These underlying changes are a move away from manufacturing to a services economy, the emergence of the knowledge economy and the decline of many traditional institutions which has been requiring individuals to become more active in managing their lives.^[7]

This has led to the realization that formal learning, typically concentrated in the earlier stages of life, can no longer sustain an individual throughout their life. These policies and associated government publications reached their height in the 1990s. Extended response by academics pointed out the many flaws in this analysis, but more importantly that this shallow analysis by policy writers provided little real direction.

The European Union adopted a Communication in October 2006 entitled "It's never too late to learn." This document suggests lifelong learning to be the core of the ambitious Lisbon 2010-process, in which the whole of the European Union should become a learning area.

[edit] In practice

In India and elsewhere, the "University of the Third Age" (U3A) provides an example of the almost spontaneous emergence of autonomous learning groups accessing the expertise of their own members in the pursuit of knowledge and shared experience. No prior qualifications and no subsequent certificates feature in this approach to learning for its own sake and, as participants testify, engagement in this type of learning in later life can indeed 'prolong active life'.

In Sweden the successful concept of study circles, an idea launched almost a century ago, still represents a large portion of the adult education provision. The concept has since spread, and for instance, is a common practice in Finland as well. A study circle is one of the most democratic forms of a learning environment that has been created. There are no teachers and the group decides on what content will be covered, scope will be used, as well as a delivery method.

Sometimes lifelong learning aims to provide educational opportunities outside standard educational systems — which can be cost-prohibitive, if it is available at all. On the other hand, formal administrative units devoted to this discipline exist in a number of universities. For example, the 'Academy of Lifelong Learning' is an administrative unit within the University-wide 'Professional and Continuing Studies' unit at the University of Delaware.^[8] Another example is the Jagiellonian University Extension (Wszechnica Uniwersytetu Jagiellonskiego), which is one of the most comprehensive Polish centers for lifelong learning (open learning, organizational learning, community learning).^[9]

In recent years 'Lifelong Learning' has been adopted in the UK as an umbrella term for post-compulsory education that falls outside of the UK Higher Education system - Further Education, Community Education, Work-based Learning and similar voluntary, public sector and commercial settings.

[edit] Lifelong learning professionals

As the Jagiellonian University Extension defines it, there are seven main professional profiles in the Lifelong Learning domain:

• trainer
• coach
• competency assessor
• consultant
• training project manager
• curriculum designer
• mentor

[edit] See also

• Adult education
• Andrew Cohen
• Autonomous learning
• Brain fitness
• Community college
• Continuing Education
• University of the Third Age (U3A)
• Experiential education
• Folkbildning in Scandinavia an approach to community education
• Further education
• History of personal learning environments
• Learning
• Learning Community
• Vocational education
• Widening participation
• Part-Time Learner

[edit] Further reading

• Lifelong Learning and the New Educational Order by John Field (Trentham Books, 2006) ISBN 1-85856-346-1
• The Rapture of Maturity: A Legacy of Lifelong Learning by Charles D. Hayes ISBN 09621979-4-7
• SELF-UNIVERSITY: The Price of Tuition is the Desire to Learn. Your Degree is a Better life by Charles D. Hayes ISBN 0-9621979-0-4
• Beyond the American Dream: Lifelong Learning and the Search for Meaning in a Postmodern World by Charles D. Hayes ISBN 0-9621979-2-0
• Pastore G., Un’altra chance. Il futuro progettato tra formazione e flessibilità, in Mario Aldo Toscano, Homo instabilis. Sociologia della precarietà, Grandevetro/Jaca Book, Milano 2007 ISBN 978-88-16-40804-3

[edit] Notes