Lifelong Learning Experiences Research Articles

Job Service Specialists’ Lifelong Learning Experience in Taiwan: A Qualitative Study

Lifelong learning is a key element that helps adults undergo and adapt to different career stages. This study analyzed job service specialists’ lifelong learning experience of successfully matching the needs between job seekers and employers. The researchers adopted the qualitative research method and conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 11 outstanding-performing job service specialists to collect their learning experiences. The findings were that: (a) Job service specialists improve their professional competencies through formal education (Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees), non-formal education (obtaining licenses and participating in training programs), and informal learning (self-directed learning and seeking others’ experiences). (b) Job service specialists’ duties include understanding job seekers’ backgrounds, needs, motivations, expectations, career plans, and previous training experiences; job application assistance; and regular follow-ups. (c) The greatest difficulties job service specialists encounter are insufficient understanding of job seekers’ physiological and psychological characteristics and job seekers’ and employers’ needs. (d) Job service specialists can effectively match jobs for job seekers and fulfill employers’ needs by learning continuously in workplaces. These results can provide a reference for government agencies to design continuing education programs for job service specialists to promote their professional competencies.

How Coaches Make Improvements in Coaching Practice

Sport coaching involves continuous learning as coaches seek to manage the complexity of the sport environment, address the ever-changing aspects of their sport, and find more effective and efficient ways to promote athlete development and maintain a competitive advantage. Therefore, coaches regularly find themselves in situations where they need to strive for continuous learning and improvement, a core coaching responsibility in the National Standards for Sport Coaches. This article presents information on how coaches can engage in lifelong learning experiences and reflective practice to make slow and steady change to improve their coaching practice and provide an even better experience for their athletes.

“Learning is Like a Preservative”: Lifelong Learning as Leisure

Lifelong learning is an activity undertaken throughout one’s life to gain knowledge, skills, and values. Lifelong learning plays a significant role in society as well as in the lives of older adults. This study aimed to explore the concept of lifelong learning as leisure and the lifelong learning experiences of middle-aged and older adults. We recruited 14 lifelong learning students (male: 7, female: 7), whose ages ranged from 50 to 78 years (mean age = 54.9 years). We conducted in-depth interviews and used interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) to derive five central themes, namely, from leisure to work, challenges of learning, the joy of efforts, interpersonal and intrapersonal benefits, and student identity. The findings demonstrate the value of lifelong learning in later life and the benefits of lifelong learning as leisure.

Arabic Language Teaching for Children Based on Gender Equality Values

The pursuit of Arabic language proficiency is a reflection of lifelong learning experiences as well as efforts during schooling. Learning the mother tongue is an integral part of people's understanding of culture, history, and current society. This paper examines the role of gender equality and proactive attitudes in teaching Arabic to children in a typical Indonesian school environment. The aim of this research is to explore gender awareness when teaching Arabic as an official subject in full-day schools. This research uses descriptive-analytical methods, data includes observation techniques, and textbook reviews. Data was collected through analysis of textbooks (cover, content and images), and continued with examination of teacher instructions when interacting with students. The research results show that there are traditional gender roles in learning Arabic at school. Based on an analysis of the textbook series "Aku Cinta Bahasa Arab" or "I Love Arabic", it can be concluded that there is a gender bias in Arabic textbooks used in the school environment. The research has implications for increasing teachers' understanding of gender values to socialize gender values in the subjects they teach.

Textbook Evaluation Criteria and Learning Achievement in Secondary Schools in Kenya and Japan: Addressing Instructional Content and Pedagogy

Knowledge and skills are enhanced if instructional content support lively learning experiences for increased learner achievement. Study presents literature review of related literature on textbook evaluation criteria in secondary education in Kenya and Japan. Assessing quality of instructional content has enhanced effective teaching and learning in secondary schools in Kenya promoting self-efficacy among learners. However in instances where techniques of presenting instructional content do not accommodate learner centered approach learning outcome is propelled resulting in success in learning. Research question for this study is focused on relationship between evaluation criteria in Kenya and Japanese system of education. The study dimensions include teaching methods and instructional content. The purpose of this desk review is to establish suitability of evaluation criteria in promoting learning achievement in Kenya and Japanese system of education. Design adopted for this study is systematic literature review in the area of pedagogy, instructional content and evaluation Criteria. The articles reviewed are those published in the last five years from global view point and African perspective. The study concluded that both Kenya and Japan offer business studies at secondary level and that both of the countries encourage learner centered pedagogical technique to enhance academic outcome. The study recommends that Kenya improves on content presentation to integrate digital textbooks to enhance online learning for lifelong learning experience.

A Study on Effectiveness of Industrial Talk Approaches for Geology Course

An industrial talk program that includes participation and cooperation from the industry has been introduced in an endeavor to produce professional and competent engineers. The Diploma in Civil Engineering Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) student program has recommended the implementation of industrial talks and site visits. One of the course codes that has been designed with industry involvement is Geology (ECG253). The programme outcomes (PO7) component related to sustainability and the environment is the major focus of this course's industrial talk. In order to validate the suggested event has achieved the targeted POs, a survey was conducted to the student who attended this industrial talk. The purpose of the survey is to study the effectiveness of the industrial talk towards the advancement of knowledge of the students related to the exposure of the industry. A total number of 180 students took the survey, and a qualitative analysis was done. The outcome of this study showed that 97 percent of the student participated in the survey agreed that the industrial talk give a positive impact to the student development. It can be said that the implementation of the industrial talk to the students give a good impact to their lifelong learning experiences and nurture them on the preparation of work environment.

A lifelong (Informal) Learning Experience in Architectural Design Education: The Case of KBU Department of Architecture with Competitions

In Today's conditions, where the information flow is intense, it is known that the education given only in schools is insufficient for architectural education, and the importance of individual development outside of school is increasing. Competitions, whose educational contributions many studies also draw attention to, are one of the essential alternatives for this personal development. It is vital to raise architecture students’ awareness by motivating them to improve their individual experiences thanks to competitions. In this context, a series of competition experiences were held with Karabük University (KBU) architecture students with a promising approach, which is not uncommon in the architectural education process. These national-level competitions based on different contexts were carried out under the authors’ design studio studies. A survey study on these competition experiences has been conducted with contestant and non-contestant students. The survey results were evaluated within the framework of the observations made during the competition and the information obtained from similar studies in the literature mentioned here. As a consequence of this study, positive outcomes were obtained, especially in terms of students' self-confidence and collaboration, with the experimental research carried out at the intersection of professional experience and lifelong learning. It has also been confirmed that competition experiences are an essential motivational tool.

New Managerialism: The Educational Executives’ Selection Policies in the Educational Administration in Greece

This study attempted to explore the impact of New Public Management policies on the selection process of the educational executives in Greece, in the 1981-2020 period. For this purpose, primary and secondary sources were examined, i.e.: institutional and legislative texts issued by the Greek Department of Education during that period as well as the relevant literature on the topic. Data analysis revealed that during the first two decades the selection policies and practices for the educational executives’ post had constantly focused on the teaching experience as the main asset for the candidate teachers. The advent of the new millennium coincided with a shift in the country’s educational administration system. In particular, the selection criteria were enriched being complemented with the scientific knowledge and the managerial skills along with teachers’ academic qualifications, professional development, and their lifelong learning experiences. In this way, the Greek state appeared to follow the international trends and to adopt specific elements ascribed to the New Public Management approach. In conclusion, the New Managerialism challenges on the educational administration in Greece unveiled invisible aspects of the current transformation taking place in the public sector, which unavoidably drove to major configurations or even reversed the status quo of the bureaucratically organized educational systems.

Revisiting the Faure report: Contemporary legacy and challenged legitimacy

Since its publication in 1972, the Faure report has been regarded as a foundational text on the subject of lifelong learning, offering a plethora of ideas and repertoires. This article contemplates why and how the notions of self-fulfilment and self-learning are interrelated and profoundly important in understanding contemporary lifelong learning discourses, and how both have been appropriated by subsequent policy texts embedded in neoliberal thinking. The author argues that pursuing lifelong learning for self-fulfilment becomes voluntary self-exploitation as the individual’s desire to learn unwittingly becomes driven by the instinct to survive and thrive in neoliberal socio-political environments. He also demonstrates that the ideas and repertoires provided in the Faure report function as a fertile ground for lifelong learning discourses, even though the abundant mix of ideas and propositions make it difficult to view the report as an ideologically coherent and conceptually tight-knit blueprint for the future of education. Nonetheless, the author argues that the legacy of the Faure report is still valid beyond its historical specificity. He points out that when read within the context of the unprecedented worldwide experience of COVID-19, the Faure report’s proposition and reservations regarding mass media and cybernetics can shed light on the potential for contemporary technologies to strengthen emancipatory experiences of lifelong learning. Reflecting on this, he suggests that it is necessary to think collectively about how we can appreciate and harness technological innovation as an emancipatory tool to liberate ourselves from ignorance and prejudice through borderless and limitless connections to others, and to learn how to live with them.

An efficient system using implicit feedback and lifelong learning approach to improve recommendation

This paper presents a new technique for contextual item-to-item Collaborative Filtering-based Recommender System, an improved version popularised by e-commerce giant Amazon two decades back. The concept is based on items also-viewed under the same browsing session. Users’ browsing patterns, locations, and timestamps are considered as the context and latent factors for each user. The algorithm computes recommendations based on users’ implicit endorsements by clicks. The algorithm does not enforce the user to log in to provide recommendations and is capable of providing accurate recommendations for non-logged-in users and with a setting where the system is unaware of users’ preferences and profile data (non-logged-in users). This research takes the cue from human lifelong incremental learning experience applied to machine learning on a large volume of the data pool. First, all historical data is gathered from collectable sources in a distributed manner through big data tools. Then, a long-running batch job creates the initial model and saves it to Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS). An ever-running streaming job loads the model from HDFS and builds on top of it in an incremental fashion. At the architectural level, this resembles the big data mix processing Lambda Architecture. The recommendation is computed based on a proposed equation for a weighted sum between near real-time and historical batch data. Real-time and batch processing engines act as autonomous Multi-agent systems in collaboration. We propose an ensemble method for batch-stream the recommendation engine. We introduce a novel Lifelong Learning Model for recommendation through Multi-agent Lambda Architecture. The recommender system incrementally updates its model on streaming datasets to improve over time.

Analysis of Transformational Teaching as a Philosophical Foundation for Effective Classrooms

Nowadays, many classrooms are content-based and, therefore, disadvantage students from gaining lifelong skills that could support them in their future endeavours. This study proposed transformational teaching as a veritable strategy for effective classrooms where teaching and learning are taken beyond content delivery. This theory enables teachers/instructors/lecturers to promote expressive change that could lead to life-changing experiences among students. The study answers the following question: How can transformational teaching be presented as a stimulative teaching strategy for effective classrooms. The study is located within the transformative paradigm and designed with concept analysis, where the principles of transformational teaching are conceptualised and analysed using thematic analysis. The study was implemented by exploring the theory, its assumptions, and the connections between the theory and classroom activities. The study found that when effectively implemented in the classrooms, transformational teaching will enhance students’ lifelong learning experiences and contribute to a productive society. The study further recommends that teachers and students adopt transformational principles/strategies in curriculum facilitation (in the teaching and learning activities).

Effectiveness of Instructional Strategies Designed for Older Adults in Learning Digital Technologies: A Systematic Literature Review.

An ageing population is a universal phenomenon experienced worldwide. In parallel with these demographic changes, a significant breakthrough in digital devices has also influenced this digital age. Designing instructional strategies to promote meaningful learning among older adult learners has been a long-standing challenge. To enhance older adults’ life-long learning experiences, implementing instructional strategies in the process through which such adults learn can help to improve effective learning. Despite significant calls for research in this area, there is still insufficient research that systematically reviews the existing literature on older adult learning needs and preferences. Hence, in the present article, a systematic literature review was conducted of the effectiveness of instructional strategies designed for older adult learners through the use of digital technologies. The review was guided by the publication standard, which is ROSES (Reporting Standard for Systematic Evidence Syntheses). This study involves articles selected from two established databases, Web of Science and Scopus. Data from the articles were then analysed using the thematic analysis, which resulted in six main themes: (1) collaborative learning; (2) informal learning setting; (3) teaching aids; (4) pertinence; (5) lesson design; and (6) obtaining and providing feedback. The six main themes produced a further 15 sub-themes. The results from this study make significant contributions in the areas of instructional design and gerontology. The findings from this study highlight several important strategies of teaching digital technology, particularly for older adults, as follows: (1) to enhance instructional design use in teaching digital technology based on the needs and preferences of older adult learners; and (2) to highlight the factors for, and impact of, learning digital technologies among older adults.

The Visionary Pros of Artificial Intelligence in Museum Education

It is not only the diversity of the objects exhibited but also the methods used to convey the information about these objects that make museums survive. The purpose of these methods is to transfer the museum collection to the future accurately and effectively. While museums host many cultural values, they also aim to make the methods of transferring information about these values qualified and universal. As the perception of the twenty-first century museum visitor profile is shaped by technology, their expectations for the museum experience have also increased. The museum education field, which develops with the modern understanding of museums and provides a lifelong learning experience to the visitors, has an important role in information transfer. Thus, the use of developing technologies in museum education can be beneficial for museum visitors. This study offers a new method proposal that aims to use artificial intelligence, which is considered to be the most important technological development of the twenty-first century in the field of museum education in order to transfer the information about exhibition objects in the most effective way.

Technological Solutions for Sustainable Development: Effects of a Visual Prompt Scaffolding-Based Virtual Reality Approach on EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension, Learning Attitude, Motivation, and Anxiety

As is indicated by the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 4, it is crucial to have access to inclusive and quality education for all. For English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, reading English is a basic skill for learners to acquire and exchange information and to have lifelong learning experiences. To provide a vivid EFL learning environment, a visual prompt scaffolding-based VR (VPS-VR) approach was proposed to enhance students’ reading comprehension skills. To investigate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted in an English reading course at a Chinese university. Students from experimental group A (N = 31) learned with the VPS-VR approach, experimental group B (N = 32) learned with the virtual reality (VR) approach, and the control group learned with the traditional instruction (TI) approach. The results revealed the positive effects of the VPS-VR approach on students’ EFL reading comprehension, learning motivation, and English learning anxiety. Furthermore, it was also found that experimental students’ lower-level skills of reading comprehension, such as information location and text comprehension, were significantly improved, rather than the higher-level skills of reflection and evaluation. Fifteen students participated in interviews, and their learning experience and technology acceptance are also discussed.

Navigating transition to work: Recent immigrants’ experiences of lifelong learning in Canada

Navigating transition to work: Recent immigrants’ experiences of lifelong learning in Canada

Implementation of interactive methodology in medical education

Nowadays, the acquisition of innovative approaches and techniques that use the Internet is one of the main goals for the development of higher medical education in Ukraine. Blending learning is an effective way to gain knowledge in medicine and such kind of education is carried out through educational programs and curriculum and was approved for each department by the scientific council of the university. This paper describes the effectiveness of blending learning in the preparation of medical students in Ukraine. The authors designed a course “Medical English for Specific Purpose” and implemented it into the educational process. From this research, it can be concluded that blending learning is an integral part of modern education with the ability to use collaborative and critical thinking skills. In such kind of education, the role of a teacher changes to the facilitator who involves and stimulates students to go through real problem solving and meaningful lifelong learning experiences.

An Analysis into the Contribution of Google Applications in the Successful Implementation of Online Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Purpose: The emergence of COVID-19 led the world to an unprecedented public health crisis. The outbreak and cause of COVID-19 have placed a wide range of social, political, and economic impacts. The negative impact placed on education is addressed using online education. This paper aims to find success in online education using google applications on regular days and pandemic periods to support the lifelong continuous learning experience. The focus of this study is to review students’ satisfaction with the web applications which are mandatory for online education. Methodology: The non-probability sampling technique is used to collect data for analysis. The new set of hypotheses are identified by using this sampling technique. The exploratory research method is followed to find better results on this topic. Survey questionnaires were prepared and delivered to higher education students of various colleges of various universities in and around our Dakshina Kannada district. The survey including questions on the mode of online education, their level of satisfaction, technologies used, internet facility, internet applications used for the online class. More than 1000 responses were received by the students who are experiencing online education and its platform. Findings/Result: The study aims to decide the regularity of use of the various features of Google applications. Students’ opinions toward online learning based on their involvements have been observed. The elements, modes, and tools which designed those students’ online education practices have also been considered. The analysis was conducted to identify a variety of applications available for online classroom education with their features that made them so important. Originality: The features of several internet applications were considered to find popularity in the online mode of education. This analysis may helpful for teachers, students, and administrators even after the pandemic period to conduct additional online courses in a parallel fashion along with traditional classrooms to improve the lifelong learning experience. Paper Type: Survey paper.

An Analysis into the Contribution of Google Applications in the Successful Implementation of Online Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Purpose: The emergence of COVID-19 led the world to an unprecedented public health crisis. The outbreak and cause of COVID-19 have placed a wide range of social, political, and economic impacts. The negative impact placed on education is addressed using online education. This paper aims to find success in online education using google applications on regular days and pandemic periods to support the lifelong continuous learning experience. The focus of this study is to review students’ satisfaction with the web applications which are mandatory for online education. Methodology: The non-probability sampling technique is used to collect data for analysis. The new set of hypotheses are identified by using this sampling technique. The exploratory research method is followed to find better results on this topic. Survey questionnaires were prepared and delivered to higher education students of various colleges of various universities in and around our Dakshina Kannada district. The survey including questions on the mode of online education, their level of satisfaction, technologies used, internet facility, internet applications used for the online class. More than 1000 responses were received by the students who are experiencing online education and its platform. Findings/Result: The study aims to decide the regularity of use of the various features of Google applications. Students’ opinions toward online learning based on their involvements have been observed. The elements, modes, and tools which designed those students’ online education practices have also been considered. The analysis was conducted to identify a variety of applications available for online classroom education with their features that made them so important. Originality: The features of several internet applications were considered to find popularity in the online mode of education. This analysis may helpful for teachers, students, and administrators even after the pandemic period to conduct additional online courses in a parallel fashion along with traditional classrooms to improve the lifelong learning experience. Paper Type: Survey paper.

Utilizing Virtual Exchange to Sustain Global Health Partnerships in Medical Education.

Integrating global health (GH) training in medical education has become prevalent in the United States over the last two decades. Many medical school graduates participate in some type of international learning experience during their undergraduate/graduate training, with plans to make this a part of their life-long learning experiences. Recognizing this trend, many pediatric national organizations, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Association of Pediatric Program Directors, and the American Board of Pediatrics, have developed initiatives integrating GH education into existing curricula. We report our experience with using virtual learning on a cloud-based platform to remain connected with our GH training partners, and utilize this opportunity to further strengthen our existing relationships during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, our experience thus far shows that this is an effective way to maintain communication even when international travel is not possible. It allows for the ongoing exchange of ideas and the development of long-term sustainable relationships. There are many important lessons our trainees can learn from such partnerships.

한 중년 남성의 생애에 나타난 평생학습 경험 내러티브 탐구: 사이버대학에서 전공한 한국어교육을 중심으로

한 중년 남성의 생애에 나타난 평생학습 경험 내러티브 탐구: 사이버대학에서 전공한 한국어교육을 중심으로