Form Of Lifelong Learning Research Articles

Reaching for a hybrid and networked university through lifelong learning initiatives

Working life is transforming, including an emerging digitalisation of its products and processes. Due to such transformation, competencies need to be developed in organisations that suit the emerging conditions for performing work. In the growth of these competencies, higher education is a key player. Its role is twofold, including preparing students for working life and being involved in professional development through continuous education and lifelong learning initiatives. This role as a key player has the potential to assist in the development of competencies at both an individual and organisational level. Another movement in society is the dissolution of boundaries between organisations, leading to the emergence of networked and hybrid organisations. Digitalisation is a driving force in this phenomenon. Even within universities, this trend has grown and impacted the relationship between the university and the surrounding society. In a hybrid and networked university, its operations are closely linked to the surrounding society, including the interplay of the needs of both parties; a balance of power; and weak boundaries between the university and organisations in the surrounding society. Another trend in the higher education sector is the emphasis on lifelong learning policies. Such policies link lifelong learning to global competition and social inclusion for all. The project reported in this paper builds on the ideas of lifelong learning from a university that aims to be hybrid and networked. The reported initiative builds on data from an early phase of a development project that aims at developing new forms of lifelong learning and professional development. Thematically analysed Post-it Notes from workshops supported the answering of the following research question: How do higher education staff perceive development of lifelong learning? The following four main categories were generated: (1) the hybrid and networked university, (2) pedagogical models, (3) internal organisation, and (4) quality. The conclusion includes staffs’ positive attitude towards lifelong learning initiatives. They emphasise the university as an open space and as a partner for agents in the surrounding society. Moreover, they stress lifelong learning initiatives for staff; further development of educational models; scientific legitimacy and high-quality deliverance; flexible internal organisation and structures; and finally, the importance of collaboration and networking. Further data collection is needed to validate the results and the potential for developing theoretical insights that could inform lifelong learning initiatives in emerging digitally infused societies.

The school of thought of St. Petersburg methodological linguoconceptology: experience in problematising a continuing professional development course

Continuing professional development is considered as a form of lifelong learning. The paper describes the experience of problematising the interdisciplinary professional development course "Linguoconceptology: methods and techniques for working with concepts". The main aim of the study is to evaluate the impact of the new scientific field on the student’s motivation for academic and scientific work in the professional development process, as well as on its effectiveness expressed in the desire to use the methods and techniques of methodological linguoconceptology in researchand practical activity. The main research methods were system and problem analysis when making the problem statement in conjunction with the content analysis and questionnaire methods. The study reveals the mechanism of interaction between three resources, namely scientific (an invitation to comprehend new ideas and concepts of modern science), methodological (which is particularised in authorial techniques and anthropopractices), and students’ motivated activity as a marker of their effective completion of the course syllabus. The motivational activity resource was involved in two assignment types, i. e. testing and solving practice-oriented problems. We performed content analysis of the course participants’ products. The paper presents the results of studying the trainees’ motivated activity. The most important principle for the professional development system is the immediate application of what has been learnt.

LIFELONG LEARNING AS A PRIORITY OF DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPEAN EDUCATIONAL PARTNERSHIP

The article explores the phenomenon of lifelong learning as one of the key priorities for the development of a European educational partnership. The importance of lifelong learning as a recognized theory and practice of the concept, which is the benchmark of broad modernization processes in the European Higher Education Area, is demonstrated. The main interrelated areas of action (defining strategic priorities for development, outlining key competencies of lifelong learning, identifying forms of lifelong learning, funding and investment efficiency) are considered.The potential of lifelong learning a mechanism for promoting social stability and cultural convergence at the beginning of the third millennium is conceptualized. Productive links between lifelong learning and the processes of building a knowledge economy have been demonstrated. The methodological basis of the study was the analysis of the European Commission’s educational policy (conceptual, regulatory and programmatic documents) in the field of lifelong learning. The results obtained in the study may be useful to both domestic researchers and practitioners in the field of public administration of higher education, university staff, involved in international cooperation.

“The contribution of MOOCs to upskilling the labor force”

PurposeThe study aims to investigate whether participation to massive open online courses (MOOCs) may lead to labor market returns and through which mechanisms such relative advantage may take place. Indeed, despite high figures of registered users, empirical studies on occupational returns are limited and MOOCs may represent a viable, cost-efficient example of lifelong learning practice to respond to the demand of a better skilled workforce for the fourth industrial revolution.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on qualitative empirical material constituted by a set of 21 qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted in 2019 among learners who registered in MOOCs provided by European higher education institutions.FindingsInterviews return a situation in which MOOCs are beneficial for work: learners appreciate the new knowledge and skills they can access, with time flexibility and low entry cost. However, MOOCs positive contribution is not at everyone’s reach: self-selection issues tend to further advantage individuals with high levels of education and individual resources. Moreover, MOOCs can increase the risk of a shift of responsibility for training to the employees and qualify as a lower tier type of qualification, reinforcing social closure mechanisms based on educational credentials.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the empirical analysis of MOOCs economic returns empirically, by providing original qualitative material. Second, it contributes theoretically by bridging literature on economic and occupational returns to education on one side and literature on digital technologies in education on the other, providing new insights on the potentials and limits of MOOCs as a new form of lifelong learning.

COVID-19 as a Catalyst for Digital Lifelong Learning and Reskilling

Due to COVID-19 and following social distancing many face-to-face business as well as educational activities have been replaced by digital ones. Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) to achieve quality education for all and lifelong learning will stagnate. But the radical changes within education due COVID-19 also open the way for new forms of lifelong learning by using e-learning platforms - digital lifelong learning. This paper is based on literature review as well as work of the author within the Study Group Lifelong Learning and projects. It presents first critical skills required in the next years for reskilling and methods and pedagogies that should be included into education and training. Secondly the necessity and advantages of digital lifelong learning during and after COVID-19 pandemic and how Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) will be supported are shortly described. Thirdly how digital lifelong learning methods can be used in entrepreneurship education and some lifelong skills developed within projects worked by the author as well as used methods are discussed. Some conclusions and recommendations are given i.e., entreprene urship educators should be better trained and critical in their methods and educational agencies should foster digital frameworks for entrepreneurship education. Research studies are necessary to know how entrepreneurship educators have embedded digital lifelong learning into their lessons, including positive and negative experiences, and if exists a correlation between a country level of COVID-19, country economic situation, digitalization and digital lifelong learning/entrepreneurship education.

Healthy aging and the University of the Third Age – Health behavior and subjective health outcomes in older adults

IntroductionBy participating in the University of the Third Age (U3A), retirees are offered the opportunity for activation and development in the later years of life. However, little is known how certain aspects of healthy aging, such as health-related behavior and subjective health outcomes, differ between U3A students and other older adults not taking part in any form of education. To address this, the aim of the present study was to compare selected aspects of healthy aging in a group of U3A members with older adults not taking part in any form of lifelong learning. The study also establishes relationships between the tested variables and predictors of health behavior. Materials and methods277 older adults (130 U3A members and 147 non-members) aged 60–92 (M = 68.84, SD = 5.32) completed measures of health behavior, self-rated physical health, self-rated sense of own health responsibility and satisfaction with life. ResultsThe U3A attendees presented significantly higher scores for general health behavior and some of its components, and declared higher self-rated health than their peers not affiliated to any educational organization. Self-rated health, responsibility for health and satisfaction with life were positively correlated with general health behavior and most of their categories. but the correlation coefficients differed between both groups. A hierarchical regression model demonstrated the predictive roles of attendance in U3A, sociodemographic and subjective factors in health behavior undertaking. ConclusionsThe study results may help to identify older adults who should be targeted in interventions aimed at supporting healthy aging.

‘A not unedifying field for some local antiquary of the future’: new evidence on library activity and mutual improvement. The experience of the north-east of Scotland

Mutual improvement, an early form of lifelong learning, was widespread among the nineteenth-century working classes and has been portrayed as a variable and relatively unstructured phenomenon. This essay challenges this view by examining the movement in north-east Scotland in the nineteenth century and its symbiotic relationship with library activity as libraries provided information to facilitate debate. The movement originated in the 1830s and flourished until the end of the century. Mutual improvement activity was fuelled by religious division and a relationship with the Liberal Party. The principal ideologue of the movement, which peaked in the 1850s, was Robert Harvie Smith, who articulated a sophisticated lifelong learning ideology supported by specific learning objectives, prioritised in order. A notable feature was the involvement of women in the movement. Most of the participants were tradesmen or small tenant farmers, and the subjects of their debates reflected their preoccupations: modern farming, religious controversy, and the ‘farm servant problem’. The movement anticipated the university extension movement by about thirty years. Because the north-east had its own university and was a self-contained learning culture, mutual improvers might proceed to university, thus anticipating modern ideas about received prior learning (RPL) and articulation. Mutual improvement activity demonstrates the continuing intellectual vitality in rural Scotland in the late nineteenth century.

Lokalny ośrodek wiedzy i edukacji – centrum inicjowania i koordynowania edukacji dorosłych w społecznościach lokalnych

The aim of the article is to present the idea of establishing Local Centers of Knowledge and education in Poland which are the centers for initiating and organizing non-formal education for adults in their nearest environment. This initiative is undertaken by the Ministry of National education as a part of the implementation of the program for the promotion of an adult education in Poland and increasing the access of adults to various forms of lifelong learning, with particular emphasis on people with low levels of key competences and/or not participating in organized forms of education. The article presents assumptions, goals, and stages of the pilot project entitled “Academy of Necessary Knowledge – a new face of the school as a Local Center of Knowledge and education” implemented by Wroclaw University of Science and Technology and funded by the european Union and country budget as a part of the Operational Programme Knowledge education Development. As a result of the project, 20 Local Centers of Knowledge and education in seven voivodships in Poland were established. During the period of a six months the model based on main assumptions of andragogy and psychology of adult development was tested. The solutions that had the highest impact on adults’ activation were: flexible educational offer based on the diagnosis of adults needs, education taking into account the specifics of adults learning, proximity to the place of residence, schools’ resources and infrastructure use, cooperation with institutions from the environment of school, integration of the local community. The solutions of the model that did not work well during the testing phase were: focus on the development of professional competences, duties of the staff (ie. conducting classes for adults), accompanying in developmental change. The evaluation of the project was the basis to modification of the Local Centres of Knowledge and education model. The conclusions from the evaluation of this project, and two others carried out at the same time, will be the basis for further competitions aimed at launching next Local Centres of Knowledge and education in the country.

National Vocational Qualifications in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry of Slovenia

Hardly anybody would agree that the labour market satisfactorily meets the needs of the tourism and hospitality industry (THI). The THI worldwide faces the shortage of skilled labour force and the Slovenian THI is no exception. The problem persists in spite of various recruitment measures of employers, e.g. engaging migrant workforce, student work, black market, etc. The first aim of the paper was to explore the workforce needs of the THI with an emphasis on its unmet demands. The desk research revealed the mismatch between the supply and demand of the workforce on lower levels. Since the system of the National vocational qualifications (NVQ) is presumed beneficial for deficiencies of the labour market the second aim of the article was to explore the current state of the NVQ system in Slovenia and the selection of the existing NVQs in the THI in order to find out whether the number and structure of awarded NVQ certificates improved structural imbalances on the TH labour market. The author came to the conclusion that all forms of lifelong learning might contribute to improve the qualification structure of the labour force in the country provided that the employers overcome their distrust of the credibility and quality of the NVQs.

Transnational strategies and lifelong learning in the shadow of citizenship: Chinese migrants in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

ABSTRACTThe Chinese are one of the oldest immigrant communities in Europe, and in some countries among the most economically successful. Media portraits of immigrant Chinese, however, are often filtered through racialised stereotypes, as culturally insular and economically savvy opportunists working in low-end take-outs, retails, and garment workshops. Based on ethnographic research conducted in a small European state Luxembourg, this article examines different modalities of learning and transnational strategies among three groups of Chinese migrants – temporary workers, visa overstayers, and restaurant owners. In analysing their pragmatic struggles, creative agency, and unending hopes for better lives, the paper illustrates how they engage in what Aihwa Ong calls the dual process of self-making and being made, vis-à-vis the Eurocentric citizenship regime, knowledge hierarchies, and exclusionary labour market. I offer a reading of their agentic, melodramatic everyday experiences as forms of lifelong learning, whether intended or unintended, that are rendered invisible and deficient in immigration laws, labour market practices, and sociocultural expectations. The paper challenges the Eurocentric citizenship regime and highlights immigrants’ heterogeneous ways of learning and transnational practices as part of the humanness often silenced in the global cycle of coloniality and inequality.

Addressing expensive multi-objective games with postponed preference articulation via memetic co-evolution

This paper presents algorithmic and empirical contributions demonstrating that the convergence characteristics of a co-evolutionary approach to tackle Multi-Objective Games (MOGs) with postponed preference articulation can often be hampered due to the possible emergence of the so-called Red Queen effect. Accordingly, it is hypothesized that the convergence characteristics can be significantly improved through the incorporation of memetics (local solution refinements as a form of lifelong learning), as a promising means of mitigating (or at least suppressing) the Red Queen phenomenon by providing a guiding hand to the purely genetic mechanisms of co-evolution. Our practical motivation is to address MOGs characterized by computationally expensive evaluations, wherein there is a natural need to reduce the total number of true evaluations consumed in achieving good quality solutions. To this end, we propose novel enhancements to co-evolutionary approaches for tackling MOGs, such that memetic local refinements can be efficiently applied on evolved candidate strategies by searching on computationally cheap surrogate payoff landscapes (that preserve postponed preference conditions). The efficacy of the proposal is demonstrated on a suite of test MOGs that have been designed.

Engaging the glocal: EU mantras, national strategy & adult education as a public good

This paper draws on a national lifelong learning (LLL) strategy document to argue that not all EU member states are ready to give up on a more broadened social and community-oriented form of LLL, at least in their policy document discourse. They can appeal, in their policy interpretations, to the ‘democratic imaginary’ whereby learning, including adult and LLL, is still primarily conceived as a public good. The paper theoretically explores the way the concept of lifelong education/learning developed over the years, from the expansive humanist UNESCO rendering to the more economic-oriented one promoted by the OECD and the EU. Building on the Maltese national LLL strategy document and previous experiences in the area and recognising the ‘limit situations’ (Freire, 1970) encountered in Malta in the past, I argue for local reinterpretations of LLL. In these interpretations, economic imperatives, as per EU directions, are combined with the idea of adult education, and LLL more generally, as a public good. This can be done by drawing on the best critical traditions of the adult education field.

Badanie intencji przedsiębiorczych młodego pokolenia: wyniki ankietyzacji wśród studentów kierunków nieekonomicznych

Przedsiębiorczość zaliczana jest do jednych z podstawowych czynników podnoszenia konkurencyjności przedsiębiorstw i rozwoju społeczno-gospodarczego układów przestrzennych. Z tego punktu widzenia istotne jest kształtowanie postaw przedsiębiorczych młodych ludzi w procesie edukacyjnym i rożnych formach kształcenia pozaszkolnego oraz rozpoznanie poziomu ich intencji przedsiębiorczych związanych z planowaniem założenia i prowadzenia własnego biznesu. Celem artykułu jest próba określenia wpływu wybranych czynników na intencje przedsiębiorcze młodzieży na podstawie wyników badań ankietowych przeprowadzonych wśród studentów kierunków nieekonomicznych przy wykorzystaniu teorii planowanego zachowania (theory of planned behaviour – TPB). Analiza wyników badań pozwoliła na weryfikację postawionych hipotez, czyli stwierdzenie m.in. prawidłowości, że wraz z pozytywnym wzrostem indywidualnej postawy względem prywatnej przedsiębiorczości i przedsiębiorców czy wzrostem poczucia własnej skuteczności przedsiębiorczej, zwiększają się intencje przedsiębiorcze badanych studentów. Podobnie na wzrost ten mają wpływ doświadczenia przedsiębiorczości rodzinnej. W konkluzjach wskazano na ograniczenia wnioskowania na podstawie przeprowadzonych badań empirycznych oraz możliwości rozszerzenia badań o nowe wątki badawcz

Serious but fun, self-directed yet social: blogging as a form of lifelong learning

The article explores the role of digital media in supporting lifelong learning. In particular, it focuses on bloggers who write their blogs voluntarily in their own free time. The aim is to examine how lifelong learning—viewed as self-directed, nonformal learning and active participation that evolves from a desire for self-actualization—occurs in the processes of blogging. The data for this small-scale study were collected by qualitative email interviews. In all, 11 Finnish bloggers participated. The findings show that active participation, promoted and enabled by blogging, was actualized in both online and offline environments. It was embedded within six functions of their blogs that the bloggers mentioned: (1) learning and studying, (2) guidance and tutoring, (3) bringing new perspectives to public discussions, (4) applying expertise, (5) creating in one’s own space and at one’s own pace and (6) being part of a digital media culture. The findings indicate that blogging can promote nonformal, lifelong learning in many ways. Blogs and blogging constitute a learning environment that promotes active participation by making interesting, meaningful and enjoyable activities possible, and consequently the enthusiasm to actively learn and develop.

Вклад компаний в накопление человеческого капитала: межстрановый анализ

In this article, the mechanism of human capital accumulation is explored as an example of the participation of the economically active adult population in the main forms of lifelong learning. Demand for expanding lifelong activities is expressed by those employers who are concerned about the development of sustainable skills and upgrading the qualifications of their employees at companies. This process is driven by companies engaged in innovation activity. Russia has a high position in the world if the criterion for assessment is the level of formal education of employees, but Russian employees improve their professional knowledge and skills through lifelong learning less actively than employees in the EU. According to the results of the surveys, the gap between the rates of participation in lifelong learning of top and middle managers and the rates of participation of other employees is quite dramatic, and it demonstrates a failure in exchanging and transferring new knowledge and skills in Russian companies. In its turn, such a disproportionate state creates an obstacle for innovation activity in companies. In this article, we will discuss some state and corporate compensatory measures aimed at adjusting the extreme inequality in the education and training of employees. A higher return on investment in training can be achieved only by the harmonization of advanced knowledge of top and middle managers, who are most actively participating in lifelong learning, with a process of training other employees at companies. Middle managers are considered a key element, a sort of proponent of such a knowledge and skills exchange system, because they act as a mentors for workers.The paper’s core is comparative analysis of international surveys and a survey of Russian employers in six sectors of economy as a part of project “Monitoring of education markets and organizations,” which was initiated by the Russian Ministry of Education and Science and was conducted by National Research University HSE and Levada Center. In the paper we estimate the educational capital of top and middle managers and their rate of participation in lifelong training compared with the rate for employees occupying lower positions and evaluate Russian employers’ contribution to the provision of lifelong learning for employees in comparison with their colleagues from countries in the EU and OECD.

Intersecting discourses of militarism: military and academic gendered organizations

This article explores the ways in which military constructions of gender intersect with academic ones. Its focus is to connect military discourses of duty, honour and service before self with academic ones of commitment and productivity. As such, it engages in an institutional analysis of the gendered organizations of the military and academia and the associated implications for lifelong learning and education. First, I discuss how, despite resistance from countless educators, corporatism and militarism have come to influence many forms of lifelong learning and higher education. Then, I detail the ways in which both the military and academia, with their unique purposes, are gendered organizations, requiring inordinate dedication and commitment to institutional ends. Finally, I conclude that educators must continue to recognize, problematize and challenge gendered discourses that privilege militarism in higher and lifelong education.

Emergency preparedness as public pedagogy: the absent–presence of race in ‘Preparing for Emergencies’

Emergency preparedness can be considered to be a form of lifelong learning and public pedagogy with implications for race equality. The paper is based on an ESRC project ‘Preparedness pedagogies and race: an interdisciplinary approach’ considering the policy process around the construction of the ‘Preparing for Emergencies’ (PFE) campaign. This campaign which appeared as a leaflet (distributed to every household in the UK) and as a television campaign was a belated response to preparedness by the UK government post-9/11. The results in the paper are based on 20 interviews and two focus groups conducted in 2009–2010. Interviews were conducted with a previous home secretary, members of the cabinet office, private sector security consultants, civil servants and emergency planning committees. Using a Critical Race Theory (CRT) informed methodology we find that both for white and BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) respondents in our focus groups ‘race’ and racialised ascriptions are important to their interpretation of PFE. For white respondents PFE is seen to be most relevant in urban areas at risk of crime and terrorism whereas BME respondents considered that they were potentially pathologised by PFE as potential terrorists. In policy interviews we find that a series of signifiers around race are used to consider the need for responsibilisation within PFE. In conclusion we consider that examining preparedness through the lens of public pedagogy extends theoretical and empirical work on securitisation particularly in terms of considering the responses of various audiences. We also argue for further engagement with CRT in security, and more generally lifelong learning, research.

The Moral Dimension of Lifelong Learning

A key aspect of contemporary lifelong learning theory, policy, and practice is the idea that, because of rapid changes in contemporary societies, there is a constant need for individuals to learn new knowledge and skills in order to adapt themselves to changing conditions. There is, therefore, an increased emphasis on the personal dimension of lifelong learning and on the need to reflexively engage in the (re)construction of one’s self and identity. We can find this, for example, in Anthony Giddens’s idea of the “reflexive project of the self.” The authors argue that this idea is too individualistic and lacks recognition of the moral dimension of self-formation. It therefore not only leads to an impoverished conception of the self but also to an impoverished view of the role of learning in this process. The authors present ideas from Charles Taylor on self and identity to show the role that moral and intersubjective dimensions play in the formation of self and identity. The authors argue that Taylor’s work points to a different form of lifelong learning in late-modernity, one that is more explicitly concerned with the moral dimension of lifelong learning and adult education.

Lifelong Learning in Intergenerational Settings: The Development of the Swedish Granddad Program From Project to National Association

This paper will develop the subject intergenerational learning as a form of lifelong learning. The project in focus was originally called “More men into the schools,” a support program for children attending compulsory school. It was initiated as a pilot project in the autumn of 1996 as the result of the interest shown by a male senior citizen in assisting a handicrafts teacher in school on a voluntary basis. The project, as it has been initiated in Sweden, is based on the understanding that those senior citizens who wish to do so ought to be given the opportunity to work in schools in order to improve the quality of their lives through this engagement and the network in which they thereby participate. Increased social capital, which has been defined by Coleman (1988, 1990), has been found in the schools that have employed a granddad. The results show that the work of the class granddad, both together with the teacher and outside during the breaks, also influences in a positive way the social capital between the pupils and the teacher. The work of the teacher is greatly influenced by the relationships between the pupils in the group. The recent situation is that one national organization and 10 regional associations support about 1,000 men working all over Sweden. The development and implementation of this model from 1996 to 2011 will be described.

Rola edukacji w kształtowaniu społeczeństwa informacyjnego

Fundamental factor of the information society’s development is the quality of human capitaland the computerization of learning process. The author has emphasized the different meaningsof information society as well as and the objectives of its development in Poland. Then theauthor indicated the differentiation of European countries in terms of an access to the Internetand in numbers of the informatics schools graduates. The author points, out that not only theadvancement in the area of the school informatics endowment and access to Internet areimportant, but also the improvement in the ability to operate the electronic media in order toselect and to use the dispersed information. The development of various forms of lifelonglearning can be useful in the creation of information society.