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Lifelong Learning

References to lifelong learning can be traced back through history (Knapper & Cropley, 2000) in Greece (ANTA, 1999) and China (Longworth, 1999). More recently, references to lifelong learning began to appear in Europe in the mid-1960s (Ryan, 1999) and were central to the publication of Learning To Be (Faure, 1972), events such as the European Union's declaration of 1996 as the Year of Lifelong Learning and the publication of Learning: The treasure within (Delors, 1998).

In Australia, initiatives such as the Key Competencies (Mayer, 1992) reflect a perceived need for lifelong learning. Recently, the Key Competencies have been complemented and extended by other groupings of essential skills, such as the seven Attributes of the Lifelong Learner adopted in syllabus statements for use in Queensland schools, the Essential Learnings for South Australian schools and similar prescriptions in other Australian states.

Broad curriculum guidelines such as the Key Competencies, the seven Attributes of the Lifelong Learner and the Essential Learnings, plus the interactive effects of students' motivations, mean that teachers have a range of responsibilities that radiate well beyond a narrow conception of a teacher as transmitter of declarative facts and replicable skills in narrow topic domains. As teachers undergo their own training, retraining, conferences, and formal and informal professional discussions, theory becomes translated into goals and objectives, and teaching objectives are transferred to teaching settings.

In visits to schools … Council met scores of teachers who were introducing their students to the 'new' curriculum - including the key competencies - in exciting, innovative, and apparently effective ways. (NBEET, 1995, p. 122)

One key issue for the present study arises in the final three words of the above quote: 'apparently effective ways'. That is, whether currently promoted best practices such as cooperative learning in communities of learners (Brown & Campione, 1996; Brown & Palinscar, 1989), developing self-regulated learners (Paris & Ayres, 1994), problem-based learning (Evensen, 2000) and competency-based learning (Curtis et al., 1996), do achieve learning objectives such as the seven essential attributes.

An essential premise of lifelong learning is that learners possess the motivation to learn, not only in the compulsory schooling years but also throughout their life. Day (1999) argued that teachers need to inculcate in their students a disposition towards lifelong learning. (And in order to do this, teachers have to be lifelong learners themselves.) Similarly, Sorensen and Maehr (1976) argued that a continuing motivation to learn is the major significant educational outcome. It is therefore a key objective of all education and training sectors, including schools, higher education institutions, workplaces, and adult and community education facilities, to educate people so that they develop a willing disposition towards a wide range of learning situations (Bergin, 1996; NBEET, 1996). This might require a radical change in the mindset of some institutions, for:

if children grow up considering knowledge to be something that is merely handed down by teachers, for reasons that are somewhat obscure to the student, they are far less likely to continue learning in adult life than if learning is seen as a voluntary voyage of discovery. (Hirsch, 1995, pp. 16-17)

Whereas earlier interpretations of lifelong learning focused more upon the rights of people to have access to further educational opportunities if they so desired, current interpretations emphasise the needs of a rapidly changing society, where further education will no longer be a personal option but a necessity for personal fulfilment as well as societal growth (ANTA, 1999; Hirsch, 1995).

More than ever, the sheer magnitude of human knowledge renders its coverage by education an impossibility; rather, the goal of education is better conceived as helping students develop the intellectual tools and learning strategies needed to acquire the knowledge that allows people to think productively about history, science and technology, social phenomena, mathematics and the arts. Fundamental understanding about subjects, including how to frame and ask meaningful questions about various subject areas, contributes to individuals' more basic understanding of principles of learning that can assist them in becoming self-sustaining, lifelong learners. (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999, p. 5)

Further, societal acceptance of a paradigm of lifelong learning provides the potential to redress inequalities and strive for social justice by providing people from disadvantaged groups with a second chance for learning (Knapper & Cropley, 2000; Ryan, 1999).

Intertwined with social change has been exponential growth and change in technological affordances.

We want to stress here the growing impact of new information and communication technologies on educational aims and practices and on the teacher and student roles (Bruce, 1987, 1991, 1997; Burbules & Callister, 2000; Spender, 1995; Turkle, 1984, 1997). It is not a matter of new technologies replacing teachers, but a matter of radically changing our views about what the teaching role entails. As vast amounts of information, opportunities for exploration and discovery, and media for communication become readily available in classrooms, teachers will need to see themselves more as guides and interpreters, not as sources of authority. In some cases, the significance of the teaching role recedes into the background. On the side of students (many of whom often end up teaching the teacher about how these technologies work and what can be found with them), their roles and identities are shifting. (Burbules & Bruce, 2001, p. 133)

A lifelong learning perspective changes the traditional reception to Year 12 views of education. The word 'lifelong' is clear. Education is no longer just something that happens in schools, when people are young. Bransford, Brown and Cocking (1999) recommended that people replace their previous conception of 'expert' as 'someone who knows all the answers' with one of 'accomplished novice'.

Accomplished novices are skilled in many areas and proud of their accomplishments, but they realise that what they know is minuscule compared to all that is potentially knowable. This model helps free people to continue to learn even though they have spent 10 to 20 years as an 'expert' in their field. (p. 36)

Learning institutions need to evolve to match the demands of people of all ages. Mass education during its initial formulation during the industrial revolution, and during times of full employment, did not have the same purposes as education for employment, partial employment, unemployment (Teasdale, 1999), or unpaid work, as may be the case today. For example, the relationship between different learning settings and providers (such as businesses, professional associations, colleges and universities) would alter in such a way that boundaries between them would become 'porous'.

Learners would be able to transfer backwards and forwards between providers, or select various mixtures of settings … (D)ifferent people would leave and enter various educational settings at different times during their lives. (Knapper & Cropley, 2000, pp. 39-40)

Thus, educational institutions, in their broadest definition, need not be the cumbersome apparatus known to Candy (1991). They can be valued facilitators of the goals of the self-directed lifelong learner, and also of the goals of the community, by collecting and disseminating banks of knowledge that are beyond the capacity of individuals working alone.

References
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Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.) (1999). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Brown, A. L. & Campione, J. C. (1996). 'Guided discovery in a community of learners.' In K. McGilly (Ed.), Classroom lessons: Integrating cognitive theory and classroom practice (pp. 229-270). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Brown, A. L. & Palinscar, A. S. (1989). 'Guided cooperative learning and individual knowledge acquisition.' In L. B. Resnick (Ed.), Knowing, learning, and instruction: Essays in honor of Robert Glaser (pp. 393-451). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

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National Board of Employment, Education and Training (NBEET) (1995). Compendium of good practice: The role of schools in the vocational preparation of Australia's senior secondary students. Canberra: Schools Council, Australian Government Publishing Service.

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Paris, S. G. & Ayres, L. R. (1994). Becoming reflective students and teachers: With portfolios and authentic assessment. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

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Sorensen, R. L. & Maehr, M. L. (1976). 'Toward the experimental analysis of continuing motivation.' The Journal of Educational Research, 69(9), 319-332.

Teasdale, R. J. (1999). Implications of the Delors report for schooling in South Australia. Supporting papers. Adelaide, Australia: Flinders University Institute of International Education. Retrieved on 13/7/02 from http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/education/publications/REPORTS/fuiie99a/TEASDALE.HTM