Dr. Kavita Suri
With the changing world and globalization, the learning needs of the society around us are also changing. The society is no longer the traditional learning society but has emerged as a “lifelong learning society”. The world today realizes the fact that learning occurs at all stages of life, in different forms and in variety of arenas. Learning never ceases and continues till death, hence the concept of ‘cradle-to-grave’ for lifelong learning gains prominence in the present day world and work environment. Thus we can say that the present society around us is a knowledge society; it is a human society in which thrust is on knowledge for justice, solidarity, democracy and peace. This is a society in which knowledge is a force for changing society.
Lifelong education covers “formal, non-formal and informal patterns of learning throughout the life cycle of an individual for the conscious and continuous enhancement of the quality of life, his own and that of society”. Lifelong learning is the provision or use of both formal and informal learning opportunities throughout people’s lives in order to foster the continuous development and improvement of the knowledge and skills needed for employment and personal fulfillment.
In this context UNESCO has highlighted the following four pillars of lifelong learning for the 21st Century: learning to know by mastering cognitive skills & collaboration; learning to do by mastering skills & production; learning to be by admitting multiple intelligent (MI) and sustainable human development and learning to live together by dialogue and tolerance. These four pillars of knowledge cannot be anchored solely in one phase in a person’s life or in a single place. There is a need to re-think when in people’s lives education should be provided, and the fields that such education should cover. The periods and fields should complement each other and be interrelated in such a way that all people can get the most out of their own specific educational environment all through their lives.
In the Knowledge Society, every learner is a lifelong learner. To keep up with the changing world and the new emerging challenges, a learner has to keep him or herself updated with the new emerging knowledge and thus there is increasing need to focus on lifelong learning. The content and methods of basic education have to take into account preparation for lifelong learning. The development of lifelong learning needs an integration of education into the real world. The challenge for lifelong learning is to fundamentally rethink learning, teaching, and education for the information age in an attempt to change mind-sets. Lifelong learning involves and engages learners of all ages in acquiring and applying knowledge and skills in the context of authentic, self-directed problems. By integrating working and learning, people learn within the context of their work on real-world problems.
Teachers have a crucial role in lifelong learning sector. They have to value all learners individually and equally and thus strive for continuous improvement through reflective practice. A teacher has to create and provide effective and stimulating opportunities for learning through high quality teaching that enables the development and progression of all learners.
The challenges for a teacher in lifelong learning society are immense. Being a teacher in the Knowledge society requires new specific competencies: a teacher has to deal with new knowledge, new ways for accessing knowledge; with a networked world and with new types of co-operation and collaboration; with a society in which knowledge plays a crucial role. As such, teaching in not a static but an evolving, continuous and lifelong process. Learning has become a determining factor in ensuring that content and relevance of teaching pedagogy is in accordance with the technological practices existing. The concept of continuous learning has become important because it places priority on acquiring, adapting and learning from change. It is closely related to continuous professional development, not just taking courses but developing skills and learning how to learn so that life’s experiences become a learning lab. The concept of continuous learning for a teacher has become quite prominent over the past few years.
In the teaching profession acquired knowledge, skills and competencies need to be optimally used to suit the changing educational scenario. If the teachers do not understand the reforms and cannot apply them and are not committed to them, they will not be able to achieve the set goals of improving the quality of education. Lifelong learning is therefore about acquiring and updating all kinds of abilities, interests, knowledge and qualifications from the pre-school years to post-retirement. Teachers are expected to value all forms of learning formal, non-formal and informal. A teacher has to know and identify the needs of the learner, his motivation levels and his immediate environment. The teacher needs to identify ways to offer effective support for learning, recognize learner entitlement in the learning process, enhancing learners’ access to and participation in programmes of learning. A lifelong learner has to be motivated for enjoying his learning so that effective and appropriate methods and strategies are adopted for teaching and supporting learning and learning objectives
In lifelong learning, the teacher has to be careful about effective communication and interaction with the learner. Equally important is for a teacher to remain in touch with current trends and developments in one’s field and associated domain of knowledge and on the basis of it, seek regular feedback about the world happenings and its relevance with one’s activities, remain open to the feedback and positive criticism and make appropriate adjustments with ongoing feedback so as to ensure meeting closely priorities and values.
Most of the teachers in Indian settings are still not comfortable with the concept of lifelong learning in the knowledge societies and the traditional formal education is still part of most of their routine teaching. However, the teacher needs to understand that if a learner is not encouraged for lifelong learning, he or she may be left behind and the opportunities surfacing in the new global knowledge society may not be available to them. The responsibility lies on the shoulders of the teacher to use lifelong learning as a guiding principle to shape the lives of the learners and also encourage other fellow teachers to adopt lifelong learning to development and strengthen their teaching which recognizes the need to grow and learn. Every teacher has to inculcate a variety of required skills and develop suitable attitudes to become lifelong learners. A teacher has to do lot of reflection and fully understand the important of lifelong learning and thus align it with curriculum, set goals to achieve these and then assessment knowledge and skills of the learner which can effectively promote student-achievement and create environment to support learning which will help them grow as lifelong learners.
As lifelong learning is concerned with the personal growth of individuals throughout their lifespan, pedagogy related to different learning styles and different types of intelligence need to be demonstrated by the teacher besides creating new learning opportunities including integrating formal, non-formal and informal learning with new information and communication technologies. The teacher can use transaction strategies like collaborative techniques, experiential learning, effective technology, reflective model, etc. After the teacher put the plan into action, there has to be evaluation and if the need arises after assessing the outcomes of the lifelong learning process, there can be refocusing of the entire process. This can result in a stable learning society in India which otherwise is not possible unless teachers in training and teachers in service understand and come to terms with lifelong learning ideas, concepts and practices.
(The author is Associate Professor, Department of Lifelong Learning, University of Jammu)
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