LIFELONG LEARNING PROGRAMME
GRUNDTVIG LEARNING PARTNERSHIPS
“I learn all my life:
the joy of learning through
experience”
LEARNING BY TEACHING
LEARNING BY TEACHING
POLAND
Lifelong learning:
• learning over the entire life cycle, is a process of ongoing improvement of
education, qualifications and skills, as well as continued intellectual,
psychological and professional adaptation to the accelerated rhythm of
changes which is characteristic of the modern civilization (Symela, 1997).
• The concept comprises both school-based and out-of-school learning (in
courses and training sessions), as well as incidental learning, i.e. learning that
takes place through “lifelong process of gathering information, acquiring
beliefs, convictions and attitudes on the basis of daily life experience and
educational influence of the environment" (Okoń, 1992).
Lifelong learning is considered to be one of the most important element as regards
the development strategy of modern economies:
• higher and continuously upgraded qualifications equal higher innovation,
work productivity, higher competitiveness of the economy and more flexibility
as regards adjustment to the ever faster changing realities of modern life.
• ongoing improvement of qualifications is necessary because of the
development of modern technology. In the current economy the demand for
highly-qualified and highly-skilled personnel has been increasing. The fast-
paced development also contributes to our qualifications quickly becoming
obsolete and outdated.
• high and permanently updated qualifications mean better position of
individuals on the job market, higher feeling of security in the changing
environment,
• tendency to take up employment earlier in life – the need to combine lifelong
learning with professional activity.
• Poor adjustment to the fast changing labour market on the part of school
education. Persistent gearing of school education in Poland towards rote
learning and theoretical knowledge and not practical knowledge or social
skills.
Education and training services market
• Continuing Education Centres (CEC).
• Practical Training Centres (PTC).
• Schools for adults.
• Tertiary-level schools.
• Scientific institutions, research and development centres.
• Further training and vocational development centres, associations,
foundations, joint-stock companies, civil partnerships and limited-liability
companies, co-operatives and other entities. These institutions conduct adult
training under the commercial regulations and operating principles. Some
programmes have been offered under business activity law since 1996.
• Work establishments. Individual enterprises organize training programmes for
staff development.
Adult Education Activity
Survey of Adult Education Activity – BAED
• Analysis shows that 35% of economically active persons aged 25–64 (5.1
million) participated in adult education, as defined above.
• Education activity is the most intense among persons aged 25–29.
• Women take part in education more often than men, particularly in the age
group 40–49.
Percentage of adult education participants in the total labour force aged 25–64, by
gender, 2003
Percentage of adult education participants in the labour force aged 25–64 by
gender and education level.
* Comment: lack of ISCED 2 means lack of people aged 25-64 to whom this particular level of education (lower secondary) can be applied due to the structure of Polish educational system prior to the 1999 reform. Source: Calculations based on Survey of Adult Education Activity, Phare 2000 Project National Vocational Training System, MoELSP, 2004.
Financing sources for adult education
• Adult learning in out-of-school programmes was most often financed by
employers;
• 54% of respondents declared that costs of recent training activities were
covered by their employing company.
Financing sources for adult education participants’ most recent out-of-school training
by labour market status, 2004
Source: Calculations based on Survey of Adult Education Activity, Phare 2000 Project National Vocational Training System, MoELSP, 2004. Involvement of enterprises in adult education
• The recent period of economic transformation has been characterised by
dynamic development of enterprises, mainly those with a small number of
employees. The shift from a centrally controlled system to a market economy
has resulted in implementation of a new form of management in enterprises
that is appropriate for the new situation and that utilises new production
technologies. In effect, qualifications of labour market participants had to be
adjusted to the new requirements.
Involvement of enterprises in adult education
• The survey shows that 41.4% of the total number of businesses organised
training for their staff.
• Training was organised mainly by large enterprises, while only 36.4% of small
firms participated.
Involvement of enterprises in delivery of training for their staff by size of enterprise,
2004
• Participation in courses and training in enterprises organising training, by
selected category of employees and size of enterprise, 2004
Source: Continuing Vocational Training Survey (CVTS2), Phare 2000 Project National
Vocational Training System, MoELSP, 2004.
Training time by topic and size of enterprise, 2003
Source: Continuing Vocational Training Survey (CVTS2), Phare 2000 Project National
Vocational Training System, MoELSP, 2003.
Training time by gender and size of enterprise, 2004
• The average time spent on training one employee was 28.5 hours per year.
• In large enterprises, the amount of time spent on training was similar for
women and men.
• In small companies, however, training time was much shorter for women than
for men.
Training time by gender and size of enterprise, 2004
Source: Continuing Vocational Training Survey (CVTS2), Phare 2000 Project National
Vocational Training System, MoELSP, 2004. Time calculated in hours of paid working
time.
Centre for the Advancement
of Women Foundation
Our experience
“Learning by teaching”
Practical applications of solutions where teaching others leads to learning
“Computer: not only for grandchildren”
“The computer and the internet?- overcoming inter-generational barriers”
• Creating innovative IT-related training models for the elderly.
• The ability to use the computer and the modern IT technology helps improve
the self-esteem level,
• builds stronger inter-generational bonds,
• shapes a positive image of the elderly among the younger generation,
• improves desirability on the labour market.
The main purposes of the “Computer? Not only for your grandchildren…” program
comprise:
• Mobilisation of the elderly
• Elimination for this group of the psychological barrier in using computers and
other types of electronic equipment like cameras, overhead projectors
• Improvement of their computer literacy (including modern communication
software like e-mail, messaging applications and the like
• Improvement of their self-confidence and self-esteem,
• Augmenting their authority as the older generation
• Promotion of the lifelong learning model
• Cultivating solidarity between younger and older generations.
To achieve this purpose we would like to:
• Mobilize the older generation by promoting the usage of popular
communication programs.
• Establish an internet cafe exclusively for persons 50 years old and older, open
daily every day for 4 hours with a consultant at their disposal
• Conduct IT training with the use of active learning methods (20 hour per
group)
• Conduct psychological training in order to:
- improve their self-confidence, self-esteem;
- to promote lifelong learning;
- To provide fast learning techniques
• Emphasize practical activities: prepare presentations promoting the idea of
learning IT skills and new technology in older life, presentation with the use of
the overhead projector (conducted by participants)
• Promote the idea of Internet cafe and raising IT awareness in institutions such
as Senior Clubs or Third Age Universities. Participants of this program would
prepare presentations and perform them themselves in those institutions.
• Promote, throughout the participants of our program, the idea of learning IT
skills, using consumer electronics equipment such as cameras and overhead
projectors
• Participants of this program would prepare presentations and perform them
themselves in schools.
- shapes a positive image of the elderly among the younger
generation
- Promotion of the lifelong learning model
- builds stronger inter-generational bonds
Learning by teaching
Bringing together peers’ education and andragogy
ITALY Gruppo e-laborando, www.gruppoe-laborando.it
Peers’ education
In what does differ peers’ education form frontal one?
• Being responsible for their own education students become active
protagonist of what thought and learnt
• New and original contents are brought in interaction with classical ones in the
subjects thought
Andragogy
In what does differ adults’ education form children's one?
• Adults carry with them their own history and experience
• Adults are challenged to learn if they see practical application for what learnt
in their actual life
Peer’s education + Andragogy:
a proposal for a new adults’ education
By making adult students responsible for leading once a time a class it will eventually
happen that:
they will bring their life and experiences in interaction with other students’ ones
adding to the subject thought a practical on field interconnection
students will perceive the subjects’ contents more close to their life and useful for
their day-to-day living
one-day teacher will perceive their experience as a didactic added value being
stimulated for continuing to study
A practical application of peers education for elders in the city of Pinerolo (Turin)
The problem
In 2006 the Municipality of Pinerolo registered a representative increase in robberies
conducted in elders’ houses during the summer (+7,6%)
Robbers would present themselves as employees from gas or electricity companies
as an excuse to enter elders’ houses and rob them
This was a problem registered all over Italy starting from 2005
The solution tried out in Italy
A massive campaign of advertisements and pamphlet distributed in every house to
alert elders about this kind of robbery
The solution applied in Municipality of Pinerolo
• Two course held by Guardia di Finanza adressed to elders and involving as
teachers elders that had experienced the over mentioned robbery one in
spring 2007 and one in spring 2008
• The creation of a cell phones’ network among all the people participating to
the course in order to support each other in case anybody would attempt a
robbery in their houses
General trends of robberies conducted in elders’ houses in summer 2007 and 2008
compared to summer 2006
Learning by teaching
Bringing together peers’ education and andragogy
A main issue that raises nowadays in any field of Education is the need to make
students responsible and active protagonists of their personal and cultural growth.
According to this need joining peers’ education with the theories developed within
andragogy will potentially allow adult students to be more concerned and involved
in their life long learning.
LEARNING BY TEACHING – PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
Lifelong Learning Programme
Grundtvig Learning Partnerships
ITALY I learn all my life: the joy of learning through experience
Lifelong Learning
The greatest social challenge of the twenty-first century will be the ageing of human
society. By the year 2025 the number of persons aged over 60 will increase. All
countries will need to rethink public policy on pensions and on financing of health
care and support services for the elderly; and come to grips with the reduction in the
number of full time workers (aged 20 to 65) who in the past were expected to
support the elderly and the young.
The Grundtvig project is an European programme of lifelong learning. For the
members of European Union, the learning through the course of life is very important.
Policies of lifelong learning have been undertaken by all member States to improve
the quality of life of adult people and, indirectly, the quality of life in the Nation itself.
The European Union has given a directive to all member States about Lifelong
Learning: “It is not too late to learn”. In this document, the Commission gives some
guidelines and strategies for lifelong learning, stating that the education of adults is
necessary to their social inclusion. In fact, very often adults people are excluded
from social activities and life. All member States must eliminate the obstacles to
lifelong learning.
Lifelong learning for the third age will be an essential part of the new set of public
policies and programs. There are four potential areas for learning which will help to
meet the evolving economic and social needs of an aging population: (i) for
individual health, (ii) to strengthen community and family, (iii) for productive
employment, (iv) for self enrichment.
With the decreasing numbers of population aged 20 to 65, lifelong learning will help
the elderly to remain in the work force, as a means of reducing poverty, increasing
economic growth, and giving a stronger sense of self value to the elderly themselves.
Public policy will need to encourage the elderly to remain in the labour force. The
elderly can be trained in new productive roles in various areas. There is a strong
economic justification for a public investment in lifelong learning of the elderly.
In 2000 the European Council announced its ambition to become “the most
competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of
sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social
cohesion”. To achieve this aim, it is necessary to invest in the quality of education
and the European Council identified three major goals:
• To improve the quality of EU education and training system;
• To ensure that they are accessible to all;
• To open up education and training to the wider world.
Concerning teachers and teacher training, the European work programme identifies
four main goals:
• Identifying the skills that teachers and teachers trainers should have;
• Providing the conditions which support teachers and trainers as they respond
to the challenges of the knowledge society;
• Securing a sufficient level of entry to the teaching profession;
• Attracting recruits to teaching and training who have professional experience
in other fields.
In this context, peer learning has acquired a lot of importance. It is a process of
cooperation at European level whereby both policy makers and practitioners from
one country learn, through direct contact and practical cooperation, from the
experiences of their counterparts elsewhere in Europe in implementing reforms in
areas of shared interest and concern.
The peer learning is facilitated by PEER LEARNING ACTIVITIES (PLAs) which are
thematic working conferences where specific policy issues are discussed through
presentations of policy examples from the host country and other countries.
The importance of lifelong learning is an essential policy issue in driving up standards
of teaching and learning in order to enhance pupils’ and students’ achievement. To
support teachers’ lifelong learning, two important structures have been suggested:
the importance of competences and standards and the need for systems that
supports teachers’ and trainers’ lifelong learning.
Cultural diversity and interaction between teachers and students are essential to
contribute to learning by teaching and to social cohesion in society. Diversity should
be seen as a means to create powerful learning enviroment both for teachers and
students.
There are the Common European Principles for Teachers Competences and
Qualifications which will enhance the quality and the efficiency of education across
the Union. These principles are:
• a well-qualified profession;
• a profession placed in lifelong learning context;
• a mobile profession;
• a profession based on partnerships.
Schools are surely the places where both teachers and students learning from each
other. The interaction between students and teachers is an essential part of the
training and it is an enrichment of knowledge for teachers and trainers.
ICTs are a source of learning for teachers and trainers too. Internet, television, radio
and other means of communication improve the education and the knowledge of
people and so they constitute an essential key for teachers’ training.
The Member States of European Union should carry out a policy which promotes ICTs
for the improve centralisation and dissemination of information, for the development
of adapted structures for increased access to ICTs by marginalised population and
for promote and support blended forms of learning.
Learning Partnerships – LLP
Learning by teaching
SLOVAKIA
Learning & teaching – history
• Famous since ancient ages, available only to few members of high (-er) society,
exceptional, provided by specific education institutions
• Over the time accessebility for more people
• End of 20th century became popular, spread among the general public
• Seneca : „we are learning if we teach“ in his letter to Lucilius, 2000 years ago
• „écoles mutuelles“ - 19.century, France, an alternative method, first ideas – to
replace lack of teachers, turn roles – student as a teacher
• LdL occured in 80-ties of 20-ty century, in languages, suitable for almost all
subjets, from elementary to university students, an alternative method
• Inspiration: „Let me do it myself and I will understand“, Prof. Dr. Jean-Pol Martin
Definitions
• Learning : systematic knowledge, skills and experience gaining, a way of
behavior and personal qualities usually managed by teacher in organised
conditions
• Teaching : intentional, and systematic teacher´s pôsobenie to learn students
(give him knowledge, skills, habit, way of behaviour, personal qualities, in
accordance with society requirements. It is process of interaction between
teacher and students
• In professional education, learning by teaching (German: LdL) designates a
method that allows pupils and students to prepare and to teach lessons, or parts
of lessons. Learning by teaching should not be confused with presentations or
lectures by students, as students not only convey a certain content, but also
choose their own methods and didactic approaches in teaching classmates
that subject.
Differences
• LdL – develops skills, Maslow`s hierarchy – level 3, moves personal growth
upward, mobilizes intellectual resources, quality of knowledge instead of
quantity, all school levels, including the adult education
• Differences between LdL and teacher-centered classroom: not communicate
new content, but interaction in small groups and plenum, do not use direct
grades, creativity
• +: motivation, efficiency, activity, teamwork, planning activities, reliability,
presentation and moderation skills, self-confidence, soft skills for private life and
future proffesions, social learning
• : lot of time to introduce the method, more work for teachers and students,
pressure for some pupils,...
Research results
• P. Roy´ ( Bagálová and coll., 1995) research shows what we can learn and
remember:
LdL & society requirements
• Time for new teaching methods, How far LdL meets the requirements of our time:
the method is exclusively based on the acquisition and improvement of skills
indispensable in our modern society. The promotion of communicative
competence, social learning and the assignement of responsibility = the major
benefits LdL offer to pupils
• For teacher: added value, revises his role
• unfavourable groups: building up useful skills required by labor market, a kind of
research approach, independence, new relationships
Situation in Slovakia
Life-long learning (in %) indicates decreasing trend, in spite of diminishing
unemployment
Criteria ���� benefits
• LdL: the criteria used to evaluate pupils´ learning progresses :
- The pure knowledge – the level of knowledge
- Their ability of transmitting knowledge – methodology
- Their ability of fixing knowledge – efficiency, reaching the lesson´s goal
- Other criteria: eye - contact, politness, empathy, intonation, ....
Situation in Slovakia
Unemployment rate (in %) shows decreasing trend mostly due to the legislation
change, 62-years retirement age for men and women, necessity of 2 incomes
Findings
• In Jean-Pol Martin´ studies (1985,pp.216-219) up to 75% of verbal expressions
come from the pupils, compared to the 25% traditional method
• LdL – teachers have to make sure that pupils really understand what they are
learning and why
• Questionnaire results analysis : positives overweight negatives
Arguments for LdL
METHODS:
• Does the method leave room for pupils to experiment and be creative?
• Does the method enable the pupils to share responsibility and cooperate?
• Does the method restrict the number of speech acts used by pupils to
communicate?
• Can the method be transferred to „real life?“
• Does the method encourage fluency and self-evaluation?
• Does the method allow weak and strong pupils to participate equally?
• Does the method involve everyone and all senses?
• Does the method make for an autenthic environment?
• Does the method trigger the pupils´ need to communicate ?
Action plan
Action plan on Adult learning – „It´s never too late to learn“, aims to make possible
for adult to acquire key competences at all stages in their lives
- OMC – Open Method of Coordination
- European Qualification Framework
- Pilot project – launched in 2009
• Linked to the labour market, involve mass of people, include social and
individual responsibility
• Social matter : to built knowledge economy, increase economy growth and
wealth
• Individual matter : life long learning due to gaining new skills, qualifications, be
employed