Pedagogy and learning design
Lifelong-learning
The European Lifelong Learning Initiative defines Lifelong Learning as “a continuously supportive process which stimulates and empowers individuals to acquire all the knowledge, values, skills and understanding they will require throughout their lifetimes and to apply them with confidence, creativity and enjoyment, in all roles circumstances, and environments” (Watson, 2003). As it is so fundamental for the professional and personal development for teachers and students, life-long learning ability is considered as a key competence that is highlighted in the EMVETE project.
The definition of life-long learning implies that the ability for a person to be able to define his/her own learning path and act on his/her environment is fundamental for successful lifelong learning. Hence, from a lifelong-learning perspective, developing students’ metacognition /self-regulated learning ability shall be a central focus of teaching. This means that teachers shall not only focus on subjective content but also on explicitly teaching students learning strategies, with the aim of stimulating and developing self-regulation (i.e. being able to set personal goals, select and deploy learning techniques, learn to self-monitor their own learning process and being reflective and willing to make adaptations whenever necessary).
HELP LEARNERS PROCESS THE SUBJECT MATTER ACTIVELY
By Surma and his co-authors
Productive strategies make learners actively process the subject matter. The result of actively engaging in learning can be various products created by the learner, such as an explanation, a summary or a schema, all of which make the learner learn the subject matter more deeply as compared to, for example, more passive rereading. Actively processing information can be done individually but also in collaboration. It’s important to use these strategies at the right moment and even more so to teach learners how to use them. In the blog, the authors discuss a few strategies and correctly point out that not all strategies are suitable for all types of content. They also stress that it’s important to teach learners about these strategies.
LEARNING STUDENTS TO LEARN MORE EFFECTIVELY
By Surma and his co-authors
Teach learners how to organise, monitor, evaluate, and adjust their own learning process (i.e., self-regulation) and which learning strategies to use when they study independently. In this chapter the authors stress the importance of teaching learners how to self-regulate their learning as both self-regulation and applying effective learning/study strategies are vital to the learning process.
Other scientific literature
For anyone who wants to explore more on how to develop life-long learning ability, a number of scientific literature is recommended. Some of them give detailed explanations on the concept of self-regulated learning (SRL) and metacognition, whereas others offer practical tips on how to develop students’ SRL via feedback and how to teach learning techniques (metacognition).
Fostering Thoughtful Self-Direction in Students
Critical thinking as a self-regulatory process component in teaching and learning
Measuring Self-Regulated Learning
Lifelong-learning, EDU4.0
