ISSN 0798 1015

Vol. 38 (Nº 25) Year 2017. Page 25

Adult education and lifelong learning as the basis of social and employment path of the modern man

La educación de adultos y el aprendizaje permanente como base de la vía social y laboral del hombre moderno

Evgeniya Valerievna SHUBENKOVA 1; Svetlana Vladimirovna BADMAEVA 2; Nikolai Nikolaevich GAGIEV 3; Ekaterina Andreevna PIROZHENKO 4

Received: 09/03/2017 • Approved: 15/04/2017

Content

1. Introduction

2. Methods

3. Main results and discussion

4. Conclusion

References

1. Introduction

The change of educational goals from “learning for the whole life” to “lifelong learning” (LLL) and the need to learn both interdisciplinary and adjacent specialties for a successful career, on the one hand, facilitates, and on the other hand, requires flexibility in getting an education. There is an obvious tendency to change the structure of educational institutions, educational courses, models and forms of obtaining an education, which allow creating the conditions for actualization students’ individual skills and capabilities.

We find the following questions within the addressed issue to be significant for discussion: development of the efficient mechanisms of realizing the continuous adult education system in the Russian Federation in various directions and educational profiles; development of the mechanisms of organizing adult education process; its provision with staff and infrastructure; acquisition of additional “informal” education, etc.

Currently, professional learning is a necessary condition for actualizing one’s own professional potential for a modern person throughout his/her whole life. In Russia, the researchers focus mostly on studying the paradigm, the idea, technologies, methods and forms of lifelong education.

At the end of the XX century and the beginning of the XXI century, along with the complication of professional activity as a result of the rapid development of scientific and technical progress, the question of continuous education for adults, who had long passed the age of students, became acute. This is related to the fact that knowledge and skills, which were acquired in childhood and youth, become morally outdated in a couple of decades. Hence, a need to develop a new approach to teaching an adult person occurred.

The study of the problem of creating and developing the continuous education system shows that the idea of “lifelong learning” originated from the philosophical works of Confucius, Socrates, Aristotle, Solon, Plato, Seneca (Zinchenko 1998). During the 1950-1960s, the paradigm of continuous education spread and gain a special popularity and significance. As a consequence, the first definition of the “lifelong learning” concept appeared, and its characteristics and specifics were defined. For example, the development of the theoretical bases of lifelong learning were addressed by such well-known national economists and sociologists, as G.P. Zinchenko (1998), V.G. Onushkin (1995), V.N. Obukhov (1996), A. P. Vladislavlev (1978), V.N. Turchenko (1983), and others. A significant contribution to the development of theoretical and methodical statements in the field of lifelong learning was made by international scientists I. Faure, P. Shulka, F. Gessup, H. Vries, and others (Herman, 2012). In 1965, the paradigm of LLL was presented in UNESCO by a well-known theoretical scientist P. Lengrand (1996); its essence consisted of well-rounded development of person’s skills during his whole life. At the modern stage of the development of the problem of adult lifelong learning, there are numerous publications on peer-reviewed issues and conference abstracts books. In turn, international organizations prepared analytical reports on this problem, including “Global report on adult learning and education” (UNESCO) (2009), “Education for All 2000-2015.: achievements and challenges” (UNESCO) (2015), “Education at a Glance. OECD indicators” (annual report, OECD) (2016), “Lifelong learning and adults” (OECD) (2012), etc.

The aim of the study is to analyze the vectors of development of the continuous adult education system in the Russian Federation and to develop theoretical bases and methodological approaches to developing continuous economic education of adults in the professional education system in Russia.

2. Methods

During the conduction of the study, we used the methods of economic, statistical and comparative analysis, logical rationalization, and calculative analysis. The combination of the used methodological basis allowed providing the validity of the conclusions.

3. Main results and discussion

The problem of continuous adult education, its quality and teaching methods is significant and is discussed worldwide. According to the strategic program of the European Union “Learning and education 2020”, 15% of the population among 25-64 years in the European Union countries have to be involved in the lifelong learning programs by 2020 9 Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN), 2014). Along with that, the “Updated European program of adult education” states the fulfillment of the following goals by 2020:

• Growth of private and governmental investments in education;
• Increased number and improved quality of the proposed educational programs for adults;
• Increased availability of education, including introduction of flexible forms of education, such as distance learning, for adult education;
• Development of methodical approaches to evaluating the quality of the provided educational services in adult education (European Commission).

               According to the statistical data of Eurostat, in the European Union countries, there is a growth in the population from 25 to 64 years of age that are learning in the educational programs of professional education and professional development (Figure 1). Moreover, among the students in the European Union countries, there is a higher proportion of women – 11.7%, compared to 9.7% of men (by 2015) (Figure 2).

Note: created by the authors according to (Eurostat).
Figure 1. Lifelong learning (2010 and 2015) (% of population in the age of 25-64
that participate in the programs of education and professional development
in the European Union countries)

The highest number of students, who study in the educational programs and professional development courses, is observed in the following EU countries: Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Island, Finland, Norway, Netherlands, France, Luxemburg and Great Britain (Figure 2).

Note: created by the authors according to (Eurostat).
Figure 2. Dynamics of the number of men and women, who study or attend professional
development courses (% of the population among 25 and 65 years, who participate in
educational programs and professional development in the EU)

According to the sociological studies, in the United States of America, 73% of the population are involved in the lifelong learning; moreover, 36% of the adults annually attend professional development courses and trainings (Horrigan, n. d.)

In the Russian Federation, normative and legal basis of the lifelong education system consists of a number of key documents that define the strategy of this system’s development. Furthermore, it is important to point out that, on the official level, the transition to lifelong education occurred less than 10 years ago, i.e. in this aspect, the country is faced with a large amount of work for levelling the normative basis with the general European standards (table 1).

Table 1. Normative documents that contain the statements about lifelong learning development in Russia

One of the most important documents in this list is the “Strategy of innovative development of the Russian Federation in the period up to 2020”. According to this strategy, the proportion of the population involved in lifelong education, among the respondents from 25 to 64 years of age, has to amount to 55% up to 2020; moreover, this number already exceeds the same characteristic in Europe (on average), as well as the same characteristic in the leading Scandinavian countries (Figure 3).

Note: created by the authors.
Figure 3. Proportion of the population involved in lifelong education, among
the respondents from 25 to 64 years of age, percent, 2010-2020.

The necessity of the present study is also explained by the active development of the national system of professional qualifications in Russia. In June 2016 the Federal law “On independent evaluation of qualification” #238-FZ from 03.07.2016 was passed. Passing the law confirms the need to develop flexible and efficient system of employees’ continuous education throughout their work life, in order to constantly gain contemporary professional knowledge, skills and abilities for successful passing of the procedure of independent evaluation of employee’s or candidate’s qualification for the coherence with the professional standards’ requirements.

The authors think that, in order to fulfill the goals of lifelong education as efficiently as possible, it is necessary to divide the adults upon age groups (generations), because different age groups have specific needs for learning, different range of educational needs, etc. Social science separates three age groups: from 18 to 25, from 25 to 45 and over 45 years of age.

The first category is divided into two groups – people who have and do not have professional education. Therefore, the first ones have to be provided with such education in order for them to be involved in professional activity, while the second ones have to be provided with an opportunity to expand the knowledge they already have upon transitioning to the second category.

The second category has professional education and work experience; professional development and actualization of intellectual and professional potential are relevant to it. They have to be provided with the conditions for increasing the professional level.

The third category, despite achieving certain social and professional status, also requires constant learning, adaptive by nature; however, in many cases, this learning is impossible without the interaction with first and second categories, which contains mutual teaching.

For each category, it is necessary to establish the required goals, approaches and teaching methods, and to define the interaction between employees of different categories – for example, by establishing mentoring relationships.

According to the statements described above, we will define the specifics of teaching people of middle and older age.

Specifics of professional development for people of middle and older age (35 years and older):

• A person of this age, who studies – a student (not a teacher) has the leading role in the educational process;
• Being a well-developed personality, he sets concise education goals for himself and strives for self-sufficiency, self-actualization and self-regulation;
• A person from 35 years of age and older has professional and life experience, knowledge, abilities and skills, which should be used in the educational process;
• He searches to apply knowledge and abilities, obtained during learning, as soon as possible;
• Educational process is largely defined by temporal, spatial, domestic, professional and social factors, which either limit or facilitate it;
• Educational process is organized in form of cooperative activity of student and teacher on all of its stages;
• Adult students learn from each other’s experience;
• This category of students does not have a goal of radically changing their professional field and is certain of what they need.

The problems of working with this age group often occur for teachers-theorists, because their competence is being checked during the discussion of practical and operational questions. For some teachers, the audience is too experience and, to some extent, is “spoiled” by the reality of work.

Because of this, one of the main approaches in any successful educational program for professional development of people of this age is the use of the combination of different teaching methods for reaching the goal.

We propose a list of teaching methods, which have to be necessarily used during the process of teaching adults; it consists of letters K, U, S, V, or A, which label the teaching method that is suitable for using during the fulfillment of the educational goal. This method can be suitable for more than one educational goal.

К (knowledge)= Knowledge/Awareness

U (understanding)= Understanding

S (skills)= Skills/Behavior

V (value)= Evaluation/Priorities

А (attitude)= Attitude

We would like to highlight certain optimal teaching methods for professional development of an older-aged person, which are thoroughly described in table 2: home reading task, brainstorm, brief discussion groups (“buzz groups”), studying certain situations, small knowledge circles, contracts – study contract, study journal, discussion – discussion, lecture.

Table 2. Methods of teaching adult population

In order to increase the efficiency of the results of middle- and older-aged students after they completed professional education, they can be involved as “mentors”, “senior specialists”, “teachers” or “consultants” in the work with young and middle-aged employees.

Currently in Russia, Russian Ministry of Education and Science and the scientific community have developed the project of the “Paradigm of developing continuous adult education in the Russian Federation up to 2025”. The main expected results of realizing the Paradigm are: increase of the population’s quality of life; strengthening of social stability in the community; development of human capital of the country; increase of competitiveness of the adult population (Alkhimenko, et. al. 2014).

4. Conclusion

Acquisition of lifelong education by adults becomes a basic condition for developing and realizing social and employment path of a modern person. In correspondence with above said, we think that further scientific study is required for the questions related to developing the mechanisms of continuous professional education for adults, developing of infrastructure and technologies in the field of adult education, perfecting the forms and methods of teaching the adults. As the study showed, European countries demonstrate a robust tendency of increasing number of students in educational programs and programs of professional education. The highest proportion of students is observed in Benelux, Scandinavian countries, as well as in France and Great Britain. All of these countries have rather high level of economic development, which can explain such high proportion of students. In the Russian Federation, the number of people participating in lifelong education is much higher than the European average, however, this characteristic does not consider the division of the population into groups, which does not allow making a definitive conclusion about the efficiency and significance of the acquired education for a certain population group. Because of this, we suggest using the individualized approach for teaching people of older age, because this category of the population requires a combination of different teaching methods in order to reach the goal.

References

Alkhimenko, O.N., Asaliev, A.M., Kuksova, O.D. (2014). Human capital on the knowledge economy: the role of continuing education. Review of European Studies, 6(4), 277-282

Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN). (2014). Lifelong Learning among Adults in Ireland Quarter 4 2014. Retrieved from: https://www.education.ie/en/The-Department/Bodies-and-Committees/EGFSN_Lifelong_Learning_Q4_2014.pdf.

European Commission. EU policy in the field of adult learning. Retrieved from: http://ec.europa.eu/education/policy/adult-learning_en.

Eurostat. Statistics explained. Lifelong learning statistics. Retrieved from: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Lifelong_learning_statistics.

Herman, M.V. (2012). Continuing education: the evolution of development, the objective reality. Bulletin of the Tomsk State University, 2(18), 147 - 154.

Horrigan, J., Lifelong Learning and Technology. Retrieved from: http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/03/22/lifelong-learning-and-technology/.

Legrand, P. (1996). An introduction to Lifelong learning. The UNESCO Press.

Onushkin, V.G., Ogarev, E.I. (1995). Adult education: Interdisciplinary Dictionary terminology. Voronezh: Voronezh, 231 p.

Obukhov, V.N. (1996). Continuing education as a function of government. Problems of Sociology of vocational education: continuing education. The third Russian conference with international participation: Abstracts of papers and communications. (Ed. H.A. Lobanov). St. Petersburg: Saint-Petersburg branch of AAS, pp. 95-96.

OECD (2016). “Russian Federation”, in Education at a Glance 2016: OECD indicators. OECD Publishing, Paris. Retrieved from: http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/education/education-at-a-glance-2016/russian-federation_eag-2016-76-en#.WCMtd-OLTct#page5.

OECD (2012). “Lifelong learning and adults”, in Education Today 2013: The OECD Perspective. OECD Publishing. Retrieved from: http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/education/education-today-2013/lifelong-learning-and-adults_edu_today-2013-9-en#.WCMvueOLTcs.

Turchenko, V.N. (1983). Methodological problems of continuous education system development. Actual problems of continuous education. Moscow: Education, pp. 1-28.

UNESCO (2009). Global report on adult learning and education: Institute for Lifelong Learning. UNESCO Publishing, Germany. Retrieved from: http://uil.unesco.org/fileadmin/keydocuments/AdultEducation/en/GRALE_en.pdf.

UNESCO (2015). Education for All 2000-2015: achievements and challenges. Publ: YUNESKO. Retrieved from: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002322/232205R.pdf.

Vladislavlev, A.P. (1978). Continuing education: problems and prospects. Moscow, 175 p.

Zinchenko, G.P. (1998). Continuing education - the imperative of our time. Moscow: Nauka, 174 p.

1. Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, 117997, Russian Federation, Moscow, Stremyanny lane, 3

2. Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, 117997, Russian Federation, Moscow, Stremyanny lane, 3

3. Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, 117997, Russian Federation, Moscow, Stremyanny lane, 3

4. Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, 117997, Russian Federation, Moscow, Stremyanny lane, 3

Contact Email: vokatemoscow@mail.ru