Lifelong Learning
Chances are everyone has heard of lifelong learning. Its a good concept. Acknowledging that you will be learning your whole life, not just within the school setting, but throughout your career and possibly in your personal interests as well. The only problem with this is many see this lifelong learning as transactional. They are doing it in order to gain a qualification or certification. The vast majority don’t do it for just the joy of learning.
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A large portion of the blame for this lies with our victorian style education systems worldwide. We inadvertently teach that the important thing is what you know for the final exam. Nothing else matters.
That idea becomes internalised and students from across the world expect to only be taught what they need to pass the final, summative component of the course. They frame all their work throughout a course towards this singular end goal. Its a fundamental misunderstanding of formative work. To them its not about what they are learning, its about how that will link to the final assessed piece. They believe it is forming their concepts just for this. When actually, it’s meant to be forming their understanding as a whole.
Habitus forming
It ties into Bourdieu’s concept of Habitus. A person’s habitus is how they view things based on their life experience and their peers around them.
Here’s a video explaining it:
Students Driving Forces
How do we unpick that in a way that works? This is a huge question that there is no definitive answer to. To start with we need to figure out what is driving our students? Whats the impetus they have?
Is it to get a degree so they can go into their chosen field?
Well in work in industry they won;t have a final ‘summative’ thing to do, they will have multiple things to do repeatedly. We can show that we are preparing them properly for the world of work and the challenges they will face there?
Is it to get a degree to show they have understanding of the topic?
Well how do they know they have sufficient knowledge if they are only tested on one small aspect of it. Formative will help them grow as an individual and build up that knowledge base.
Are they here because they want to socialise and make connections?
Well through effective peer led formative assessment they will have opportunities to mingle with their fellow students and get to know them.
Are they here just because its what their parents want them to do?
Thats much much harder to deal with. Formative assessment can be used to help them come out of their shell and find their own love of a subject, rather than feeling forced into it.
Culture Shock
Universities aim to teach students how to learn, how to critically analyse sources and come to their own conclusions, based upon evidence and research. Its a completely different method of learning from Primary and Secondary, because it is no longer about giving them core knowledge required to understand the world at large. (and we can argue that primary and secondary shouldn’t be rote memorisation either, but that’s a big discussion for another time).
This can be a huge culture shock to them. Many students expect to be spoonfed information due to the broken earlier systems.hey have been brought up in a completely different system, thats understandable. However, we cannot encourage ‘Continuing doing the same youve always done.’ Students need to embrace the methods designed to unlock their creativity, originality and most importantly adaptability. In order to be successful.
That adaptability is the skill they will need the most to stand out in their chosen field. By challenging them and having them face that discomfort we are actually doing them a massive favour. Its in uncomfortable learning situations that often you learn the most and the best. This is because it is different, it is challenging, and you need to focus more.
What is Learning?
Lets look at learning for a moment. What is it? Is it just rote memorisation of facts? No, we know its so much more. If people want rote memorisation, they have access to the internet. Thats not what universities are for.
Its about building the next generation of experts. Preparing them for a world where they will constantly be bombarded with information that they have to parse not only as true or false, but also as whether its malevolent, what the underlying motives of the creator are etc.
Formative assessment allows us to do this, and to provide the skills that employers are actually looking for when they ask for a graduate. Many companies do not care what your degree is in, just that you have it, because of the skills it shows you have.
We live in an age where, in theory, anyone could write a compelling essay thanks to the open availability of knowledge. We want our students to be able to apply it and to learn from their misconceptions. Formative achieves this. Summative essays and exams?I’m not so sure.
Lifewide Learning
Lifewide Learning was first suggested by John Dewey in the 1920s and 30s. The concept is that every aspect of our lives provides learning opportunities. Learning isn’t relegated solely to the classroom, or courses, but permeates everything we do.
We need to be encouraging students to see every aspect of their lives and what they do as learning opportunities. Rather than solely focusing on lifelong learning, which is characterised by a set of summative criteria and certifications taken at various points in your life.
In summary
There’s a place for lifelong learning, don’t get me wrong. But the emphasis is far too much upon those certifications. We need students to embrace lifewide learning, building a love of learning and ability to bring their full, creative, original selves into all they do. This is the driving force behind my love of playful education, and this blog.