LLinE Lifelong Learning in Europe

Orientation - EXPANSION AND CHANGE, NEEDED AND ACHIEVED

EXPANSION AND CHANGE, NEEDED AND ACHIEVED

LLinE Interview LATVIAN LANGUAGE PROGRAMS TO RUSSIAN SPEAKERS

The Latvian Minister of Education Mr. Kārlis Šadurskis says the view on education of adults has changed since the Soviet times. Then the full employment provided everyone with a job, now one of the most urgent tasks is to educate labour force to meet new demands in working life. Another challenge is the Latvian language skills required of the Great Russian minority in the country.

Kate O’Donnell and Linda Thomas
INTERNAL MOTIVATION AND MENTORSHIP – basis for successful adult learning

A group of adults returned to study in a further education college to gain a professional qualification in childcare. This article describes the methods a team of Early Years tutors used to meet the challenge of providing a positive learning experience. Using action research as an intervention tool, the team aimed to create a responsive learning environment that would meet learners’ needs and fully embrace the concept of learning through life. The provision of institutionalised curricula may not answer to people’s inherent human capability and motivation as well as a needs-based, responsive approach that addresses and removes the barriers to participation.

Harm Tillema and Gert J. van der Westhuizen
KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTIVE TEAMS – Professionals Learn Collaboratively

The goal of the study was to explore the parameters for interventions which might enhance knowledge productive learning among professionals. Evaluations of collaborative learning processes revealed insights in the early adopters' (un)easiness and (un)certainties about using the study team, exchange and dialogue, self-directedness and freedom, as well as collaboration in teams to create and renew a personal knowledge base as well as its potential power as a learning tool to open a discovery-oriented construction of knowledge. Professionals engaged in self-study and collaborative inquiry in their work environment.

Petra Schedler, Folke Glastra and Barry Hake
GLASS CEILING FOR WOMEN IN HIGHER EDUCATION

There are still considerable problems in women’s participation in higher education. This article focuses on the Netherlands, but the problem is common to all countries, in one form or another. Female students remain underrepresented in the economical and technical courses. The number of women in higher university positions has not improved as much as was hoped for. Policy attention for female participation in higher education is no longer an issue of great importance. The writers analyse these questions and answers from different angles. They call for a mini 'revolt', especially in the academic world.

Georges-Louis Baron and Michelle Harrari
POTENTIAL FOR DRAMATIC CHANGE – France, ICT and decentralization

France, a country with a strong tradition of centralized government has been experiencing in the past decades a steady movement toward decentralization that has also affected education. At the same time, a series of public policies aiming at introducing and later integrating ICT in the school system have been launched. This article analyzes the links between the two phenomena. It is organized into three main parts: first, an overview of the French system, then the situation of ICT is presented. Finally a discussion of current trends and perspectives is elaborated.

Martti Raevaara
THE Virt@ on Net – NEW WAYS TO TRAIN ART TEACHERS

Department of Art Education at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki has organised a course for art teachers working in outlying regions and lacking formal qualifications art teachers. The education was set up in collaboration with the teacher training units at five Finnish universities. It will develop not only alternative methods applicable in long-distance, multi-form and Web-based teaching and study methods or networked learning environments, but also a comprehensive reform of models of operation.

Marina Bukanova
LIVING NETWORK VITALISES ADULT EDUCATION

After ten years, the Russian adult education still lacks measures to organise itself by, a law, coordination. But there are many providers nowadays, commercial, but also cultural institutions, libraries, and the most important, NGOs. Since the field was very heterogeneous but the needs great and to an extent similar, the Pskov Regional Adult Education Association PRAEA decided to set up a resource and support centre for the area. The idea is now spreading.

Angela Ivancic
INSPIRING STORY OF ADULT EDUCATION IN SLOVENIA

Slovenian adult education kept international contacts during the Communist years. They could provide results from research in their proposals in the early 1990s. The close relationship between research, analysis of needs and resources to determine the developments, and implementation have to this day carried the Slovenian adult education. Slovenian Institute for Adult Education was established as the main national institution for the promotion of adult education in 1991. SIAE has been instrumental in the rapid changes in adult education in Slovenia. At the moment it finds itself in a situation of great demands for further development, and yet limited resources to answer to them.

Petr Vavrin
RENAISSANCE OF LIFELONG LEARNING IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

From the adult education systems before the Communist times, and the corruptive influence of the surveillance during those time, Czech higher education providing adult education and lifelong learning is facing a perplexing situation. Providers vary, funding sources vary from the state in different degrees to nearly totally private funding, and the idea of lifelong learning oscillates between the welfare state ideology and the economic benefits. Many people do not want to see lifelong education as their own responsibility and activity.