Creating environments conducive for lifelong learning

Abstract

Opportunities to engage in learning anytime or anywhere must address the issue of how to foster the desire for sustained and enduring learning. The need to understand the conditions necessary for facilitating this type of learning requires an understanding of the behaviors associated with autonomous learning coupled with self-efficacy beliefs.A technological transformation during the past decade has eliminated the boundaries between formal and informal learning. As we adapt to a knowledge-driven society, a cultural transformation is occurring. Lifelong learning is an essential goal of education as a means to improve the quality of life for an individual, a culture, or a society. The value of sustained learning is demonstrated through changes in economic growth and social well-being, as well as the development of a democratic way of life. Although we now have opportunities to engage in learning anytime or anywhere, we must address the issue of how to foster the desire for sustained and enduring learning and, more important, create environments that are conducive to this lifelong learning process.Establishing the conditions necessary for facilitating and enhancing the capacity for sustained and enduring learning requires understanding which behaviors are important for independent, autonomous learning. The research of Derrick (2001), Carr (1999), and Ponton (1999) establishes a definitive understanding of the specific characteristics associated with persistence, resourcefulness, and initiative in autonomous learning, coupled with self-efficacy beliefs that facilitate learners who can endure and sustain their learning in any setting or medium. Their research was predicated on the belief that autonomous learning behaviors can be identified and quantified through the development of items that assess the relative capacity of intentions to learn (that is, conation).The original research focused on the development of a conceptual framework that adequately addresses these questions: What are the specific attributes of learners who exhibit initiative, resourcefulness, and persistence NEW DIRECTIONS FOR ADULT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION, no. 100, Winter 2003 © Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 5 1 6 FACILITATING LEARNING IN ONLINE ENVIRONMENTSin learning? Does the medium or setting make a difference with regard to learner autonomy? What is the importance of developing lifelong, independent learners?Perspectives regarding teaching and learning have seen a subtle shift over the past decade. There is a greater emphasis on the learner and on the structures and mechanisms that sustain and develop the skills and attitudes needed for the future. The shift in thinking has focused on the internal conditions that are necessary for sustained and enduring learning rather than on the external surroundings and settings.Distance education has reinforced the emphasis on cognitive and psychological conditions that support learning as we continue to move toward anytime-anyplace learning. The online format is viewed as an alternative way to learn in a tech...

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