Information, Knowledge and Learning

The recommendations of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education are assessed in the light of their vision of a learning society and criticised in terms of the inevitability of a knowledge economy with a new lifelong learning sector. While the National Committee has produced a report which demands careful study by everyone involved with higher education it has not provided us with a workable blueprint for the construction of a learning society.
The relationships between information, knowledge and learning are analysed in terms of three interacting economies – a cognitive economy, a learning economy and a knowledge economy. Technology will play a vital role in the evolution of these three inter-linked economies in the following ways:
• The cognitive economy will be transformed by the role of machine agents
• The learning economy will be transformed by the development of new ways of structuring and accessing instantiated knowledge
• Interactions between the creators and supplies of knowledge will create a trading economy based on wideband communications and internet technologies.
The major driver of the development of a knowledge economy will be a demand for lifelong learning. After a decade or so, by far the largest part of lifelong learning will be delivered off campus and into the workplace or home. In responding to these developments higher education will have to adapt radically.     

Education research and policy making in higher education: the case of Dearing

In establishing a National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education in the United Kingdom (the Dearing Committee), the Government expected short-term problems and long-term developments to be examined in less than half the average time taken by previous inquiries. Conscious of the intellectual authority of its predecessor, the Robbins Committee, the Dearing inquiry commissioned a large number of research and analytical studies to inform its deliberations. The ways that research and other forms of evidence were collected and considered by the inquiry are discussed in relation to four themes: the context and conditions for the inquiry; the nature of the work commissioned; the treatment of public evidence and the use of research to inform key recommendations; and what the episode disclosed about the relationship between education research and policy-making in higher education. In the course of this commentary, it is suggested that the uneven engagement with research and academic literatures in the Dearing inquiry was not simply a function of its terms and conditions of existence, but reflected more general features of the contemporary research base and policy environment in higher education.     

如何从机制上保障公民终身教育权益的实现——有感于《上海市终身教育促进条例》

《国家中长期教育改革和发展规划纲要（2010--2020年）》对建立终身学习的学习型社会有明确的定位,如何从机制上保障公民接受终身教育,在我国建立学习型社会,《上海市终身教育促进条例》做了示范。     

The Cape Town statement on characteristic elements of a lifelong learning higher education institution

We see a key purpose of lifelong learning as democratic citizenship.…Democratic citizenship highlights the importance of women and men as agents of history in all aspects of their lives. (As quoted by Professor Kadar Asmal, National Minister of Education of South Africa at the opening of the Cape Town Conference, 10 October 2000.) This statement grew out of a need recognized by adult and higher educators, scholars and specialists in the area of adult and lifelong learning to build on previous work focusing on transforming institutions of higher education into institutions of lifelong learning. It continues the work begun at the Fifth International Conference on Adult Education in Hamburg, Germany, 1997, continued at the University of Mumbai, India in 1998, and the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education in Paris in 1998. It was developed at the Conference on Lifelong Learning, Higher Education and Active Citizenship from the 10–12 October 2000 in Cape Town which was co-hosted by University of Western Cape, UNESCO Institute of Education and the Adult Education Research Group of the Danish National University of Education.     

Preparing for the Silver Tsunami: The Demand for Higher Education Among Older Adults

Over the next decade, Baby Boomers will be reaching retirement age in large numbers and the U.S. will be undergoing one of the most significant demographic shifts in its history. This demographic shift has important implications for the role of higher education as a provider of lifelong learning and for the changing composition of postsecondary institutions. Using data from the 2005 National Household Education Survey, the results of this study informs the higher education community about this emerging student market segment as a way to help us better respond to older adults?? demand for formal learning in postsecondary institutions.     

Managing Messes and Coping with Uncertainty: reviewing training for teachers in post‐compulsory education and training

Abstract

Post‐compulsory teacher training in England has been under review, and standards developed by the Further Education Staff Development Forum were to be launched in January 1999 as a precursor to a mandatory qualification for teachers in further education in England and Wales. Until now, many further education colleges have worked in partnership with higher education institutions to run Certificate in Education programmes, which aim to develop both practical teaching skills and critical knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning in a post‐compulsory context. A review of one such programme is outlined here. In a context where further education teachers must help to widen participation and promote lifelong learning, it is argued that any new arrangements for initial teacher training and continuing professional development need to include ‘competence’ in the practical skills involved in teaching and learning, but must also go beyond this, and aim to develop critical knowledge and understanding of the changing context in which staff work. It is argued that turning the new Further Education National Training Organisation standards for further education teachers in England and Wales into a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) is inadequate to this task. A strengthened partnership between further and higher education providers to develop more robust and coherent approaches to professional capability is advocated.     

The coming of post-institutional higher education

This piece offers two stories and attempts a contrast between them. These are about how UK higher education responded to the economic crisis of the 1970s, and about how it is shaping up in response to the banking crisis of 2008 and its global ramifications. The first is constructed around the rise and fall of ‘public sector higher education’ between the James Report and the Dearing Report of 1997. The second looks at the prospects of higher education’s contributions to a more fluid, flexible and responsive lifelong learning, summed up as ‘post-institutional higher education’.     

Lifelong learning and the reform of the teaching practicum in Australia

This paper reports the findings of a project—‘Lifelong learning and teacher education’—undertaken by the Centre for Lifelong Learning, Australian Catholic University, under the auspices of the Australian Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training. The study was designed to investigate the operationalization of lifelong learning in Australian teacher education. The study revealed that there is a range of existing, innovative practices regarding partnerships between schools and higher and further education that are in keeping with emerging ideas about lifelong learning. Moreover, some of these take the form of collaborative action research projects focused on improving the learning occurring in the partnership schools. This paper describes some current approaches in Australia to collaborative action research by teacher educators' and their partnership schools and shows how they contribute to lifelong learning. The approaches are then analyzed to suggest ways of advancing lifelong learning within Australian Education Faculties thus helping to make lifelong learning more of a reality for all.     

Dearing is Dead – Blunkett is Born? The Future Funding of Higher Education

The Dearing Report's most substantial and rigorous piece of work on funding has been rendered irrelevant by the government's decision to adopt a different approach which Dearing had not considered. Much time, effort and money could have been saved if the government had made its objectives clear before the Report was finalised rather than on the day it was published.
Yet the Dearing chapters on funding are not wasted because they provide the case for a student contribution to tuition costs on the grounds of equity. These arguments are examined and supported in the paper. The Report is criticised for missing the opportunity to argue for credit-based funding in relation to both the public and student contributions.
The reasons for the government preferring its particular mix of means-tested fee and loan instead of means-tested maintenance grant are explained in terms of its political objectives. The effect of the government's proposals is that no student or parent pays more now for higher education than under existing arrangements. The extra private costs are incurred by graduates in repaying their additional loans out of their future income.
Finally, the misplaced emphasis on dealing with the full-time student funding problem led the Committee to give insufficient attention to other students. The adoption of a genuine lifelong learning model of higher education might have generated more relevant proposals not only on funding but elsewhere.     

国外终身教育立法启示——基于美、日、韩法规文本的分析

与国外发达国家终身教育法制化的现状相比,我国仍然处在滞后状态。即使有个别的地方性法规。也存在法律效应的局限性。因此。我国终身教育缺乏实质性的措施。研究和梳理国外终身教育立法经验,对我国国家层面终身教育立法具有重要意义。美国《终身学习法》没有刻意构建一个庞大而完整的终身教育体系,而是将“终身教育”的推动放置于某一个接近的范畴,以避免法规“空泛”的弊端,但此举削弱了终身教育在国民教育体系中的地位。日本《终身学习振兴法》被置于产业振兴的层面,但国家与政府为民众提供公益性的学习机会等涉及终身教育本质理念的内容,仍然没有得到应有的体现。韩国《终身教育法》是目前世界上比较完整的法规,但对于国民在终身教育中的主体地位重视不足。我国终身教育立法需要解决的主要问题是：保护公民的终身学习权,坚持以政府为主导,建立终身教育体系,架构终身教育“立交桥”,建设学分银行,设置终身教育机构和专职教育管理人员,将终身教育经费列入国家教育经费预算。     

上海市终身教育学分银行的构建

本报告介绍了上海市终身教育学分银行的构建背景、定位、基本功能、特点以及运行方式,展示了上海市终身教育学分银行运行的信息化服务平台,简要分析了上海市终身教育学分银行构建与运行面临的困境,以期为国内各省市建设学分银行,搭建终身学习"立交桥",促进各级各类教育的融通,提供一个实践案例。     

远程教育与终身教育和学习化社会--世界远程教育发展历史追溯和展望(5)

从精英教育到大众教育和普及教育;从成人教育到全民教育和继续教育;从终身教育、终身学习再到全民终身学习;从学习化社会到学习型组织等。这些教育思想的提出及相应教育实践的开拓,不仅适应了、信息时代和知识经济的到来,也为教育技术的应用、远程教育的持续发展奠定了思想理论基础。     

终身教育与教育治理在教育现代化中的逻辑联系——实现中国教育现代化2035的思考

《中国教育现代化2035》赋予了新时代中国教育现代化新内涵,构建服务全民终身学习的现代教育体系成为新时代中国教育现代化的主要目标方向,与此同时,2035教育规划提出与之相适应的教育治理新目标,而构筑终身学习现代教育体系及与之相适应的教育治理新格局的形成,成为《中国教育现代化2035》的核心和主线;如果说2035的教育体系与现存教育体系将不仅区别在外塑,更区别在内核的话,前一个目标则指向于2035教育的内核,后一个目标指向于2035教育的外塑。在整全的视域下,两个目标是密不可分的整体,前一个目标是包涵新教育治理格局的终身化教育体系,后一个目标是基于终身化现代教育体系的教育治理现代化新格局。研究2035教育现代化,需要将两个目标统一一体于新思考框架中。其中,我国2035年将建成的服务全民终身学习的现代教育体系,就是扎根于本土现代化进程中的终身教育体系。     

Adult education,lifelong learning and citizenship: some ifs and buts

This paper suggests that the dominant discourse of lifelong learning is a political rather than an educational discourse. On this view, lifelong learning enables the deconstruction of welfare to be effected through the reconstruction of citizenship. Democratic citizenship properly understood, on the other hand, depends on determined progress towards a more equitable distribution of material and cultural resources among citizens. Education on its own can do little to ensure that such structural change takes place. It is, nevertheless, the task of critical adult education, as distinct from economistic models of lifelong learning, to raise such questions as urgent issues for democratic deliberation and debate, and to expand our notions of what it means to be active citizens in a democratic society. The paper contains the text of a talk given at the annual study conference of the UK's National Institute of Adult Continuing Education in April 2002.     

The Dearing Inquiry as Process – Delegated Thinking and the Limits of Expert Advice

The Dearing Inquiry into Higher Education is assessed in terms of its contribution to a style of policy-making which has lain dormant for two decades. The paper questions the effectiveness of national inquiries in general, and asks whether there is a case for anticipating further inquiries as proposed by the Dearing report. The Inquiry itself is examined as part of a critique of state-sponsored delegated thinking, in which the state delegates but does not abdicate its policy-making function. Tensions between academic experts and the elite policy-making community are also analysed. The paper concludes that inquiries have less to do with inquiry, and more to do with the legitimation of state policy options. A way is cleared for a further paper which explores the alternatives for higher education.     

我国农村终身教育体系构建的价值、障碍及其对策

农村终身教育体系的构建具有有利于和谐社会的构建、学习型社会的构建等重要的价值,但是目前农村终身教育体系构建存在一些诸如农村终身教育理念淡薄等问题,因此需要在推进终身教育立法进程、资源建设,为农村终身教育体系构建奠定社会基础等方面寻找对策。     

终身教育中远程教育的角色变换

在构建终身教育体系进程中,终身教育与远程教育的关联性及其相互影响,是一项值得研究的重要课题。以＂终身教育-远程教育＂为研究主题,采用文献计量法等研究方法,通过剖析这一关联主题的研究状况,得出以下结论：研究＂终身教育-远程教育＂主题的论文数量呈逐年上升趋势;终身教育和远程教育之间存在两种关系,即＂整体与部分＂和＂目的与路径＂关系;与此相对应,远程教育在终身教育体系中扮演两类角色,即＂教育形态（或教育方式）＂和＂教育手段＂角色。在当今网络环境支撑的知识时代,远程教育在构建终身教育体系中将发挥越来越重要的作用。     

Book reviews

The role of information and communications technology (ICT) in widening participation in lifelong learning, and thereby establishing the UK as a bona fide ‘learning society’, is now enshrined in a series of multi-million pound government initiatives such as the University for Industry, learndirect and UK Online. Although politicians and educationalists have been quick to herald such initiatives as revolutionizing post-compulsory education and extending learning opportunities to ‘anyone’ on an ‘anytime, anywhere’ basis, there has been little empirical analysis of how ICT is actually impacting on patterns of lifelong learning in the UK. With this in mind, the present paper presents an analysis of data from the 2002 National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) survey of 5885 households, focusing on learners' access to technology and the role that technology is playing in facilitating learning.     

三喻文化与社区教育

美国文化人类学家玛格丽特·米德从文化传递的角度提出了“三喻文化”的理论,对于教育的实施有着重要的启发意义,教育实际上就是对文化的一种传递。当今,随着时代的发展和社会的进步,终身教育和学习型社会日益要求社区在整个教育体系中发挥越来越重要的作用。而社区教育内涵丰富,这要求其文化传递方式也必须是多样的而非单一的。