LIFEWIDE LEARNING AND EDUCATION
Most people are familiar with the idea of lifelong learning to represent an individual’s learning and development throughout the whole of their life-span. But we are less familiar with the complementary concept of 'lifewideness,' the learning and development that occurs more or less contemporaneously in multiple and varied places and situations throughout an individual's life course.Yet it is the lifewide dimension of life that we actually notice and participate in every day.
Lifewideness is a simple idea. It recognises that most people no matter what their age or circumstances simultaneously inhabit a number of different spaces - like work or education, running a home, being a member of a family, being involved in a club or society, travelling and taking holidays and looking after themselves mentally, physically and spiritually. We live out our lives in these different spaces, we make decisions about what we choose to be involved in, we meet and interact with different people, have different sorts of relationships, adopt different roles and identities, and think, behave and communicate in different ways. We engage in different sorts of experiences, encounter different sorts of challenges and problems, seize or miss opportunities, and aspire to achieve our ambitions.
Lifewide education explicitly recognises that people learn and develop through their lifewide experiences and promotes and values these forms of learning. By reframing our perception of what counts as learning and development, and developing the means of recognizing and valuing the learning and development gained in a learner’s lifewide experiences, formal education could enable learners to develop a deeper appreciation of how, what, when and why they are learning in the different parts of their lives. Heightened self-awareness is likely to help them become more effective at learning through their own experiences and this should be an essential outcome of any educational system that prepares people for the challenges of a complex ever changing world.
JISC MAIL LISTFOR PEOPLE INTERESTED IN THE IDEA OF LIFEWIDE EDUCATION
Talks, Workshops & Conferences
Enabling a More Complete Education Conference Wiki April 2010
Lifewide Student Development Symposium March 2011
University of Worcester January 2011
NEW BOOK AUGUST 2011
A lifewide concept of learning, education and personal development
Edited by
Norman Jackson
Lifewide Education Community Interest Company