LLinE Lifelong Learning in Europe

Orientation 1/2008

Holger Bienzle and Wolfgang Jütte
NETWORKING AND NETWORK MANAGEMENT - AN ART?
Networks of professionals and institutions play a prominent role in the area of lifelong learning in Europe. The notion of network(ing) has been postulated as a guiding principle and a key competence of practitioners at all levels of hierarchy. Networks and networking are generally considered to have high potential for solving structural problems in education. Networking and managing platforms for effective networking is an art in the sense that specific skills and arrangements are needed.

Anelia Miteva
FUTURE WORKSHOPS FOR EUROPE
Future Workshops for Europe is a meaningful Learning Partnership aiming at helping people change their realities by using the power of their own knowledge, experience and creativity. The project has explored the potential of the Future Creating Workshops for community development in rural and economically disadvantaged areas in the five partner countries.

Veikko Torvinen, Alexander Zadontsev and Anna Korshakova
COOPERATION BETWEEN NORTHWEST RUSSIA AND FINLAND
At present Russia lacks a system, which enhances citizens´ participation and social partnership as a part of sustainable civic society development. There seems to be a need to increase educational support for vulnerable groups in order to alleviate social tensions. In cooperation with their Finnish colleagues Pskov Agricultural College is planning for the future innovative development of adult education in the Pskov region.

Kai Hakkarainen
TOWARD A TRIALOGICAL APPROACH TO LEARNING: PERSONAL REFLECTIONS
While the world is radically transforming, the theories that are used to explain human learning and development have to be reconsidered. Challenges of lifelong learning are examined from the perspective of three metaphors of learning. The investigator’s own challenging learning experiences are considered in reflecting on various aspects of learning and human development.

Dominique Lapiere
LEARNING TOGETHER TO HELP OTHERS LEARN
De Groene Kans vzw is part of local and international network who share the common goals of recruiting and educating disadvantaged groups and thereby assisting them to enter (or re-enter) the labour market.

Airi Valkama and Eeva Siirala
NETWORKING FOR LIFEWIDE LEARNING
There are an estimated 20 percent of diverse learners in the population, that means one million people in Finland. Their mode of learning deviates from the one used in school. At the end of 1980s, a group of people visioned a centre for diverse learning in which diagnosing, treatment, learning, activities, and peer groups would find a place. At the moment there are 16 organisation to represent and include diverse learners in Finland. These organisations work in a network, but they also have an umbrella, Finnish Diverse Learners’ Association, FINDER.

John Field
PARTNERSHIPS IN AND FOR LIFELONG LEARNING
Partnership figures frequently in strategies designed to promote lifelong learning for all. Policy-makers will continue to promote partnership approaches, and therefore it is helpful to be aware of and prepared for the problems that partnership working can present. Partnership working represents a viable alternative to more traditional and bureaucratic ways of delivering policy, and indeed brings a number of intrinsic benefits in its own right.

Leena Teinilä
ACTIVATING LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS FOR YOUNG ASYLUM SEEKERS

Andrea Waxenegger
THE ADD LIFE PROJECT
An inside view to the EU project “ADD LIFE – ADDing quality to LIFE through inter-generational learning via universities” providing basic information about the project, the objectives and the products, and introducing three aspects of collaborative design of learning opportunities in a university context.

Karl Weber
DELIMITED CONTEXTS OF UNIVERSITY CONTINUING EDUCATION
Today’s society is often characterized as being a knowledge society, but university continuing education as a transmission mechanism for new scientific knowledge seems to play only a relatively modest role in forming this society. The changed practices in knowledge production break down the exclusiveness of the universities as the setting for knowledge production and make a repositioning in the scientific field necessary. Thus, universities increasingly share the production of knowledge with other organizations.

TEACHER EDUCATION IN EUROPE
LLinE wishes to introduce a selection of articles on the latest scenarios for development of teacher education in Europe as a series during the year of 2008.

Hannele Niemi
RESEARCH-BASED TEACHER EDUCATION FOR TEACHERS’ LIFELONG LEARNING
Teachers must be seen as representatives of a high-level profession if society wants them to be powerful actors in improving education in Europe. The academic contents, practical skills and research-based work must not be seen as separate or exclusive; they are always complementary in the teaching profession. This means that the teacher needs a critical mind and the ability to reflect, and teacher education should support teachers’ career-long professional growth in its different phases. There should be a continuum of pre-, induction and in-service education. The Finnish research-based teacher education has been successful in producing high learning outcomes in schools and attracting talented and motivated candidates into teacher education programmes.

Maija Aksela
THE FINNISH LUMA CENTRE: SUPPORTING TEACHERS AND STUDENTS IN SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS AND TECHNOLOGY FOR LIFELONG LEARNING