An assessment of the effectiveness of a classroom activity designed to teach the value of lifelong learning

Abstract

Many agree that educational systems should instill in students the value of lifelong learning (LLL), but few have suggested how to accomplish that or how to measure the effectiveness of those curricular initiatives. We developed a technique intended to strengthen students' beliefs about the value of LLL and piloted use of a recently developed scale to assess changes in commitment to LLL. Using a quasi-experimental procedure, we presented students with faculty members' career biographies describing their personal career paths, including how they learned from their experiences and how they had to adapt and adjust to changing circumstances. To assess beliefs about LLL, students completed Bath and Smith's Propensity for Lifelong Learning (PLLL) scale. We found that students who listened to career biographies had significantly stronger beliefs regarding the value of LLL than the students who were not exposed to the career biographies. We concluded that listening to career biographies strengthened commitment to LLL and that the PLLL scale is a useful outcome measure of this commitment. We discussed limitations and future directions of our method and measurement instrument.

Evaluation of Lifelong Learning Centers in Higher Education: A Sustainable Leadership Perspective

“…When the literature is examined, it is revealed that there are numerous indicators that lifelong learning should adopt as a strategy. There are certain numbers of studies carried out regarding lifelong learning [3][4][5][6][7], especially among European countries. Studies regarding the topic have been increasing gradually in recent years in Turkey [8][9][10][11][12].…”