Bayview Beach Resort, Batu Ferringhi Beach, Penang, Malaysia

27-30 September 1999

Lifelong Learning: Rhetoric or Reality

Dr Janice M Hall

School of Lifelong Learning and Educational Change, University of Western Sydney Nepean, NSW, Australia

Abstract

The ultimate aim of education is to produce a learning society, indeed a learning globe. The ultimate aim of teaching is effective lifelong learning characterised by continuous inner and outer learning. Thus, learning to learn from each encounter is the generic capacity needed for the twenty first century (Fullan, 1993).

A contingent of students completing their initial teaching degree were asked to consider these statements in the light of their own personal and professional beliefs. This paper reports on how these undergraduates viewed themselves as learners and what implications this held for them as future teachers. It specifically explores the rhetoric and the reality these students experienced during practicum and other profession experience. Future directions compel interactions of a similar nature with practicing teachers.