Lifelong Learning: Interpretations of an Education Policy in Europe

In Europe, the idea of Lifelong Learning has developed from an education policy to the most important pedagogic paradigm. The concept was created as an answer to the international education crisis, diagnozed by Philip H. Coombs in 1967. Since the European Year of Lifelong Learning in 1996, it has been regarded as an alternative to deal with the rapid social, political and economic changes of the modern world. Andrea Óhidy shows the genesis of the concept and its development towards a pedagogic paradigm. She investigates the relations between the concept of Lifelong Learning and school education and points out the most important links between Lifelong Learning and adult education. In pedagogical research on the development of Lifelong Learning the importance of cooperative learning methods has frequently been emphasized whereas their application has not been discussed. The author, therefore, explains a teaching unit to show the practical application of cooperative learning methods.