By Monica Tong, PGY2 Geriatric Pharmacy Resident
University of Maryland School of Pharmacy
No matter what you choose to do in life, lifelong learning is a
valuable skill to have and nurture. Lifelong learning is mainly an intrinsic
process within the learner, but it may not inherently active within the
learner. As William Osler, one of the founding professors of John Hopkins
Hospital, states, “The hardest conviction to get into the mind of a beginner is
that the education upon which he is engaged is not a college course, not a
medical course, but a life course, for which the work of a few years under
teachers is but a preparation.”1 As educators, our mission and goal is
not only provide information and skills to learners but also cultivate a love,
passion, and strategy for lifelong learning.
First, what is
lifelong learning and why is it important?
Lifelong learning has been defined in many different ways. The
multiple definitions of lifelong learning all encompass the ideas that lifelong
learning is a lifelong quest. It is “flexible, varied and accessible at all
times and in different places” and a process to empower the learner to grow and
apply knowledge, skills, and understanding in any situation.2 To concisely state what it empowers us to
learn, it is “learning to know; to do; to live together, with others’ and
learning to become a complete person.”3 For example, lifelong
learning could be the continuing education pursued after medical training
required by licensure or the learner taking the initiative to critically
evaluate new scientific literature.
Lifelong learning is an important process because it encourages the
learner to address problems that they may encounter and promote well-being.
Other benefits of lifelong learning include “sharpens the mind, confidence,
interpersonal skills, career opportunities and the ability to communicate.”4
Within this changing society and technology, it is important to have the skills
to adapt and continue to grow.
What are key
characteristics and skills of lifelong learner?
As educators, it is important to understand the key characteristics
and skills of a lifelong learner to develop instructional design methods and
teaching techniques to encourage the growth of those characteristics and
skills. These characteristics and skills are self-motivated learners,
metacognitive skills, reflective behavior, and self-monitoring skills.5
Self-motivated learning refers to both self-directed learning and motivation
where you have a learner who is motivated to learn on their own. For lifelong
learners, they need to have the intrinsic characteristic to take the initiative
and control of their own learning. Metacognitive skills are “taking
responsibility and ownership of self-learning, making strategies for learning
and choose appropriate strategies, scrutinizing the growth of learning, taking
corrective measures, and evaluating efficacy of learning strategies, and
shifting to other learning strategies.”5 Overall, it describes a
process for the learner to create a construct for developing and improving on
one’s learning styles, which is key in lifelong learning to maintain the
process. The reflective behavior and self-monitoring enable the learner to
reflect on strengths and weaknesses and then apply new strategies and repeat
the monitoring process to improve upon the learning behaviors. Combined all
these skills and characteristics create a successful lifelong learner.
How can educators
encourage and cultivate lifelong learners?
Promote an
environment for lifelong learning:
Before one can implement educational techniques, it is important to
create an environment conducive to cultivating lifelong learning. Erren et al applied aspects from Hamming’s ‘Ten Simple
Rules for Doing your Best in Research’ to create ‘Ten Simple Rules for Lifelong
Learning’.6 Rule 1 focuses on the
“style of thinking” rather than the facts, so it goes back to the ‘why’ behind
knowledge instead of purely memorizing the facts.6 Rule 2 is adding structure to the learning instead of
trying to absorb it all.6 Rule 3 prepares the learner to interact with the growing and changing
society/field.6 Rule 4 prepares learners for the future but don’t ignore the past since
there are lessons to be learned from the past.6 Rule 5 is adding that personal touch with learning.6 Rule 6 is learning from others especially their successes.6 Rule 7 is learn from your efforts and mistakes to find
what works best for you.6 Rule 8 is
it is up to you to learn.6 Rule 9 is have a vision of where you are headed.6 Rule 10 is “make your life count: struggle for
excellence.”6 It seems there are many
rules to implement within the educational setting, but with these rules, you
have a framework. For example, when precepting a learner asking them the why
behind decisions/recommendations, adding the personal touch with their
involvement in the care, or modeling for them are educational techniques that
can be incorporated to encourage lifelong learning.
Educational
techniques for lifelong learning:
Problem-based learning, reciprocal teaching, and reflection are
educational techniques that can be used to support the growth of lifelong
learners.5
Problem-based learning (PBL) is an approach that presents a real-world
problem to the learners. It encourages the learner to apply their knowledge and
skills rather than presenting the information to the learner.5
Within PBL the learner goes through phases to hone different lifelong learning
skills. For example, in the classroom of pharmacy students, a case study is
given to each student group to work on and present. In Phase 1 of this PBL
activity, the students would be analyzing the problem presented in the case,
processing comments of group members, and creating strategies to meet the
completion of the assignment.5 This process promotes metacognitive
skills as the students create a construct for approaching the problem
individually and as a group. In Phase 2 of this PBL activity, the students
would then be working more individually through self-directed learning and
motivation to complete the case. In Phase 3 of this PBL learning activity, the
students will then apply the learning to the actual case. In Phase 4 of this
PBL learning activity, the students will reflect on the knowledge gained in the
process and develop self-monitoring plans and strategies.
Reciprocal teaching is a technique where the learner may act as the
teacher. It is “instructional procedure that takes place in a collaborative
learning group and features guided practice in the flexible application of four
concrete strategies to the task of text comprehension: questioning,
summarizing, clarifying, and predicting.”5 Examples of reciprocal
teaching in the classroom include small group discussions and cases. Reciprocal
teaching encourages the learner to develop metacognitive skills and
self-directed learning as they take on the role of the teacher in the
discussions. The teacher is still there to support the learning process and
discussion.
Reflection activities help the learners develop mindsets for
identifying learning strengths and areas of improvement and take responsibility
for their learning. From reflection, the learner will create strategies to
improve upon their learning and monitor growth. For example, in the classroom
setting, there may be reflective evaluation assignments for the students to
complete after completing a project. Within this reflective activity, students
are encouraged to think critically about what they learned during their
experience and how to improve.
Through educational techniques that promote self-motivated learners,
metacognitive skills, reflective behavior, and self-monitoring skill, as
educators, we can take steps to cultivate lifelong learners.
References:
- Sir William Osler. “Osler's "a Way of Life" and Other Addresses, with Commentary and Annotations”. Duke University Press 2011; p.339.
- Talati JJ. Lifelong learning: Established concepts and evolving values. Arab J Urol. 2014;86 - 95.
- Delors J, Mufti IA, Amagi I, et al. Learning: the Treasure Within Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century. UNESCO: Paris; 1996; 2013 p. 37. Available from: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001095/109590eo.pdf
- Laal M and Salamati P. Lifelong learning; why do we need it? Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. 2012; 399 - 403.
- Mahajan R, Badyal DK, Gupta P, et al. Cultivating lifelong learning skills during graduate medical training. Indian Pediatr 2016; 53(9):797-804.
- Erren TC, Slanger TE, Grob JV, et al. Ten Simple Rules for Lifelong Learning, According to Hamming. PLoS Comput Biol. 2015; 11(2):e1004020
