Facilitating lifelong learning in school-age learners: Programs and recommendations

Lifelong Learning (LLL) has been proclaimed a Europe-wide strategy as societies are faced with numerous changes making continuous development indispensable. Currently, LLL is often seen primarily as a topic for continuing education. However, schools play an essential role in laying the cornerstone for successful LLL: There is robust knowledge that persistent motivation to learn as well as corresponding learning skills are essential for LLL and that both could be influenced best during childhood and adolescence. Therefore, facilitating LLL is an important aspect of schools' success. However, results from international studies show deficits for many students in LLL competencies. Consequently, a need for more systematic promotion of LLL in schools was identified. Based on this, the aim of this paper is to give an overview on the theoretical basis for promoting LLL in schools from the perspective of educational psychology. Derived from this, the necessity of enhancing LLL competencies in school is made obvious and present promotion programs are described. As an example, goals, structure, and evaluation results of the TALK training program, which aims to provide teachers with the competencies to systematically implement the enhancement of LLL into their regular educational responsibilities, are reported. Finally, general recommendations for realizing a systematic facilitation of LLL in school are illustrated.