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NEW WAY OF EVALUATE LIFELONG EDUCATION ACTIVITIES
M. Farnicka
H. Liberska
Nowadays, creators of education meet new challenges. At the turn of the third millennium, there was much debate about an adequate paradigm for human functioning in a world full of technology. The inadequacy of the already existing ways of thinking and asking questions concerning objectives and different aspects of education was highlighted. Some answers to these questions in the field of education were trends such as Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (Brown-Jeffy, Cooper 2011), Bruner (2006) or 21st Century Education. All proposals described basic skills of the twenty-first century individuals with all the necessary changes in the functioning of educational institutions and transmission of knowledge (21st Century Education, 2010). The element connecting these proposals are educational objectives aimed at shaping the subjectivity of the individual, and core values are: (1) civic cooperation, (2) productive and independence, (3) critical thinking and (4) the wealth of behavioral repertoire (see Brzezinska, 2002). Achieving these objectives requires the activity of all participants in the system of education: education authorities, teachers, students and their parents / guardians throughout life. The lifelong education is connected with personal development process people who are "demiurge" of this process - teachers.
Together with the advent of new media, which brought unlimited access to information, changes within culture, and thus within education, are a fact. This means that together with cultural changes (e.g. development of scientific knowledge, technical progress), there are changes within individual activities and their forms. They include the direction and pace of learning, the way of interpreting the world and the way of experiencing values - both within individual and universal dimension (Farnicka, 2011, p.36). Therefore, it is worth considering conditions of good learning. The main form of systematic acquisition and transmission of culture, according to Vygotsky, is learning (Vygotsky, 1978). In the process of gradual assimilation and transmission of universal experience, it is a mechanism of human psychological development, especially development of social forms of behavior. Learning takes effect by means of mediation in the course of human activity and contacts with other people, and contacts with culture. Thus, it is assumed that the student is not taught, but learning is a process based on their own activity (Tyszkowa, 1990).
At each level of education: cultural, relational and operational, an individual gains the knowledge and experience necessary to perform social roles, build their identity, and their concept of life. At all these levels, lots of interactions are activated, leading to further changes of the system and individuals. Bronfenbrenner calls this process the "ecological transition", and recognizes it both as an agent and as a consequence of development (1976, pp. 537-549). The presented understanding of the educational process assumes that the recognized environmental pressures specify current tasks, provoke new questions and stimulate activity. However, for the system to properly respond to the pressures
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felt, a certain readiness is assumed, determined by motivational factors , inherent in the system: maturity, the possibility of adopting economic and social expectations that create a specific climate for the changes. This moment can be called a sensitive period. This means that the same pressure or a similar pressure constellation, at any different time of development could lead to other changes in the functioning of the system. Thus, this development readiness depends which ways of the changes will be chosen, and what tasks and challenges will be taken. At this point activity itself is recognized not only as an inseparable need, but also as a process conditioning other conscious processes. This applies to processes which are both beyond and under the control of the learner. The assumption concerning the need to stimulate the self- learning process makes as thinks the definition concerns the learning process as a process based on own activity.
System recognition of a child's learning process indicates, in terms of relations areas of interaction . One of them is the family, the second institution, such as work, college, school / kindergarten / nursery, etc. However, the third environment is the environment created by the individual own activity within its psyche. Another is culture which is understood in terms of environment affecting each of enumerated. However, the environment -related teaching institution is to socialize the child to a particular set of standards and rules, teach the functioning within them, and provide specific knowledge and skills, both individual and socially useful in further education. This conflict within one role, is worth the interest , and touched upon by H. Rudolph Schaffer 1994, s.150 -188 ). Another dimension of this conflict in terms already mentioned collective aspect is the role of the teacher. Often, it ceases to be the subject of interaction, and becomes the object, the catalyst activating certain processes. It should be noted that the conflict of the teacher’s role is not the only one in the educational situation.
The problems of learning and functioning in a professional role can be approached from the perspective of a professional development, the quality and meaning of life. In the present study it was decided to approach the problem from the perspective of pentabaza method. Pentabaza method was proposed by Ganzen (1984 ) as a method of psychological description of complex concepts. It was suggested that the functioning of the mental object to describe the four dimensions : time, space, energy and information. We have proposition to adapt in creative way this model to assess the development and functioning of the individual/ especially teachers) in a situation of lifelong education. It should be noted that the dimensions indicated by Ganzen show how the functioning of the individual in the role.
Time. The amount of time spent on the performance of the role could show us not only importance but flexibility, progressiveness, passivity, effort, resignation during this activity.
Information. The selected mode of operation in it, and connected ethos describes the dimension of information that points to the creation and exchange of knowledge between the individual and the environment (taking into consideration and accept the status quo, disregard differences, sensitivity to change).
Space. Dimension of space indicates not only the physical conditions of the material, its honorable mention and specificity of tasks but also on the dimensions
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of which are psychological distance, openness, control and/or lack of control, loneliness - vs the presence of others).
It should be emphasized that all these dimensions are created in the mind of the teacher (involvement, commitment, information) and implemented in the material world (space, time). It is worth emphasizing, that the proposed dimensions do not only suggest a way of understanding the role of but can also be used to assess functioning in the work environment or community.
Conditions favorable to the creation of an environment that supports the learning process is exemplified by the two models. It is the model of Culturaly Relevant Pedagogy (Brown-Jeffy S., Cooper JE, 2011, s.65-84), which is tested and discussed since the early 90s, and the brunerian model approach to education (Bruner, 2006). What connects the two proposals, the assumption of synergy of learning environments and cooperation between them, based on trust. Of course, the educational systems cited earlier can be mentioned here (Scandinavian, East Asian and Anglo-Saxon), and the solutions offered by, for example, Elkonin’s, Montessori’s, et al. The two proposals were described below.
The model called Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) indicates that education as a system has a significant relationship with the environment (Brown-Jeffy S., Cooper JE, 2011, op.cit.). The adequate diagnosis clearly shows the most important resources, strengths, and challenges for educational institutions. Model is based on five independent but non-negotiable elements : the identification of educational subjects, and their expected cultural achievements, fair evaluation and equality of access to knowledge, development of the students' potential through the use of tools and working methods appropriate for their developmental and psychological needs, the philosophy of education which consists in a holistic approach to a human being and building relationships and positive atmosphere among students and teachers.
Model proposed by Brown- Jeffy and Cooper (op.cit.), is a proposal which takes into account the changes in the environment. Presented by the authors indicate the post-figurative pattern of relations among participants of educational interaction. The school is seen as an institution allied with parents and the local community for the sake of the born child and the unborn child, and its potential , is the symbol of post-modern times . The authors also point out the possibility of carrying out the function of modern education, which is the inclusion of the psychological needs of the educational system. Realizing this goal will allow the school to become the real place to improve the function and activity, i.e. learning and teaching. In this approach, there is a depart from operationalizing knowledge as an indicator of educational success, and are placed on skills, that are manifestations of internalized knowledge and practice.
Another proposal concerning the creation of the encouraging environment learning is the psychocultural approach to education by J. Bruner (2006, 29-68 ). Author described them as nine principles: Perspectivism, Constraints,
Constructivism, Interactionism, Externalization, Instrumentalism, Institutionalization, Evaluation and Narrativism.
The influence of broad socio-cultural context on the process of organizing education is indisputable. Changes in the modern world require adult individuals to be fully mature and were able to learn throughout their lives. The needs and
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abilities of the individual and social requirements that surround them are treated and read as a whole, which is governed by the principle of unity. So speaking of a man, emphasizes his sense of purpose, dignity and universal values, and the need to exceeded his or her limits is emphasized. This is a consequence of the need to live and settle in a certain culture. The values that are emphasized in both models focus on the responsibility for one’s own life, for other people and the fate of the village, surrounding nature or globally - the fate of the world. The presented of creating models create environments encouraging the learning processes are based on commitment, activity, creativity and reflexivity. It is worth noting that the reflexivity is not treated by them as a target, on the value but as a process continuously used for learning.
The proposed models are in their assumptions highly humanistic and highlight the special character of not only learning process but also the educational interaction . So what can be done to develop professional activities of the individuals at various levels of operation in the face of learning in globalization? The answer relates to identity and responsibility. The contemporary "identity of self" is not only based on knowledge about oneself and others, but also requires a continuous process of reflection, so That the unit corresponds to the question "Who am I in the surrounding world?", "What are we rights? "And" what limitations? ". Based on this response is a substrate of responsibility for oneself and the social group in which the unit lives. This answer relates to own activity, whose contribution to the organization of space and time in which to be exercised and given the role of energy and information, which are associated with its implementation.
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