Background: Despite the importance of lifelong learning as a key to individual and societal prosperity, we know little about adult motivation to engage in learning across the lifespan. Building on educational psychological approaches, this article presents a measure of Motivation-to-Learn using four items from the background questionnaire of the…

The system of validation and accreditation of professional qualifications in Spain is offered as a certification opportunity, especially for vulnerable groups. The procedure is presented as an evaluative proposal that allows some inequalities associated with training and employment to be addressed. In this article we analyse whether this system…

Several projects relating to older learners have been conducted over the past decade or so, some involving the University of the Third Age (U3A) Whyalla, as well as other groups composed of older citizens. Some provide examples of engagement with the local university campus; others have this potential. Here a wide range of learning activities, as…

This specially themed ""Getting of Wisdom," Learning in Later Life" Edition of the "Australian Journal of Adult Learning" ("AJAL") is not so much concerned with the issue of ageing itself, but more about quality of life regardless of age. It is about taking, but also giving back as best as possible at any…

This article analyses the influence of the European Union's educational policies on the implementation of devices for the recognition and the validation of informal and non-formal learning within public policies on education and training for adults in European Union Member States. Portugal and France are taken as examples. The European Union's…

One of the roles of higher education is to prepare and encourage students for lifelong learning. However, no evidence can be found about students' plans for further learning and teaching related to formal, non-formal and informal context. The purpose of this study was to explore these students' plans in relation to their study group, level of…

The article explores the role of digital media in supporting lifelong learning. In particular, it focuses on bloggers who write their blogs voluntarily in their own free time. The aim is to examine how lifelong learning--viewed as self-directed, nonformal learning and active participation that evolves from a desire for self-actualization--occurs…

Science museums, science centers, zoos, and aquariums (MCZAs) constitute major settings of science learning with unique characteristics of informal science education. Emphasis will be given to the analysis of four specific characteristics of MCZAs that seem relevant for educational research and practice, namely, conditions of mixed motives and…

Flexibility and change are typically viewed as endemic features of late modernity, leading to increased emphasis on the importance of transition during the adult life course. The paper examines experiences of transition for eight contributors to a research project that collected and analysed life histories as the basis for an understanding of…

Adult learning is an increasingly important form of education in globalised and aging societies. While current policy recommendations tend to focus on increasing participation rates, the authors of this article argue that higher participation rates do not necessarily lead to lower social/educational inequalities in participation. The aim of this…

This article has three broad aims. The first is to draw attention what is probably the largest empirical study of moral, values and character education in the United Kingdom to the present date. The second is to outline--sufficient for present purposes--a plausible conceptual or theoretical case for placing a particular virtue-ethical concept of…

The following article examines the issues of open, distance and technology-based informal learning and non-formal education for individual and community development. It argues that these two modes of education, which are estimated to constitute 70-90% of lifelong learning, are insufficiently represented in the literature of open and distance…

Contemporary scholarship has provided important research regarding the effectiveness and potential for Hip Hop pedagogy to facilitate liberation among Black American learners in formal learning settings. In contrast, there is little research on rap and Hip Hop as lifelong informal transformational learning as a mode of resistance to oppression and…

This paper is a reflection, on the basis of empirical research conducted in Italy, on theoretical, methodological and systemic-organisational aspects linked to the recognition and validation of the prior learning acquired by adult learners or workers who decide to enrol at university at a later stage in their lives. The interest in this research…

This cross-national study focuses on key issues and policy considerations in promoting lifelong learning in Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, Rwanda, and Tanzania (the five African countries that took part in a pilot workshop on "Developing Capacity for Establishing Lifelong Learning Systems in UNESCO Member States: at the UNESCO Institute for…