Dear Loopers,
A very interesting exchange of notes and thoughts on assessing learning has “resurged” in the Loop. This is very good pedagogical issue to ponder on. When we assess measure the quality of education, just what do we mean? Which education, in the first place, should we measure? What should we measure and why? Let me contribute some earlier thoughts on the long-run debate on the meaning of “quality” which I penned in the early 90’s under socio-economic development backdrop. I thought this will open a more spirited conversation not just on educational assessment but will bring us back to the fundamental question of teaching and learning. Pagtiisan nyo na lang ang haba. Happy reading.
Napoleon B. Imperial
Lifelong Learning and Human Development: Towards a Re-examination
of the Concepts and Indicators of Quality Education byNAPOLEON B. IMPERIAL
Social Development Staff
National Economic and Development AuthorityThe main purpose of this paper is two-fold, one is to help establish a paradigm for analysing lifelong learning through a critical analysis of its socio-educational foundations and the other is to raise some possibilities as regards methodologies and measurement of the impacts and outcomes of quality education under that paradigm.The Learning Society, “Open Learning” and Lifelong Learning For purposes of policy, the concept of lifelong learning in this paper is built around the intertwined and broad meanings of “learning society” and the concept of “open learning.” The term “learning society” is essentially viewed as a social goal that underpinned many countries’ efforts in universalizing the provision of basic education to all who will need and benefit from it. This is the same long-term vision in embodied in the Education for All (EFA) Philippine Plan of Action (PPA): 1991-2000 in the area of continuing education for development (CED) which are in turn based on the World Declaration of Education for All. The PPA envisions: “the development of a learning society where people continue to learn on their own to the end that they can improve their quality of life and participate in national development efforts.” Thus, while EFA is concerned with basic learning needs andbasic learning tools , the PPA’s CED component, nevertheless, also calls for a reconfigured national learning systems called alternative learning systems (ALS) that encompass other channels and higher levels of learning, both informal and nonformal, running parallel with the formal system.The envisioned scheme basically follows the idea of an open