6 tips to develop skills for lifelong learning

1. Cultivate a growth mindset

While a fixed mindset hinders you from becoming a lifelong learner, a growth mindset emphasizes student agency and continuous changes. With a growth mindset, “you believe your intelligence and life skills can be developed with concerted effort and thoughtful feedback, not that they’re innate and immutable,” the University of Phoenix shared. If you have an idea of what you want, there’s always a way to get there.

SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely, which help keep lifelong learning on track. The following five questions can help you make sure the goals you agree are SMART:

• Specific: what do I need to do?

• Measurable: how will I know I have been successful?

• Achievable: can I do it on my own or with a little help?

• Relevant: will it help me be better at one certain subject?

• Timely: when do I need to complete it?

Such a framework can help students become disciplined and emboldened to set goals and obtain achievements in an effective manner. It also boosts continual reflections, allowing students to “view their investments of time, energy, and resources through the lens of what is most important for them to achieve their aspirations.”

Figuring out what inspires you puts you in the driver’s seat to achieve what you want to do. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it’s what sustains a lifelong learner. Re-igniting what makes you tick as a person reduces boredom, makes life more interesting, and can even open future opportunities.

Dickinson believed that “the transition from studying course material to obtain a good grade to learning in order to attain continual self-improvement or career advancement may be the most important paradigm shift that a lifelong learner will make.”

4. Encourage independent learning

Online education that predominates in the 21st century can serve as a practical model where many teachers laid more emphasis on students’ autonomic and independent learning with the aid of technology.

As a pioneering advocate of the adoption of self-directed learning, Malcolm Knowles dissected such mode into five steps: individuals take the initiative, with or without the assistance of others, in

1) diagnosing their learning needs,

2) formulating learning goals,

3) identifying human and material resources for learning,

4) choosing and implementing appropriate learning strategies, and

5) evaluating learning outcomes.

In a word, research showed that independent and self-directed learning offers learners the “freedom and autonomy to choose the what, why, how, and where of their learning.”

Dr. Peter Facione defined critical thinking to be “purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is based.”

It is intertwined with diverse cognitive, interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies, including creativity, self-direction, motivation, effective communication, and more, which pave the way for students to become lifelong learners.

6. Use technology

We live in an age with access to an abundance of information, rapid changes in technology tools, and the ability to collaborate and make individual contributions on an unprecedented scale. To be lifelong learners in the 21st century, students must be able to exhibit a range of independent learning and critical thinking skills related to information, media and technology.

One way to blend technology with lifelong learning is through the use of edtech. There are plenty of platforms directed at online learning, among which ClassIn plays an active and essential role. For example, it provides a platform for learners to learn independently, think creatively, and act cooperatively.