KJC Korea
Journal Central

The German university lifelong education, focuses on improving the quality of life and national competitiveness for the purpose of actualizing higher education for all. The Federal Ministry of Education announced “improving through education: opening the college door” and has been strengthening financial aid and institutionalization for many adults to study in college. Since 2009, the State Education Ministers finalized the “Principles of Opening Universities”, while the university lifelong education program provided university education opportunities for industrial workers, child-raising women. That is, learners centered program so called adult friendly academic system, which led to flexible learning system. We explored the lifelong education system of German universities which is evolving through the reorganization of university lifelong education since the Bologna process. As a result, the characteristic of the lifelong education system in German universities is that it focuses on the vocational lifelong education of adult workers while the president is responsible for developing their own unique programs for all. On the basis of this, possible suggestions for the lifelong education system in Korean universities are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the structure and meaning of ‘solidarity learning’ in the process of becoming a social mother of women having children with developmental disorders. For this purpose, the researchers collected and analyzed qualitative data on life histories of 10 women having children with developmental disorders, who participated in parent societies for people with disabilities, through individual in–depth interview and focus group interview. As results, we found three topics and 10 sub topics. The characteristics of the solidarity learning were as follows. First, learning was occurring under the conditions of social structural problem situations. Second, a close relationship with others who were sharing same experiences and recognized as weak, was a basis to promote and sustain solidarity learning. Third, solidarity learning was being elevated by the common social practice to solve structural problems. Fourth, changes in norms, institutions, and cultures at the group and society level as well as in perceptions and roles at the individual level could be witnessed as results of solidarity learning. Fifth this solidarity learning was repetitive and cyclical.

Universities are criticized for failing to accept the rapidly changing needs of society in the era of the fourth industrial revolution. Due to this, the need for sweeping changes and innovation in higher education has been constantly being raised. The purpose of this study was to analyze a representative case of innovation in higher education and to derive its implications. Minerva Schools was selected as a innovation case for this study. Minerva Schools has received much attention as a case of higher education innovation, but few studies have looked specifically at the key factors that have successfully led to change and innovation. The implications of the study are as follows. In terms of the curriculum, firstly, a subject and curriculum should be designed in conjunction with university’s core competencies. Secondly, we need to consider developing a competency-based assessment rubric and cumulative evaluation system. Thirdly, a team teaching model can be used for the development of curriculum. In terms of teaching and learning method, firstly, the learning environment should be able to maximize social presence. Secondly, a thorough pre-learning is essential for the success of flipped learning. Thirdly, project-based learning with complex real-life problems should be widely adopted. Lastly, development of competency-based teaching method program and a professional learning community should be considered. The understanding and implications gained from this study could be used as a basis for a practical strategy for innovation in higher education.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of variables and the structural relationships among the variables that affect the intention of adult learners to continue their studies. In this study, based on the related studies, we construct a structural model that explains the intention of the adult learners who are learning in the lifelong educational institutions. To pursue the purpose of this study, a total of 252 adult learners (99 female, 153 male) participated in this study. Through this study, first, we found that normative beliefs about academic achievement have the greatest impact directly or indirectly on adult learners’ willingness to continue their studies. Second, we found that the attitudes of adult learners to the study have a significant influence on the willingness to continue their education after normative beliefs. Third, we found that the motivation to comply of adult learners affects the intention to continue the study through the positive/negative attitude. In this study, theoretical and practical discussions and implications were presented.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the moderating effect of middle-aged female leaner’s academic engagement on the relationship between participative motivation and learning satisfaction. To this end, the data were collected from 593 students enrolled at Korea National Open University, followed by a correlation analysis, multiple linear regression, hierarchical regression and a sobel test. First, the study showed significant static correlation between participative motivation, academic engagement and learning satisfaction. The higher the participative motivation and academic engagement in the study, the higher the level of satisfaction. Second, academic engagement played a part in the relationship between participative motivation and learning satisfaction. These results suggest that In order to increase the learning satisfaction of middle-aged female learners, it is necessary to systematically intervene in order to increase the academic participation directly involved in the learning as well as the motivation for learning behavior.

After a decade of long lasting efforts on multicultural policy, it is time to critically review in order to understand a certain level of multicultural awareness and multicultural acceptability in Korea. This study found that the level of multicultural awareness of korean adult has been improved but it is also conspicuous that multicultural acceptability is divergent and shallow to some degree. Second, there is biased preference to certain group of foreign residents, which can be categorized as white supremacy and GDP racism in Korea. Third, it is noticeable that anti-multicultural sentiment of young generation of 20’s has been increased these days. Forth, qualitative interaction is significant to enhance multicultural acceptability, rather than quantity of contact with migrants/foreign residents. Fifth, despite government’s policy engagement, Korean adult’s threat awareness against foreigners/migrants group in Korean society has been increased. Also, dearth of participation with multicultural education programs is restriction to cultivate multicultural acceptability and awareness in civil society. In the era of global migration, this study provide a novel implication to reconstruct a new direction of multicultural education addressing discourse of critical adult learning in the angle of lifelong education.