Ensuring quality of life by means of adult education

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Ensuring quality of life by means of adult education

The changes taking place in the modern world and in the education system in particular are characterized by continuity and abruptness, but they have a strong impact on people. Modern education is designed to help adults be resilient to change and capable of reactive adaptation based on lifelong learning. The actualization of non-formal and informal education is associated with a change in the social role of education in the information society, the transition from the implementation of the compensatory function to a comprehensive individual personal development. Active life position, participation in social projects, awareness of one's own life and educational goals are important components of ensuring the quality of life of modern man.

The modern concept of quality of life emphasizes the need to implement an authentic way of life, creating opportunities for the development of interpersonal relationships, conditions for various types of leisure, providing those needs that can't be met only by material values, including educational. An adult during life has a steady need for education, due to the need to realize professional inclinations and abilities, personal interests and aptitudes. In this context, adult education is a tool for ensuring the quality of human life.

In today's world, improving the quality of life is inextricably linked with the development of education, which is a prerequisite for the country's competitiveness in the global division of labor. Successful are those countries that invest in education, its development and long-term growth. Therefore, education is a significant component of the process of ensuring the quality of life of the individual. Participation in trainings, professional communities, workshops, seminars contribute to the formation of an active life position and life trajectory, personal

Key words: non-formal education, informal education, adult student, quality of life, development, self-realization.

ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ ЯКОСТІ ЖИТТЯ ЗАСОБАМИ ОСВІТИ ДОРОСЛИХ

О. А. Самойленко, О. А. Дубасенюк

Зміни, які відбуваються у сучасному світі і в системі освіти зокрема, характеризуються безперервністю і стрибкоподібністю, але саме вони роблять сильний вплив на людей. Сучасна освіта покликана допомогти дорослому бути стійким до змін і здатним до реактивної адаптації на основі навчання протягом життя. Актуалізація, неформальної та інформальної освіти пов'язана зі зміною соціальної ролі освіти в інформаційному суспільстві, переходом від реалізації компенсаторної функції до комплексного індивідуального особистісного розвитку людини. Активна життєва позиція, участь у суспільних проектах, усвідомлення власних життєвих та освітніх цілей - важливі складові забезпечення якості життя сучасної людини.

Ключові слова: неформальна освіта, інформальна освіта, дорослий учень, якість життя, розвиток, самореалізація.

Introduction of the issue

Nonformal education in the middle of the twentieth century was one of the factors positively influencing the quality of life of adults in the countries of the European space. Non-formal education emerged as a reaction to the spread in society of the tendency to change the paradigm of learning from "a person who knows a lot” to the paradigm of "a person who focuses on the value of education as a leading activity in the structure of their own way of life" [1: 49], solving the problem of inconsistency of existing education systems for the development of the information society and led to the spread of doubts about the need for systematic transfer of knowledge, skills and values.

The modern vision of the features of non-formal adult education is presented on the website of the European Association for Adult Education:

"Specially organized activities to promote the process in which people can consciously develop as individuals; correlation of own thoughts and feelings with thoughts and feelings of other people; development of skills and ways of their expression" [2].

At the present stage, according to demographers, there is an "aging" of states, an increase in the number of people of respectable age [3]. The growing share of respectable people in the population structure creates new social needs, including the need for education. Such needs include the transformation of all social institutions of society (education, economy, social and spiritual spheres), the formation of a new culture of selfconsciousness of society, the adaptation of people to changing conditions, the coordination of interests in the "new" society. This raises the question of the comprehensive development of the adult throughout life, taking into account human potential, hereditary factors, national and socio-cultural traditions. It is no coincidence that more and more attention is being paid to the development of the theory of adult education, including its form such as non-formal education.

Therefore, non-formal adult education in the European Union is considered as any kind of organized and systematic activity that does not coincide with the activities of schools, universities and other educational institutions that are part of the formal education system; as one that is obtained in the after-hours in educational institutions, clubs, circles and, as a rule, does not involve obtaining an official document.

In this situation, there is an urgent need to redefine the place and role of non-formal adult education in the general education system, the unique potential of which could become an indispensable part of the process of modernization of education.

Current state of the issue. Note that the process of continuing education today is understood not only as "lifelong learning", but also as "life-wide learning". The latter emphasizes the diversity of types of education - formal, non-formal, informal - that accompany any sphere of modern life - professional, leisure and even family life. In the context of this approach, the formation of the system of non-formal adult education acts as a socio-cultural phenomenon that reflects their growing need to receive and provide a variety of educational services. Moreover, in contrast to formal education (which by its nature includes a system of state or non-state regulation and control), non-formal education functions as if "by itself" - at the level of specific subject-subject relations, in fact outside national regulation and control.

According to the International Standard Classification of Education, formal education is institutionalized, purposeful, planned, with the participation of state organizations and state-recognized private organizations, education. This definition fully corresponds to the approach adopted in pedagogical science of the manageability of education and its clear structuring. Unlike formal education, non-formal education arises and is carried out only in response to a specific educational demand of consumers of educational services. At the same time, the activity of adult students is supported "from within" through the realization of their current interests and needs. In this context, we can say that non-formal education in contrast to formal (and even more informal) directly contributes to the personal growth of the adult, acting as a guiding external (relative to the person) and at the same time his own internal motivating force.

In general, the emergence of ideas of non-formal education is associated with the names of three teachers-innovators:

- John Dewey (1859-1952) - American educator, supporter of pragmatism, the ideological inspirer of the practice of non-formal education "learning through experience";

- Maria Montessori (1870-1952) - Italian physician, educator, author of the idea of "learning through creativity and sensory perception", the essence of which is to use creativity and sensory material as a basis for learning (shape, area and color), special means of developing feelings, speech, mathematical abilities, etc. Learning takes place through play and interaction at the individual speed of the student;

- Celestin Freinet (1896-1966) - a prominent French teacher-reformer of the twentieth century, founder of the International Federation of New School Supporters; author of the method of activating the educational process through the creation of an optimal open learning environment. He believed that the maximum development of the child's personality takes place in a reasonably organized society, which will serve him and which he will serve. The school of the future will be focused on the child as a member of society. Therefore, it is necessary to create opportunities for free expression of everyone in any social sphere. This thesis actively echoes the demands of the modern world - the involvement of citizens in active participation in society and the introduction of social change.

Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire (1921-1997) continued to develop Freinet's ideas. We have already mentioned it in section 1 of our research, considering the idea of continuing education as a principle of functioning of educational systems in the context of globalization. Interest in achieving equal and balanced relations in the pedagogical process was expressed by the teacher in search of a dialogic and communicative model of learning.

P. Freire's pedagogical method unfolds in an anthropological perspective. Education is understood as a reproduction in the personal structure of the student of the historical experience of formation of a man.

Learning according to P. Freire is the same natural act as eating or walking. However, a child, young individual or an adult learn only when the education acquires a personal meaning for them, corresponds to their life prospects. Human being learns through his/her own transformative action aimed at the outside world, for he/she him/herself constructs categories of thinking that organize and change the world [4].

Thoroughly developed the idea of learning through experience David A. Kolb (1939) - American psychologist, specialist in adult education, founder of the board of directors (1980) of Experience Based Learning Systems (EBLS), which organizes advanced research and development of practical solutions in the field of empirical teaching. It was also discussed in section 1 of this study when considering the basic ideas of adult education in Slovakia.

EBLS research has found that people learn in one of four ways (preferring one of them): through experience, through observation and reflection, through abstract conceptualization, or through active experimentation. Accordingly, the proposed model of teaching by D. Kolb contains the following components:

- gaining direct experience;

- observation, during which the student reflects on what he has just learned;

- comprehension of new knowledge, their theoretical generalization;

- experimental testing of new knowledge and their independent application in practice.

The ideas about the methods of teaching based on D. Kolb's teaching model have received practical application. The student on a pair with the teacher prefers one of the types of behavior according to the learning cycle: practical action or theorizing. English psychologists P. Honey and A. Mumford defined such behavior as a learning style and described four main learning styles: active, reflective, theoretical, pragmatic. Learning style is one of the key conditions for choosing effective teaching methods, because it includes the motivational aspect of learning, in particular the impact on the student's motivation of his personal characteristics, the learning process on the student's motivational sphere (his activity, professional ability, psychological comfort), personal psychological qualities on the quality of the educational process [5].

D. Kolb's learning model is aimed at the student to form an experience in a safe environment that will help him in socialization and personality development. It is based on human experience, which means that training will be as effective as possible.

The outline of unresolved issues brought up in the article. Non-formal education is based on such important learning principles as "learning by doing”, and "learning to learn". "Learning by doing" means gaining different skills during practical activities. "Learning through interaction" involves obtaining and developing ideas about the differences that exist between people, the ability to work in a group and in a team, as well as to accept others as they are, to cooperate with them. "Learning to learn" means gaining skills in information retrieval and processing, skills in analyzing one's own experience and identifying individual educational goals. Today, one of the main tasks of education is to prepare a person for independent living. Formal education does not always teach the way to live in such conditions and rarely forms the competencies and personal qualities needed by a modern citizen. And non-formal education, in turn, is an available means to solve the problem.

The aim of research is to determine the role of adult education in shaping the quality of life of the individual.

Results and discussion

In our opinion, the approach of Czech and Slovak scholars M. Dvorakov, V. Docekal, D. Knotov, J. Pergas, and others, who define non-formal education through the prism of the concept of quality of life, is of particular interest. Foreign scientists substantiate the idea that the development of society increasingly depends not only and not so much on natural resources, but on the person him/herself, knowledge, information, technology used. Therefore, at the beginning of the XXI century. society has moved from the theory of quality of goods to the quality of man, the quality of education; the era of a new civilization has come - the "civilization of quality of life". Quality of life has become a means of implementing real social policy, the goal of socio-economic development of many European countries, a criterion of scientific and technological progress.

Thus, improving the quality of life is inextricably linked with the development of education, which is a prerequisite for the country's competitiveness in the global division of labor. Both the quality of labor resources and the quality of working life of an adult depend on the level of education.

In addition, the concept of quality of life emphasizes the need to implement an authentic way of life, creating opportunities for interpersonal relationships, conditions for different types of leisure, providing those needs that can't be met only by material values, including educational.

Educational institutions meet the various educational needs of an individual, contributing to the rationalization of individual behavior and, accordingly, improving the quality of life at all stages of human reproduction. In today's world, improving the quality of life is inextricably linked with the development of education, which is a prerequisite for the country's competitiveness in the global division of labor. In the modern innovative economy, the dominant form of work is scientific and technical work. It is the conditions of formation and development of scientific and technical workers that determine the potential of society and the country's place in the world community. Intellectual work provides not only a means of subsistence, but also the possibility of self-realization. And the higher the satisfaction with their work, the higher the subjective perception of quality of life.

In this process, the decisive role is played by informal education as a process of acquiring self-sufficiency, self-education and self-development.

Modern living conditions, according to O. Pavlova, force an adult to actively and continuously participate in educational activities [7]. Therefore, the lifestyle of an adult who seeks to maximize their potential, is informal education. Informal education involves the creation of conditions for adults to seek self-identity (manifestation of personal origin, individual awareness of their essence, defining their place in the world and correlating themselves with fundamental ethical values). From these positions, informal education is the development of skills and abilities that help an adult in his search for his identity - by profession, age and culture. Informal education requires not only the implementation of educational activities in the external environment, but also causes constant internal reflection, change under the influence of newly acquired knowledge.

Informal education affects the professional sphere, and the hierarchy of human needs clearly traces the path of its development: the higher the level of human awareness of their lives, meaning of life, life priorities, the more valuable, active, competent, effective and productive it uses informal education to meet all their needs, including professional.

Therefore, some scholars define informal adult education (the prefix "in" in this term is used to mean "without") as an individual cognitive activity that accompanies the daily life of an adult and is not necessarily purposeful; spontaneous education, which is realized due to the own activity of individuals in a rich cultural and educational environment; communication, reading, visiting cultural institutions, travel, media, etc., when an adult transforms the educational potential of society into effective factors of its development, the result of daily work, family and leisure activities.

In an open and accessible "educational environment" of a new type, each "student" can find their "teachers", their "class", to collect any set of "educational services" in their formal (distance courses on structured, well-designed and approved programs, various textbooks of authoritative scientists and teachers, methodological developments, etc.), informal (master class, training) and informal (participation in virtual projects, social networking communities, etc.) options.

The adult seeks the information he needs, acquires knowledge and builds his own system, learns to interact with people of different ages, languages, cultures and countries, becomes a participant in dialogue with the same "students", communicator, producer of dialogue with members of the educational network. information is only useful for enriching one's own system of knowledge, learns to interact constructively with various specialists, masters, coaches.

According to the philosophical approach, the decisive phenomenon of self-development is free personal choice. Personal freedom is the existential qualities of an individual, the ability to make internal choices, for it's the basis of personal development. According to M. Berdyaev, human freedom determines the personal meaning that arises in the process of self-knowledge and manifests itself as "a conscious need and possibility of creative transformation of the world around us and ourselves." We emphasize this dominant, because the individual can go on the path of self-development only in the process of acquiring spiritual freedom and as a result of the possibility of choosing life goals, which is a prerequisite for professional training, in particular in adult education.

Freedom presupposes, first of all, a conscious choice of life line, sphere and types of activity, choice with knowledge of the case. Man is free when he makes this choice independently, without coercion from external forces, without imposing on him other people's thoughts, he knows the laws of the real world.

Freedom means that the individual has the opportunity to choose a course of action in different situations, course of action, moreover, his place in life and others. Simply put, freedom is when a person acts not just as a passive object, but also as an active subject, able to act independently and consciously and ready to take responsibility for their actions.

It is clear that objective conditions not only ensure freedom, but also limit it to certain consonants. Thus, in the process of formal education, individual freedom is ensured through the formation of skills of self-learning and self-development, the development of the motivational-needs sphere of the specialist. Inner freedom produces an idea of one's "I". In this regard, its role as the main factor in activating the process of self-development justifies the need to consider it as one of the conditions of personal selfdevelopment of an adult.

Adopting the baton of discovering the essence of the concept of "selfdevelopment" from philosophers, based on their theoretical ideas about the significance of this phenomenon for human life and personality, leading psychologists of the XX century delved into the study of the inner world of man, considering it from different angles directions. In general, these were representatives of humanistic psychology, who tried to explain the essence of human personality through the prism of its development. Let's make a general review of psychological theories:

1. The concept of personality as a dynamic system of processes with a certain focus: 1) self-development is considered through self-understanding, self-actualization and self-realization (A. Maslow, E. Erickson, K. Rogers); 2) the subject is not personally aware of his involvement in this process, he seems to be hidden from the individual, but there is a need for its improvement and personal development (A. Adler, S. Freud, K. Jung).

2. Self-development as a desire for the meaning of their existence and the result of activity (W. Frankl) [12].

3. Self-development as a change of social attitudes and the construction of their own lives (E. Bern, M. Rokich).

4. Self-knowledge, self-actualization and self-realization - this is the selfdevelopment of the individual (K. Helmholtz, A. Maslow, K. Rogers).

All the above psychological concepts relate to the phenomenon of human self-realization, which is based on the needs of growth, development and selfimprovement. Therefore, the term "selfrealization" is often synonymous with "realization of their capabilities" and "self-actualization". They describe very close phenomena: the full realization of real possibilities (K. Horney); human desire for the fullest discovery and development of their capabilities and abilities (K. Rogers); an inner active tendency to develop oneself, something like true self-expression (F. Perls); man's desire to become what he/she can become (A. Maslow) [15]. modern education quality life

At the present stage of science development, the problem of personal self-development is considered from the standpoint of the necessary criteria (integrity, autonomy, activity, internal position, self-awareness, self understanding, reflection) and taking into account the growing globalization and integration processes in the modern world. The latter necessitates a change in human personal needs: they become anthropocosmic, aimed at realizing the leading role of individual morality in preserving the world, the transfer of moral norms as socially significant in the sphere of interaction between nature and society. In this process, education is not only a factor of social progress, but also seen as "the basis for the formation of physical and mental (spiritual) health of man, society as a whole." Accordingly, the main task of education in the XXI century - the organization of the process of human development in the global system "Nature-Society-Man", which forms the basis of the concept of noosphere education.

The result of adult self-development in a professional environment is professional competence as an existential property. Stimulation of professional and personal self-development as the most important function for solving creative, professional and life tasks should be inherent in the whole system of information education, which, according to O. Burlak, should become a system of continuous adult selfdevelopment. O. Goray considers professional self-development as a process of integration of external professional training and internal movement, personal development of a person. Thus, modern researchers consider self-development to be the basis for the formation of informal education.

Self-development appears for an adult student as a real conscious motive. The main mechanism of self-development as a purposeful influence of man on himself V. Andreev defines in the resolved contradictions and creative tasks, which are constantly complicated.

Contradictions in philosophy - is the interaction of opposing interconnected meanings as a source of self-movement and development. Internal contradictions arise on the basis of external contradictions and act as a causal factor of development. According to V. Saguichenko, the initial, driving contradiction of self-development cannot be completely resolved, which emphasizes the infinite nature of the process of selfdevelopment as a life process.

The mechanism of professional and personal self-development is described by O. Goray: it is a specific self organization of a person's personal educational and developmental space, in which he acts as a subject of professional formation and selfdevelopment. This space is produced by human activity, includes the mastered subject environment, the semantic sphere of personality, actions, the result of work on yourself.

Conclusions and research perspectives

Informal education actualizes the development of the adult's ability to self-improvement, selfrealization and application of his ability to modern situations of professional activity and circumstances of professional life, contributes to the formation of personal assessment of individual life and professional experience. Therefore, informal education is: 1) education of independent learning, which is characterized by a greater degree of autonomy, independence of the adult from external actions (both unfavorable and favorable), 2) flexible in manifestations (time, place, forms and methods, content of learning). Informal education is most appropriate when the adult shows interest and responsibility in learning, when the curriculum is not so complex. Successful self-learning requires the provision of many conditions: the availability of sufficient sources and means of learning, skills in organizing educational activities for adults, qualified learning assistance, and so on. Various courses, interest groups, classes in public associations to enrich knowledge are also types of informal education. Learning through visits to cultural and entertainment institutions, self-learning also belong to informal education.

Thus, non-formal and informal education are important components of the quality-of-life process. Participation in trainings, professional communities, workshops, seminars contribute to the formation of an active life position and life trajectory, personal development of an adult and his goal-setting.

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