Life-creating education: new educational meanings in modern world

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the paper is to show the impossibility of teaching an individual to live and realize their potential in a modern dynamic environment by being within an artificial education system and explore the idea of life-creating education.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on the models of future education and community. Education is viewed from the position of a student’s ability to self-realize in the modern world. This paper relies on the analyses of basic characteristics of formal education, the challenges to it from the point of view of contemporaneous society and the main routes to improve education.

Findings

An artificial education system with its translation of a stable experience model is obsolete. Formal education does not provide an individual with the necessary life experience. Learners’ interest and involvement into cognitive activity; joint creative activity and production of personal knowledge; self-determination; and personal fulfilment are the main features of life-creating education. It involves the whole society into learning, modifies teachers’ functions and requires developing flexible management tools.

Originality/value

This original work shows basic principles of life-creating education and maps the way forward. The represented results will be useful for developing new models of education improvement.

Citation

Lyz, N. and Opryshko, A. (2016), "Life-creating education: new educational meanings in modern world", On the Horizon, Vol. 24 No. 4, pp. 377-386. https://doi.org/10.1108/OTH-06-2016-0028