Who is a Lifelong Learner?

Craig Kemp (2014) emphasized that lifelong learner is a fair reflection of the on-going, voluntary,
and self-motivated pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons. In real-life situations as
teachers, we always stressed out to our learners that learning is a continuous process. It never stops. We
inculcated in them that as we grow older, our experiences broadened, and because of that the more we
acquired information.

But what does it mean to be a lifelong learner. Carol Medel-Anoñuevo, et al., proposed different
characteristics of a lifelong learner to wit: (1) the learner as an active and creative explorer of the world, (2)
the learner as a reflexive agent, (3) the learner as a self-actualizing agent, and (4) the learner as an
integrator of learning. This manifests a new perspective of learners as lifelong learners . Learners who are
part and parcel of the learning process having the capacity of creating things and embracing these
throughout life.

Carol Medel-Anoñuevo, et al., also emphasized the challenges that the educational stakeholders
are facing. These are lifelong learning as optimizing individual differences in learning, lifelong learning as a
continuity of learning experiences, and lifelong culture learning.

Our learners are unique. They are different from each other. They all have different life
experiences. Hence, lifelong learning should encompass every aspect of learners’ lives. That their feelings
and emotions, their needs, difficulties and aspirations should also be given the same consideration. We, as
teachers should set an example for our learners. We should practice what we teach to encourage our
learners to develop lifelong learners. One way of doing this is to share our experiences of working in the
learning process.

As a teacher, I believe that I am a lifelong learner. That I should lead my learners to be an active
and a creative explorer of the world. That I should aim at building the competency of being reflexive through
the eyes of my learner and that I should encourage them through active engagement with their own
problems. That I should motivate them intrinsically to inculcate in them that learning is very necessary to
meet or achieve satisfaction in life. And that I should embrace my thinking, feeling, and action to become
an integrator of learning.

Albert Einstein once said, “Once you stop learning you start dying.”