A Reflection on the Lifelong Learner Mindset

As the Edudemic Staff stated, "Doctors, lawyers, and other professionals never stop learning new techniques and strategies to hone their craft and remain on the cutting edge in their field- and so, too, do teachers," ("Lifelong Learning is a Crucial Educational Mindset"). Recently, I challenged myself with continuing to have a lifelong learner mindset in order to continue to build a network with other likeminded educators.

After reading "Lifelong Learning is a Crucial Educational Mindset," an article published by Edudemic, a few comments truly made me ponder:

• lifelong learning is an essential challenge for inventing the future of our societies 
• a lifelong learning mindset creates the challenge to understand, explore, and support new essential dimensions of learning such as: 
• self-directed learning
• learning on demand
• informal learning
• collaborative and organizational learning 
• lifelong learning fosters creativity in the information age

This article brought to the forefront of my mind the true importance of educators taking on the role of being lifelong learning, as well as the importance of teaching our students to have a lifelong learner mindset. This mindset creates the stamina to self-direct their own learning, to learn on demand, to learn in groups, to start a conversation- all things that lead to successful business owners, employees, and community contributors. The lifelong learner mindset helps us to overcome obstacles and know what to do in the hands of failure. 

This article also left me pondering a few questions myself:

• How do lifelong learners encourage other people that do not have a lifelong learner mindset to self-direct their learning?
• How can the world of education grow and become better if we do not all have a lifelong learner mindset?
• If you are at a school where the lifelong learner mindset is rare, how can one help the teachers to see the benefits that a lifelong learner mindset has on their career?

The article stated, "The best teachers are willing to learn from their students," (LLCEM). We as educators must allow learning to come from outside resources (books, blogs, websites...) as well as inside resources (students, other teachers, parents, administrators...).

Who are lifelong learners?

• self-starters
• innovators
• tech lovers (willing to allow students to learn and teach about tech usage)

My favorite quote from this article came towards the end when the authors inquired, "Can a teacher successfully educate students without becoming a lifelong learner?"(LLCEM). The authors also stated, "...teachers who adopt this mentality are more than excellent educators; they're excellent models for their students," (LLCEM).

Resources: http://www.edudemic.com/lifelong-learning-educational-mindset/