Through Lifelong Learning to a Higher Level of Intelligence

We are told that we need to learn all our lives if we want to be competitive in the job market. We learn to master and adopt the new skills required for our jobs. But what does lifelong learning mean, and can lifelong learning be viewed in a broader context than the acquisition of new skills and competencies?

When we learn, more active signaling occurs among the brain's neurons, which increases the ability to connect with other neurons, i.e., a more significant number of synapses is created. Such changes are noticeable only in the parts of the brain that are more activated. They result from the repeated transmission of signals by specific neurons involved in the learning experience and chemical compounds (endorphins, dopamine, cortisol, etc.) that accompany the emotional dimension of learning. The more areas in the brain involved in the learning process, the more pronounced and significant the change at the brain's neurological and biological level will be.

Through the senses, we receive information from the environment followed by the reflection, i.e., connecting and associating data into groups of information based on existing experiences and relationships between information. Therefore, the degree of understanding of new information depends on building associations between past and recent events. It is also the slowest step in the learning process, precisely because of the reflection phase that is often missed or forgotten in the teaching process and adult self-learning. After creating new meaning and acquiring new knowledge, it would be desirable to test newly acquired skills and knowledge in actual circumstances (application of knowledge, skills, and competencies in the workplace). Adopting the new begins with a simple reproduction of facts and continues towards higher cognition levels, towards creating something new or innovative. From this, it can be concluded that the creation of new knowledge requires more vital brain activity and overall integration of the existing neural network. It suggests that those who teach should allow those who are taught to independently adopt new facts and relate them to their own experience and prior knowledge, rather than being required to reproduce facts (lower levels of knowledge).

An environment that supports and enables experiential learning will enable creating new neural connections and strengthening existing ones. It will also make it possible to question what is being learned in the light of existing experience. When an adult is involved in the learning process, he/she can freely interpret and explain facts, experiences, communication and dialogue/conversation about what happens during learning and enables changes which are likely to occur, both in the neural structure and in the behavior.

The limbic system and the brain's neocortex are interconnected, which means that cognition and emotions form an inseparable whole. More precisely and in more detail, current brain research indicates the interconnectedness of emotional, cognitive, vegetative-hormonal, and sensorimotor components that influence psycho-physical manifestations in adult behavior. It suggests that claims of learning involving multidimensionality and ultrasensitivity are very much gaining confirmation and may take on increasing significance for adult learning and teaching (synergy of multiple types of intelligence such as IQ, EQ (emotional intelligence), SQ (spiritual intelligence)).

For best learning outcomes, the brain needs concrete examples and exact situations instead of abstract theories and rules. The reason for this lies in the fact that abstract rules require concrete internal structures (i.e., neural structures in the brain) that can only be created if theories are inferred from examples, i.e., experiential and experienced practice.

These facts instruct us that lifelong learning is necessary to maintain a constant cognitive and emotional maturity level. It also allows us to understand better the circumstances and conditions in which we live and work and can support us in introducing changes in different spheres of life and phases of life. Learning is desirable because learning shapes and upgrades us or corrects misunderstood knowledge.

Published in: "The Competence of Lifelong Learning from the Neuroscientific Point of View on Adult Learning," Key Competencies in Adult Learning, Book of Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Adult Education, Vodice, Croatia, 3rd and 4th October 2013, http://www.andragosko.hr/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/zbornik-had-vodice-2013.pdf