The Memorandum of the Association is a basis for a dialogue. The aim of this document is the exchange of views in its positions, in order to be continuously enriched. In this context, any recommendation, observation or amendment is welcomed.

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1. Education for Social Future

The organization, which is named as "Association for Adult Education" (AAE) focuses on its contribution into the development of Life Long Learning (LLL) and more particularly in the Adult Education. LLL has become the main topic of discussions concerning education and its relation with economy, society, work and personal life all over the world. Moreover, it is considered to be the new educational promise for democracy, social cohesion and development in the environment of local - global interrelations, the changing patterns of work, new technologies and the diversity of social and personal life. More specifically, LLL aims at:

• The expansion of learning during whole life and in every area of life.
• The implementation of strategies for education, which will promote this goal.

In this context, the AAE pursues the following targets:

• The implementation of LLL in the area of formal and especially school education.
• The implementation of LLL in adult education.
• The connection between the formal forms of education (schools and educational institutes) and the informal and non-formal systems of education (work, family, local community, personal life).

In order to achieve these goals, new designs for education are regarded as necessary.

2. New Learning Designs

The necessity and the directions for the reforms emanate from the following reasons:

• The basic principle of the operation of education in Greece is based on a process, where orders and directives are transmitted "top - down". According to this procedure, the central educational - administrative authority decides about all subjects (curriculum, text - books, organization of schools etc) and schools follow its orders. This model could correspond to the needs of older forms of organization of social life, where stability, well-defined roles in work and society and uniformity dominated.
• This model can no longer respond to an environment of continuing changes, diversity and the need for production of new creative activities and innovations. Especially, it is not capable to face and give solution to the new forms of inequalities, which appear in societies of knowledge.
• If all previous periods were characterized by the so-called "industrial model", where vertical hierarchical - administrative - productive chains/ series separated the few, who took decisions from those, who carried out these decisions, this new period is characterized by the model of a "learning community". According to this model the forms of organization are based on "horizontal", cooperative, network procedures.
• Instead of the existence of small groups, which take decisions, the participation in the decision making is expanded so as to concern the total of citizens. The culture of cooperation, continuous change, LLL and the expansion of capacities in a personal and social level are the basic elements of the new environments. The politics of management of the human - social capital constitute the first priority. For all these reasons, the key - element of the education for the future is the redesigning of the educational system and its change from a "top - down" operation to a continuous improvement's process, which will take place in educational spaces and will be supported centrally.
• The redesigning of the educational systems includes the reconceptualization of the educational content. There are two basic areas of change that should be taken into account for a reconceptualization of contents.
  • The first one is the diversity that describes social, personal and working life.
  • The second one is the effect of the development of new technologies on the contents of capacities and pedagogics. New technologies compose a new "socio - cultural" environment, which includes the convergence of written, printed, oral, visual and spatial modes of meaning making.

Their use opens up a new chapter in the field of education, through the development of cooperative, educational environments and the creation of open spaces for production of viable and continuously renewable educational material in schools. These two factors doubt the traditional educational methods, where quantities of information and knowledge should be transmitted and assimilated.

• The new learning designs cannot be implemented without the transformation of the state and the transfer of responsibilities to local communities. A new relation needs to be built between the central authority and the society of citizens, where the focus will be the local communities and the future aim, the global connections.

In this context, the main domains of the redesigning of the educational system include the following:

• New learning: The main point has become the development of capacities for the comprehension and negotiation of meanings of life, the comprehension of basic ways of thinking in sensible subjects and their connection with personal experiences and spaces of life. Skills such as problem solving, communication, cooperation, critical point of view, positive predisposition for learning, design and implementation of plans, research and use of information, their connection with personal experiences and areas of life constitute, among others, the basic aims of the organization of educational processes and the necessary skills .The above form the perspective of learning in the new age, emphasizing specifically, in the procedures of "the construction of knowledge" focusing on the participation and social action in the worlds of life. The main target is the development of skills, values and sensibilities of citizens, working people and persons so that they, themselves, can design and shape their personal and social future.
• Local communities of learning and civilization: Local communities constitute a privileged space for the development of the new learning. Their characteristic of connecting schools and educational institutions with spaces of life and action of citizens, with the local authorities, cultural association and associations of parents, non - governmental organizations and areas of work, art and culture is the reason why they are considered to be a suitable place for the promotion of the new learning designs. Learning in local societies is, at the same time, open to national and global networks of cooperation and joint action and aims to the social, cultural and productive development in order to ameliorate the every - day life of citizens.
• Evaluation: Evaluation is a main point towards the educational reforms. It is regarded as an inseparable element of new education. Our interest is centred especially in the "alternative" or "authentic" forms of evaluation (performance assessment, self-evaluation, evaluation through portfolio, evaluation of collaborative work etc).
• Quality: The evaluation of quality of education and its connection with the equality of opportunities that appear, constitute a subject of need in greek education. For this reason, the evaluation of quality of the educational work is considered to be an important goal. The designing and the implementation of the criteria and indicators of quality in all levels of the educational process are a main topic of interest. Furthermore, the elaboration of development projects of school - educational units according to criteria - indicators of evaluation is a critical sector of interest. Finally, the participation and the contribution into the recognition and the certification of the formal and non - formal modes of education are the centre of LLL and completes the picture of reforms in evaluation.
• Educational profession: Finally, according to the new conditions, the role of the educator composes a main element of the reform. From the role of the one who simply implements central directions, the educator plays the role of the designer of participating learning environments in schools, takes the role of the one who has the right to plan projects and programmes, of the researcher of new experiences which are brought by students in schools as learning sources and of the promoter of diversity and creativity. These roles open up an important chapter in subjects such as the training of educators based on the concept of LLL and the general perspectives of the educational profession.
• Investment on education: The transition to the societies of knowledge presupposes the review of the perceptions about educational expenses. Instead of them being regarded as social, non-productive expenses of the national budget, educational expenses must be considered to be necessary productive - social expenses on human capital of the societies of knowledge. The investment on the new economies of knowledge and the state financing for the creation of systems of LLL constitutes an issue of many studies and planning in the European and international level. Their research and comparative evaluations are an important criterion for the possibilities of educational systems to correspond with the increased needs and expectations.

3 Areas of Interest

From all the above, the following sectors of interest and action of the AAE are defined:

• Contents: Programs - books - teaching processes;
• Evaluation in all dimensions - criteria and indicators of evaluation;
• Professional development of educators;
• Decentralization of education;
• Systems of administration and organization of education;
• Exploitation of new technologies in education;
• Schools - local community -parents;
• Connection of the formal, non-formal and informal forms of education;
• Learning cities /regions;
• Educational politics;
• European politic of education, i.e. Participation in the development of politics for life long learning and in European projects (Socrates, Leonardo, Grundvig etc).

Since we are moving from close to open systems of education, from the monopoly of education to defined institutions, spaces and times in the cooperative - distributed production of knowledge, the continuous designing and re designing of educational systems is one reality that concerns everyone. This reality has to do with the building of the capacity of citizens and local communities in order to take in their own hands the luck of education. It is an educational process into which the AAE wants to contribute in all means.

For this reason AAE will pursuit the cooperation with everyone who is interested in, will contribute into the production of relevant documents, publications, networks with other organizations and agents who have the same orientation.

(May 2003)

(This document is freely provided under the GNU Free Documentation License)