SMILE Launches a Series of Seminars on Cutting-edge Research on the Development of Lifelong Education in Shanghai.

Recently, Shanghai Municipal Institute for Lifelong Education (SMILE) initiated the holding of a series of seminars on cutting-edge research on the development oflifelong education in Shanghai, with the first and the second seminar held on September 29 and 30 respectively.

Mr. Huang Gang, president of University for the Aged, Shanghai Normal University, Mr. Chen Shengri, president of Community College of Minhang District, Shanghai , and Mr. Zhou Zhijian, president of Community College of Baoshan District, Shanghai, attended the first seminar on September 29. Mr. Zhuang Jian, president of Shanghai Education Association for the Elderly, Ms. Xia Ying, director of Shanghai Working Group Office of Educationfor the Elderly, Mr. Chen Hongguan, president of Community College of Xuhui District, Shanghai, Mr. Jiang Zhonghua, president of Community College of Jing'an District, Shanghai, Mr. Xu Wenqing, president of Community College of Putuo District, Shanghai, and Ms. Ma Lihua, chief researcher of the Lifelong Learning Program of SMILE, attended the second seminar on September 30.

Both seminars were hosted by Li Jiacheng, executive vice president of SMILE, with Zou Wen, director of the Administrative Department of the Institute, and Zhu Weiwei and Shi Keyuan, research assistants, participating in the entire meeting.

The first Seminar on Cutting-edge Research on the Development of Lifelong Education in Shanghaiwas held on September 29.

At the beginning of the meeting, President Li Jiacheng introduced the three main issues to be discussed in this series of seminars on cutting-edge research on the development of lifelong education in Shanghai. The experts spoke freely and actively contributed to the research work on lifelong education in Shanghai.

At the meeting on September 29, President Huang Gang of University for the Aged, Shanghai Normal University said that in the past two years, education for the elderly in Shanghai had been developing rapidly in terms of digital school-running, including online teachingand online enrollment, with the number of students rising and the types of course forms trending towards diversification. Mr. Huang also expressed his views on the current development dilemmas of universities for the elderly in terms of staffing, policy and resource support.

Zhou Zhijian, president of Community College of Baoshan District, Shanghai, talked about the path of lifelong education development in Shanghai from five perspectives: party-building leadership, shifting the focus to the grassroots level, fine management, digital empowerment and mass line. He believed that in the new stage of development, it was necessary to further clarify the connotation of lifelong education and community education, reposition their functions in society, and attach importance to the legislation and revisionof lifelong educationlaws.

Chen Shengri, president of Community College of Minhang District, Shanghai used four keywords, namely, full scope, full penetration, full function, and full complementarity, to illustrate the characteristics of lifelong education and community education, such as broad service targets, a well-established network of institutional levels, rich educational content, and inseparable relationship with colleges, universities, and primary and secondary schools. President Chen Shengri shared existing experience of Minhang District in exploring the integration of education and parenting, the implementation of the credit bank system, intelligent assistance for the elderly, and parental learning, as well as the development trends of these programs that can be enhanced and improved in the future.

At the meeting on September 30, Mr. Zhuang Jian, president of Shanghai Education Association for the Elderly, emphasized the need to conduct in-depth research on lifelong education in Shanghai from the following three aspects. Firstly, research on results should be conducted to strengthen the summary of rules from successful cases; secondly, research on difficulties should be conducted to strengthen the research on existing policy documents on lifelong education in the context of administration by law; thirdly, research on trends should be conducted not only to strengthen the evaluation of the effectiveness of education for the elderly but also to understand the curricular needs of the elderly learners in the new age and to promote the differential development of lifelong education institutions at all levels and in all categories.

Ms. Xia Ying, director of Shanghai Working Group Office of Education for the Elderly , said that Shanghai had achieved results and still had room for development in different fields of elderly education, including realizing ideological and political guidance, expanding the supply, the creation of courses by university students, the digital transformation of elderly education, and the promotion of lifelong education research. Looking to the future, lifelong education should focus on coordinated development, learn from the Olympic spirit, and lay great emphasis on the development of the digital era and the important role of science education in lifelong education.

Mr. Chen Hongguan, president of Community College of Xuhui District, Shanghai, expressed his views on the integration and distribution of responsibilities of the three-tier management system of community education in Shanghai, the positioning of community education institutions at all levels, as well as the construction of the supporting teaching staff system and the supply of resources, and discussed the new journey and new standards of lifelong education in the context of modernization.

Mr. Jiang Zhonghua, president of Community College of Jing'an District, Shanghai, pointed out that there were great breakthroughs and highlights in the construction of teaching staff, digital transformation, and international exchanges and cooperation in lifelong education in Shanghai from 2023 to 2024. For the further development of lifelong education and elderly education in the future, the diversification of school organizers should be encouraged, the platform for the professional development of teachers should be expanded, the role of lifelong education in coping with the aging society should be emphasized, as well as the timely updating and iterating of the curricula of the university for the aged in accordance with the development of the times should be carried out, and in particular, the digital development of elderly education should be promoted to enhance the learning capacity of learners.

President Xu Wenqing of Community College of Putuo District, Shanghai, believed that lifelong education currently had a wide coverage but was not focused as a whole. President Xu Wenqing started with the importance of the legislative establishment of lifelong education, and he believed that the roles of government management organizations and supervisory organizations were very crucial. In order to break through the current bottleneck, lifelong education can start from the study of evaluation criteria of lifelong education so as to promote the implementation of lifelong education and community education at all levels.

During the two seminars, experts had in-depth discussions on a number of key issues, such as the digital transformation of elderly education, legislation and policy implementation of lifelong education, construction of teaching staff, integration of community education and community governance, and updating of curricula. Looking ahead, SMILE will continue to carry out a series of seminars focusing on the cutting-edge issues of lifelong education, continue to rely on multi-party collaboration and strengthen the research on advanced experience and innovative measures in the field of lifelong education in Shanghai so as to contribute wisdom and strength to promote the improvement of Shanghai's lifelong education system and to enhance the quality of lifelong education research.