Teori dan Perkembangan Implementasi Program PLS

1. Pendidikan Sepanjang Hayat

conceptual framework
Many concepts were mentioned in the opening chapter without any being rigorously defined; it is now necessary to examine some of them. The concept of education will be analysed first and this will form the base for examining some of the terms in contemporary usage that relate in some way to the education of adults, during which the underlying philosophies will become more apparent. The chapter has nine sections. While the chapter title implies something of a historical sequence, it should more accurately be read as a conceptual continuum. In addition, it will become clear that the same terms are employed in different ways, while, on occa-sions, different terms are used to convey the same meaning!

The changing concept of education

In the opening chapter, reference was made to the way in which know-ledge changes rapidly and consequently the so-called ‘front-end’ model of education, which was appropriate for less technological societies, is no longer relevant to contemporary society. However, this requires further discussion, and perhaps the simplest way to illustrate the concept is dia-grammatically and an adaptation of Boyle’s diagram is used for this purpose (see Figure 2.1).

This clearly demonstrates the idea that education was regarded as occurring only during the formative years and that when social maturity, or adulthood, was achieved then education ceases. This approach may be found in many early writers on the subject of education. John Stuart Mill, for instance, claimed that the content of education was to be found in ‘the culture which each generation purposely gives to those who are to be their successors’ (cited in Lester-Smith, 1966:9). Emile Durkheim, a French soci-ologist and educationalist, regarded education in a similar manner: for him it was ‘the influence exercised by adult generations on those who are not yet ready for social life’ (1956:71). But by the beginning of the twentieth century, it was becoming more apparent in the West that an inter-generational perspective was not adequate to describe the educational process. John Dewey (1916:8), for instance, was forced to add the prefix formal to the term education in order to express the same sentiments as those specified by Mill and Durkheim if society was to transmit all its achieve-ments from one generation to the subsequent one. Today, formal educa-tion both refers to institutionalized learning and a teaching method – to the structure and the process. In addition, it is the term most likely to be used to convey the same idea is initial education. This has been described as:

going to school, including nursery school, but it could go on full or part-time into the mid-20s. After compulsory schooling, ‘initial’ education takes a wide variety of forms: full-time study in sixth form, university, college, polytechnic, medical school, military academy and so on; part-time day release, evening classes and correspondence courses; on the job training in the factory.

(ACACE, 1979a:9–10)
In a similar manner, Coombs and Ahmed sought to distinguish formal education from informal and non-formal education. They define it as: ‘the highly institutionalized chronologically graded and hierarchically structured “education system” spanning lower primary school and upper reaches of the university’ (1974:8). Their intention was to distinguish this initial formal system from other forms of lifelong education occurring throughout the world. The idea underlying initial education is that at a given stage in the lifespan individuals have stored away sufficient know-ledge and skill to serve them for the remainder of their lives, so that their education is then complete.

Such a model of education is also implicit in the writings of the well-known English philosopher of education, R.S. Peters, who made a clear distinction between education and the educated man (a term which Peters used without gender bias). Peters (1972:9) regarded being edu-cated as a state that individuals achieve, whilst education is a family of processes that lead to this state. However, it might be advantageous to enquire whether the educated person is an end-state without being the end of the journey. Peters’ writings tend to suggest that he considers it as such, for he claims that education ‘was not thought of (previously) explic-itly as a family of processes which have as their outcome the development of an educated man in the way in which it is now’ (1972:7). While this seems to imply that Peters considered that the educated person is an end-state, it is possible to regard it as a social status in contrast to the unedu-cated person. Yet even if it is an achievement, is it possible for the educated person to undertake more education? Of course it is – but to where does the additional process lead? If it is regarded as a status, then that status remains unchanged. Peters rightly claimed that to be an edu-cated person is not to have arrived but to travel with a different view during life. Hence, for him, the educated person is both educated and being educated throughout the whole of his life. Indeed, if the state were achieved then the process must continue or else it would be lost. Hence it is maintained here that the process is significant, perhaps more significant than the state or the end-product. Therefore, no initial or intergeneration aspect may be considered intrinsic to the concept of education, since the educated person should always be in the process of being educated.

It may, therefore, be concluded that education is an institutionalized learning process and, as such, it may be seen as the way in which societies respond to the basic learning need in humankind, which was discussed previously. However, not all learning is educational. Few people would deny, for instance, that indoctrination is a learning process but they would almost certainly deny that it is an educational one, so that specific criteria need to be adduced in order to ascertain whether any learning process is educational. Elsewhere (Jarvis, 1983a), this has been worked out in some detail, so that it would be repetitive to do more than summarize that dis-cussion here.

Peters (1966:23ff.), following Wittgenstein, claimed that the concept of education is too complex to define and so he suggested that there is a family of similar phenomena that may be regarded as education, as we pointed out above. He put forward three sets of criteria for consideration as a basis for education, but they were not regarded as totally satisfactory, so that other criteria were suggested. For him education must involve: a learning process which is institutionalized; the learning process should not be a single event; the process should be planned rather than haphazard; an essentially humanistic process because knowledge is humanistic and because the process involves human beings as learners and, also, maybe as teachers; learning has to involve understanding, which is essen-tially a quality of critical awareness. Before a definition is offered it is necessary to examine the term ‘humanistic’ here. Dewey claimed that knowledge is essentially ‘humanistic in quality not because it is about human products in the past, but because of what it does in liberating human intelligence and human sympathy’ (1916:230 – italics in original). It is this human element that was reflected in the discussion in the opening chapter when knowledge was separated from information. He went on to suggest that any specific matter that does this is essentially humane, so that in this context humanistic has two facets: it is concerned about the welfare and humanity of the participants and it is humane. Hence this implies that the educational process is normative and idealis-tic. Education may now be defined as ‘any institutionalized and planned series of incidents, having a humanistic basis, directed towards the participants learning and understanding’. This definition is very broad since it is the common factor in the multitudinous branches of education, and it is possible to modify and adapt it, so that the definition may reflect the meaning added to the basic idea when a prefix is placed before the term education, for example lifelong education requires only that ‘and which may occur at any stage in the lifespan’ be added to the above defini-tion. Hence it may be seen that this basic definition of education does not restrict education to any specific learning process; to any time in life; to any specific location; to any specific purpose. The front-end model of edu-cation, depicted in Figure 2.1, is, therefore, only one branch of education rather than being the total educational process. It has been difficult to change people’s attitudes towards education and this front-end model of initial education has been equated with education per se in people’s minds. This would also be true in many other countries throughout the world.


Consequently, the education of adults is still often viewed by some as an optional extra added after initial education has actually been completed, so that it has remained marginal to the institution of education in society.

In the following sections we shall examine some of the prefixes that describe the various branches of education that are relevant to the educa-tion of adults; but, prior to embarking upon this, it is necessary to clarify the relationship between teaching, learning and education.




a. Pendidkan sepanjang hayat hidup berusaha mencari kesinambungan dan kaitan antara dimensi vertikal atau longitudinal, bahwa pendidikan sepanjang hayat menyangkut pembelajaran individu atau masyarakat semenjak dia dilahirkan dan sampai dia meninggal dunia, manusia belajar tanpa henti sampai dia menjadi sesuatu tanpa dibatasi usia dan golongan status sosial. Dengan demikian manusia belajar kapanpun dia selama masih hidup.
Sedangkan menyangkut dimensi horizontal bahwa manusia belajar dimanapun dia berada, manusia belajar dari manusia sendiri atau dari lingkungan sekitar, manusia yang berpikir akan peningkatan kualitas hidupnya dan memperbaiki dirinya selama hayatnya tidak akan pernah berhenti dimanapun dia berada sehingga akan menciptakan masyarakat yang gemar belajar.
b. Pendidikan sepanjang hayat adalah learning to be, hal yang dimaksud dalam istilah tersebut bahwa pendidikan sepanjang hayat bertujuan untuk sesuatu menjadi, manusia belajar selama hidupnya untuk sebuah tujuan yang jelas dan akhirnya menjadi sesuatu, manusia yang berbudaya, berahlak, dan beradab. Manusia yang mempunyai keterampilan atau kecakapan hidup dalam menghadapi tantangan dan permasalahan hidupnya.

c. The learning society

The learning society is both a confused and a confusing idea that requires some explication here, but in this instance the learning society is associ-ated with social change. The more prevalent or profound the changes that occur in a society, the greater the likelihood that it will be regarded as a learning society. Change is now endemic but the speed of change is differ-ent in different countries, and it is slower in the socially excluded south where behaviour is more patterned and repetitive giving the society a sense of permanence and people can take their behaviour for granted, so that there is little new learning in later life. In other words, for societies to exist their members must repeat certain fundamental processes, like lan-guage and behaviour patterns, but in many societies of rapid social change these patterns are at a minimal level and so taken-for-grantedness cannot always be assumed, and more learning occurs (Jarvis, 1987 inter alia). Consequently, we may think of modern society being threatened by the rapidity of social change – but even in the West not everything is changing; there is still a degree of stability and permanence. There must be both learning and non-learning in social living. However, Coffield (2000:28) suggests that, as a result of the research projects for the learn-ing society programme in the UK for which he was the ESRC co-ordinator, ‘all talk of the learning society will have to be abandoned rather than refined’ (italics in original). He says that there are simply too many modern and post-modern readings of the term for any general agreement on one approach or model to be possible.
Dalam pengertian ini masyarakat belajar adalah terciptanya suatu kondisi dimana masyarakat yang gemar belajar dan saling membelajarkan untuk mencapai suatu masyarakat yang berpengetahuan baik melalui pendidikan formal, informal dan nonformal.


2. Pendidikan kecakapan hidup diposisikan di dalam pendidikan berbasis luas
a. Pendidikan berbasis luas merupakan suatu pendekatan yang memiliki karakteristik bahwa proses pendidikan bersumber pada nilai-nilai hidup yang berkembang secara luas dimasyarakat. Wardiman (1998:73) menyebutkan pendidikan berbasis luas merupakan sistem baru yang berwawasan sumber daya manusia, berwawasan keunggulan, menganut prinsip tidak mungkin membentuk sumber daya manusia yang berkualitas dan memiliki keunggulan, kalau tidak diawali dengan pembetukan dasar (fondasi) yang kuat. Dengan demikian broad-based education diartikan bahwa pendekatan pendidikan yang harus memberikan orientasi yang lebih luas, kuat, dan mendasar, sehingga memungkinkan warga masyarakat memiliki kemampuan menyesuaikan diri terhadap kemungkinan yang terjadi pada dirinya baik yang berkaitan dengan usaha atau pekerjaan.
b. Jenis-jenis kecakapan hidup
Nelson-Jones (1992:8) mengemukakan definisi Lifeskills (keterampilan hidup) :
Lifeskills are personally responsible sequences of self-helping choices in specific psychological skills areas conducive to mental wellness. People require a repertoire of life skill according to their developmental tasks and specific problems solving.

Adapun maksud pengertian diatas bahwa keterampilan hidup merupakan urutan pilihan-pilihan yang dibuat seseorang dalam bidang-bidang keterampilan psikologis yang khusus secara positif diperlukan dirinya berdasarkan tugas-tugas perkembangan dan mampu memecahkan masalah khusus lainnya.
Rana Baskara (2003:5) menyimpulkan bahwa kecakapan hidup adalah kecakapan yang meliputi kecakapan yang diperlukan untuk hidup dalam kehidupan dan penghidupan seseorang. Adapun pengertian kecakapan hidup lainnya adalah kemampuan, kesanggupan, dan keterampilan yang diperlukan oleh seseorang untuk menjalankan kehidupan dengan nikmat dan bahagia. Kecakapan ini meliputi empat jenis, yaitu kecakapan personal, kecakapan akademis, kecakapan sosial, dan kecakapan vokasional (Depdiknas, 2002).
Dalam pengertian ini life skill mengacu pada berbagai ragam kemampuan yang diperlukan untuk menempuh kehidupan yang penuh kesuksesan dan kebahagiaan, seperti kemampuan berkomunikasi yang efektif, kemampuan bekerjasama, menjadi warga negara yang bertanggung jawab, memiliki kecakapan untuk bekerja, memiliki karakter, dan cara-cara berpikir analitis dan logis (Djam’an Satori, 2001: 3). Dengan demikian life skill mempunyai cakupan amat luas. Oleh karena itu life skill sebenarnya diperlukan oleh setiap orang.
Berdasarkan uraian di atas, maka kecakapan hidup (Life skill) dapat diartikan sebagai suatu bentuk keterampilan, kemampuan dan ke-sanggupan yang diperlukan individu dalam menghadapi dan mengatasi persoalan hidup dan kehidupan, mampu mengelola dan mengatasi hambatan serta secara kreatif menemukan solusi dan pada akhirnya individu bahagia terhadap pilihan yang ditetapkannya.

Konsep Kecakapan Hidup
Pembahasan tentang kecakapan hidup tidak akan terlepas dari konsep tentang kompetensi atau pendidikan berbasis kompetensi. Konsep kecakapan hidup mempunyai makna yang sama dengan kompetensi. Sebagaimana dikemukkan oleh Nana Syaodih (2004: 29-30) bahwa secara umum kompetensi mempunyai makna yang hampir sama dengan kecakapan hidup atau “life skill”, yaitu kecakapan-kecakapan, keterampilan untuk menyatakan, memelihara, menjaga dan mengembangkan diri. Kecakapan dan keterampilan-keterampilan tersebut, tidak sekedar berkenaan dengan aspek fisik-biologis, tetapi juga aspek intelektual, sosial, dan afektif (perasaan, sikap, nilai).
Kompetensi atau keterampilan hidup dinyatakan dalam kecakapan, kebiasaan, keterampilan, kegiatan, perbuatan atau performansi yang dapat diamati malahan dapat diukur. Performansi merupakan unsur yang nampak atau ”overt” dari performansi, tetapi di belakang yang nampak tersebut banyak unsur-unsur yang tidak nampak atau “covert”. Suatu kompetensi apalagi kalau kompetensi tersebut berkenaan dengan kompetensi tahap tinggi minimal aspek. Yaitu pengetahuan, keterampilan, proses berpikir, penyesuaian diri, sikap dan nilai-nilai.
Ketujuh aspek kompetensi tersebut dapat digambarkan ke dalam sebuah trapezium atau kerucut berikut ini.















Aspek-aspek Kompetensi (Keterampilan Hidup)
Disadur dari Nana Syaodih S. (2004: 30).

Pengetahuan, keterampilan berpikir, proses berpikir, penyesuaian diri, sikap dan nilai sukar diamati atau diukur karena tersembunyi, tetapi manifestasinya atau penerapannya dalam berbagai situasi nyata dapat diamati atau diukur. Walaupun pemahaman proses berpikir, sikap dan lain-lain itu tidak bisa dilihat tetapi pengaruhnya terhadap performansi dapat dilihat.
Berdasarkan uraian di atas, maka keterampilan hidup (Life skill) dapat diartikan sebagai suatu keberanian menghadapi problema hidup dan kehidupan secara wajar tanpa merasa tertekan, kemudian secara kreatif menemukan solusi serta mampu mengatasinya (Depdiknas, 2002: 1-7).
c. Pendidikan kecakapan hidup dalam pendidikan luar sekolah ditekankan pada learning and earning maksudnya bahwa pendidikan luar sekolah menekankan pada proses belajar yang mengarah pada pembentukan pengetahuan dan keterampilan dan kebutuhan masyarakat guna memecahkan permasalahan-permasalahan yang dirasakan dan kebutuhan mendesak masyarakat, juga perkembangan sosial yang terjadi. Sedangkan jenis kecakapan hidup lainya meliputi aspek peoses berpikir dan penyesuain diri juga diperlukan dalam pendidikan luar sekolah, namun pendidikan luar sekolah lebih menekankan pada aspek learning dan earning, belajar sangat butuh proses berpikir dan penyesuian diri sehingga earning pin dapat selaras dengan nilai-nilai dan norma masyarakat maupun agama.
d. Tujuan pendidikan kecakapan hidup dalam pendidikan luar sekolah adalah untuk membentuk masyarakat dan menanggulangi permasalahan pendidikan, sehingga dapat tercapai masyarakat yang memiliki pengetahuan dan keterampilan sebagai bekal hidup dalam keseharian dan dunia kerja, yang akhirnya dapat membentuk suatu masyarakat belajar dan masyarakat yang berpengetahuan.