UNDERSTANDING AND APPLYING THE CONTENTS OF LIFELONG LEARNING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Lifelong learning for sustainable development is one of the priorities of the knowledge society. To obtain the best possible view of lifelong learning for sustainable development in our education system and in the vertical education structure, we conducted a survey of respondents involved in education at different levels - university professors, class teachers, preschool teachers (educators), students of teacher education and preschool education studies. The main goal of this work was to establish to what extent the respondents understand and apply the contents of lifelong learning for sustainable development. The largest number of respondents in all the groups consider that sustainable development improves the quality of life of the current and future generations. The results of the research established that different groups of respondents apply sustainable development contents differently in their educational work. Preschool teachers are best informed about the contents of lifelong education for sustainable development and have the most experience in implementing it. Most teachers fully understand what is expected of them in the area of sustainable development, while only a third of the university professors declared this. The recommendation is, that changes must begin precisely from the higher education system, because all the outputs of this system have an indirect impact on the inputs of other parts of the education system.