Challenges of Creating Educational Interactions in the Context of Learning in Practice

This publication presents Productive learning as an innovation of the Lithuanian education. Productive learning offers young people opportunities to study both at school and in real-life environments, i.e. at practice placement. It enables young people to attain basic education and develop learning competencies, to make a better-informed decision about further studies, especially about the choice of profession, and to find a different route to success. Learning through productive activity is best described with the help of the learning triangle of productive learning where theory and culture as a tool, active learners and practice in real-life situations come together. Based on the concept and methodology of productive learning, basic school students of grades 9 and 10 spend part of their time (around 20 hours per week) studying at school, and the rest of the time (around 12 hours) is devoted to learning outside the school environment or rather at practice placement, which can be public institutions, private companies, non-governmental organisations, farms, etc. Productive learning as introduced in Lithuania is based on vast international experience of the USA (City-as-School), Germany, Finland, the Netherlands and a number of other countries in the world. On the basis of the Grounded methodology the process of building-up of educational interaction has been revealed. The phenomena Confrontation with reality in education have helped to highlight complex chalenges in the process of building – up of educational interaction.