Publications by DIE staff
The publication list brings together monographs, contributions to edited volumes, journal articles, and web documents from 2016 to 2025 and is updated annually.
Research
How do adults learn and what conditions promote successful continuing education? The DIE conducts research into learning processes, educational provision, teachers, institutions and systems of continuing education. The aim is to support academia, practice and policy with well-founded findings.
How we conduct our research and work
Adult learning is at the heart of our research. From this core, we analyse all areas of continuing education:
- adult learning processes,
- continuing education provision and programmes,
- the work of teachers,
- the organisation of continuing education institutions and
- continuing education systems in Germany and the rest of Europe.
The DIE is responsible for conducting research and development in educational science and pedagogy, focusing on lifelong learning topics of overarching and societal significance. The fundamental question guiding this inquiry is 'How are adult education and learning made possible?' We investigate which institutional, organisational and personnel-related conditions support adult learning and education and address the following research questions, among others:
- Who are the teachers and how do teaching and learning succeed in adult education?
- How can suitable continuing education programmes be designed?
- How should educational institutions be organised to ensure successful learning?
- What are the characteristics of the continuing education systems in Germany and the rest of Europe?
The DIE is active in an area of growing socio-political significance with the aim of helping society address challenges arising from, for example, demographic change, immigration or the digitalisation of the worlds of work, life and education. For a considerable number of years, a primary area of focus has been the professionalisation and skills development of teachers and trainers.
The organisation carries out applied basic research, seeking to anticipate practical problems in continuing education and to put potential solutions up for discussion. The organisation provides researchers with a range of services, research data and findings as a basis for their research projects.
The DIE target groups are the academic community (university lecturers), educational practitioners (teachers and trainers, course leaders, management and planning staff in continuing education and consultants) and the political and administrative sectors (educational policy-makers from the European level down to district and local authorities). The organisation's knowledge transfer services and research infrastructures are tailored to these groups.
