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Changing the focus on Natural Sciences At present, public debates postulate more attention to natural sciences in the education sector. First, we will examine the precarious status of natural sciences in adult education and than argue that the traditional focus on natural sciences need to be readjusted. This change of focus aims at a general understanding of scientific developments by which both the individual and the society as a whole will gain and maintain its capacity to judge and act on…
Natural Sciences as a Constitutive Element of Modern Adult Education Imparting natural scientific knowledge to a socially broad audience was already quite common in manifold forms before adult education as such was really constituted in the last third of the 19th century. Some of the questions raised when natural science spread in the 18th and 19th centuries are still or again relevant in the 21st century. This paper tries to demonstrate that notion in a summarized form on the basis of an ex…
Emil Adolph Roßmäßler kann als erster freier Dozent der Erwachsenenbildung gelten. Anfang der 1860er Jahre war er Mitgründer des Leipziger Arbeiterbildungsvereins und ein entschiedener Kritiker Ferdinand Lassalles. Für ihn war die Natur der Schlüssel von Emanzipation. Politisch-kulturell vermisste E. A. Roßmäßler insbesondere einen in der Selbstachtung begründeten Freiheitsbegriff in Deutschland.
Reshaping the Relationship between Natural Sciences and Society – The implicite Learning in Contemporary Society How much does an average citizen need to know in the field of natural sciences in order to cope with the challenges of contemporary society? This question is being asked from various points of view. We will reconstruct current debates related to this question along three different lines: on the European level, within academia, and by means of a concrete case study. By relating the…
Scientific Education This issue combines empirical and conceptual access points to research of an area of education which has been for the most part neglected by continuing education: What role does natural science knowledge play in the context of informal and non-formal learning processes of adults? And what impetus can be derived for the structure and design of teaching-learning arrangements in other areas? This issue provides insight into specific issues, providing a contribution to inter…
In welchem Verhältnis stehen Wissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit? Wie kann dies dialogisch gestaltet werden und welche Bedeutung kommt dabei der Erwachsenenbildung zu? Ulrike Felt hinterfragt kritisch Stellung und Bedeutung wissenschaftlicher Bildung in der Wissensgesellschaft. Es stellt sich die Frage nach den Kompetenzen, die es braucht, um Wissenschaft zu kommunizieren, z.B. von Experten (Peters) und von Journalisten (Göpfert). Im DIE-Gespräch erläutert Hans-Olaf Henkel, Präsident der Leibni…
How to relate Natural Sciences to Adult Education Drawing on an intensive debate on the improvement of scientific literacy going on in Germany for more than ten years, this article deals with possible contributions of adult education. Starting with the marginal supply of science courses for adults, I focus on typical didactical arrangements and concepts. Based on an empirical study, exemplary didactical concepts are analysed regarding aims, topics, course type, and audience. The results are…
Vielfältige Formen der Wissenschaftskommunikation haben sich etabliert – darunter der ›Science Slam‹ als ein Format, welches aktuelle Ansprüche an den Bereich der Wissenschaftskommunikation abbildet. Als Forschungsgegenstand dient es Maria Stimm dazu, zwei bisher eher für sich stehende Bereiche zu verschränken: Wissenschaftskommunikation und Erwachsenenbildung. Die Studie arbeitet die zentrale Bedeutung heraus, die die Begegnung von Wissensstrukturen für die Wissenschaftskommunikation hat, und …
Mathematics, natural science and engineering are not among the most favourite learning objectives of either pupils or adults. While they do enjoy a high esteem, they are also perceived as difficult. The authors discuss why this should be so, and give a summary over participation statistics of Volkshochschulen in the past decades, where courses in mathematics, science or technical matters have been on the decline for some time. Against this background, they present aims and methods of their proj…
