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Learner-oriented quality certification in continuing education (LQW) includes the requirement for education providers introducing this quality development system to speak about their values in their mission statements. Consciously engaging with these explicit values can contribute to reflexive quality development. The article looks at the mission statements of LQW users in terms of the values that are mentioned in an effort to determine whether a shared set of values can be found among adult an…
Over the past years, the term »adult« has been exposed to signs of disintegration – in this context, the author critically reflects upon the disciplinary view of adult education on adults, which held on too tightly to concepts of autonomy following the physical characteristics of adulthood. The scientific adult educational debate was disconnected from the goals of maturing the human soul. Within a psychologically broadened and deepened view, »grown up« may imply »grown over«, which requires not…
This article starts from the premise that an academic discipline directed at practice has to question, within which terms its research results become useful beyond science. For empirical research, the authors put forward the idea of use-inspired basic research. This approach might be a helpful orientation due to (further) educational science’s double challenge to simultaneously prove academic productivity and practical as well as societal usefulness. By reference to points of decision regularly…
Educational institutes have always been seen as needing to cooperate: this idea first took shape in education acts and is now increasingly being applied to lifelong learning. In practice, however, there are many arguments against cooperation at institutes of continuing education, not least as it can create unwanted situations of rivalry among the cooperating institutes. To develop models which will help guide schools on issues of cooperation better, further research is required: What advantage…
The aim of the paper is to give an overview of key issues involved in recognising non-formal and informal learning, ranging from the legitimacy of the learning activities in terms of the outcomes to be recognised, through the cost of the necessary assessment, and essential elements such as quality assurance, the standards used, the potential benefits and the real obstacles. The findings summarised here are based on a report that describes and analyses practices in the 22 countries that particip…
Due to special legal status, differences in social structure, and fewer chances on the labor market, people with migration background are less successful in initial schooling and vocational training programs. They are also under-represented in the area of adult education. The role of continuing education counseling, therefore, is to inform immigrants interested in education of the many individual educational opportunities that are available, to purposefully remove educational barriers, and to p…
In PIAAC the assessed basic skill problem solving in technology-rich environments connects two different competences: problem solving and dealing with media. Based on a closer examination of this construct and related concepts the comparison of the terms shows overlaps as well as differences which also come into effect in their operationalization. A comparative analysis of the PIAAC instruments with instruments to assess media literacy, media competence or digital competence illustrates the dif…
The International PIAAC study has collected data on competencies of adults in three domains in 25 countries, in many of them for the first time ever. The article provides an overview of central terms, main aims and the methodological approach of this OECD study. It also discusses its potentials and limitations. One limitation is the focus on the labour force, excluding adults older than 65 years, a fast growing part of many populations in times of demographic change. To remedy this limitation,…
This report from England is part of a research project entitled Literacy/Basic Education – State of the Art from a historical and systematic Perspective in terms of Transferability. It focuses on the way adult (il)literacy has been approached, dealt with, discussed and analysed both politically and scientifically in England. It provides a historical overview on government strategy papers and outlines central ideas in theoretical discussions regarding literacy and literacy practices. However, in…
Education or competence – a pseudo alternative? It is a platitude that the structural change of society also leads to structural problems of further education. Therefore this is discusses intensively for some time past and the practical transpositions are gross. The impression of the authors is that it is argued, latently or explicitly, dichothomic even though that in fact is not necessary. In this contribution the authors want to expand on two such contradiction theorems with the intention …
