Research
We explore how adult education can be made inclusive, digital and effective.
Services
Digital tools, specialist portals and data – for teachers, researchers, students and interested parties.
Institute
We offer research, transfer and infrastructure for lifelong learning.
Temporalized “Bildungsgestalten” (educational formations) – The formation of the subject in the context of Lifelong Learning The article outlines the reference framework of an ongoing DFG-financed research project. Based on theoretical assumptions which rest upon German Bildungstheorie the project analyses Lifelong Learning as a special mode of the formation of subjects. The projects’ core research concept, which brings into focus the importance of education for the formation of the subjec…
In consideration of the omnipresent commitment to the significance of lifelong learning, the article analyses the role of continuing education within public education funding. Over the past 20 years, public continuing education funding has been reduced by 41 %. The low participation rate in continuing education, particularly among the less qualified and atypically employed, encourage an increase in public investments. Funds should enhance staff counselling, qualification and professionalism as …
Japan’s population is aging and shrinking at unprecedented speed. One central issue that emerges in the ongoing discourse on how to meet the manifold demographic challenges Japan faces deals with the central role the nation’s senior citizens can take on when it comes to providing and fostering social capital. The concept of lifelong learning in this context has been established as a central means of being engaged in actively shaping the future of Japan.
Gieseke, Wiltrud; Robak, Steffi: Programme planning and management from the perspective of educational research Empirical results and conceptional changes The text reflects the correlations between new learning cultures and organistional structures with a view on appropriate institutional concepts. As a result of the reflections the authors declare themselves in favour of a change of educational theories by taking the concept of education as a basis for conceptional and organisational devel…
Research on humans and animals gives evidence for the fact that older beings learn more slowly than younger ones, yet for this very reason they are able to build up internal representations of the true values to be learned in an increasingly more precise manner. Through frequent repetition general structures of experiences are learned. Thus, a decreasing rate of learning that comes with old age is just one side of the coin.
Online communities have been praised as utopian realms of free, equal and unrestricted communication by some; others have condemned them as anti-social pseudo-communities. Both attitudes, however, focus on the technical framework and do not take the actual quality of the interaction into account. The author describes types of interaction in virtual communities in general, then looks at four types of communities dedicated specifically to learning, and explores their potential.
Rassismus ist als gesellschaftliches Phänomen und Problem wieder verstärkt in den Blick geraten. Auch in der Erwachsenen- und Weiterbildung kann und sollte genauer hingeschaut werden – zum einen, ob und wie sie selbst von Rassismus und rassistischen Strukturen betroffen ist; zum anderen, wie sie helfen kann, eine fundierte Haltung gegen Rassismus und Ausgrenzung zu entwickeln. Darüber sprach Redakteur Jan Rohwerder mit Prof. Dr. Alisha M.B. Heinemann, Professorin für Bildungsverläufe und Divers…
The author covers definitions and dissemination of »Open Educational Resources (OER)« marked by Web 2.0, particularly issues of copyright and licensing law as well as the problems of financing free material. At the same time, the potential adult education surplus value of OER is pointed out and the prerequisites of high-quality learning and teaching processes are discussed. The article concludes with an agenda for teachers aimed at the sustainability of the OER.
This article describes the “Dorfbildungstage” ("Village Education Days” as a specific instructional format widely used in the valleys of the autonomous Italian province of South Tyrol. The format's regional importance comes from the fact that it integrates an inter-ethnic factor. In these largely rural communities, where differences between ethnic groups are always in the foreground, the village education days form a culture whereby German and Italian ethnic groups shape village learning togeth…