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.
System reflexive evaluation of networks and network programmes A methodological perspective To contextualise and substantiate evaluation is a claim which the evaluation of the programme „Learning Regions – Providing Support for Networks” of the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) formulates. But which basic approaches and proceedings are suitable to consolidate the item `networks` with suitable theoretical complexity and methodologically reflective evaluation? In this contr…
Publically funded adult education has rarely contributed to the increase of educational equality. Often enough, it has been beneficial to those who had already enjoyed their share of education and employment. The author reflects on the German post-war history of continuing education and identifies several cycles of financial distribution. The initial focus of adult education was on educationally ambitious citizens. Based on a socio-political motivation, the learning of employees became increasi…
A variety of investigations are concerned with examining competencies of professionals in fields of adult education, neglecting the question what characterizes the activities they perform in order to organize learning situations. By analyzing an opening sequence of two different adult education lessons, the author shows, how microethnographic approaches of analyzing videotaped face-to-face interaction offer new insights in how participants ordinarily deal with challenges of establishing and sus…
The National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) reflects upon adult learning from the perspective of a life profile. The article describes the system and methodological approach of the NEPS with a special focus on the group of adults. The education and employment history as well as the consequent competence development of the adult working age population is analyzed. Overall, 60,000 people are surveyed in the NEPS including more than 11,000 adults. First data is already available to the expert publ…
The German Society for Promotion of Research at Old Age (Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Forschung im Alter – DGFFA) wants to give an impulse for the intensification of the discussion on those aspects of the demographic change, to which the universities/colleges would need to devote themselves to in due time, if they strive to consolidate their future viability in a society of lifelong learning. The presented suggestions in this contribution are components of a position paper that a wor…
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…
Dieses Lehrbuch bietet einen Überblick über den Diskussions- und Forschungsstand zu den Institutionen der Weiterbildung. Weiterbildung ist ein Teil des Bildungswesens. Da sie aber zugleich auf vielfältige Weise mit der Gesellschaft verknüpft ist, lässt sie sich im Vergleich zu den anderen Bereichen des Bildungssystems nur unscharf institutionell abgrenzen. Um diese institutionelle Differenziertheit der Weiterbildung zu erschließen, werden sozialwissenschaftliche Konzepte aufgegriffen. Auf diese…
Die Wissensbausteine decken die in der Erwachsenen- und Weiterbildung zentralen Themen- und Begriffsfelder ab und bieten in ihrer Gesamtheit einen Überblick über das jeweilige Handlungsfeld. Sie vermitteln wissenschaftlich fundiertes und praxisrelevantes Grundlagen- und Handlungswissen, das die Bedarfe der Nutzerinnen und Nutzer im Hinblick auf ihr pädagogisches Handeln berücksichtigt. Sie richten sich an Lehrkräfte in der Erwachsenen- und Weiterbildung, die frei-, neben- oder hauptberuflich tä…
Im Mai 2025 wurde Karin Prien (CDU ) zur Bundesministerin für das neu gegründete Ministerium für Bildung, Forschung, Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend ernannt. Erstmals vereint ein Bundesministerium alle Bildungsetappen von der frühen Kindheit bis ins Alter und ermöglicht so eine durchgängige Perspektive auf lebenslanges Lernen. Über ihre Pläne und deren Bedeutung für die Erwachsenen- und Weiterbildung sprachen mit ihr die Herausgeber Prof. Dr. Josef Schrader und Dr. Peter Brandt.
This article, which emanates from the KLASSIC project funded by the Federal German Ministry for Education and Research, explores whether the conveyance of metacognitive techniques effectively boost confidence in one’s own learning effort, thus helping escape the vicious cycle of expectations of failure and failure itself (in this case: older adults in everyday settings void of problems). The empirical study shows that tools such as self-surveys, paired problem-solving, learning diaries or portf…
