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Implementing network type structures has become a widely appreciated strategy to promote actor-relationships in the field of adult and community education and to coordinate them purposefully. However, there is still a lack of knowledge on how a “successful” coordination of actor-relationships can be practically achieved. This paper offers some clues to answering the question by outlining basic characteristics of social networks and then giving reference to a recent case study from Germany.
Holzapfel, Günther: More self-consciousness for pedagogy! A reply to REPORT 3/2003 titled "Brain and Learning" Referring to REPORT 3/2003 with its main theme "Brain and Learning" the author criticizes tendences in pedagogy which consider some results of neuro-sciences as confirmation for a naturalistic and biologistic trend. He pleads for emphasizing those aspects of neuro-sciences which are confirmations against obsolete concepts of learning and education as an accumulation of knowledge wi…
279 participants in a survey on elearning applications for foreign language learning in Volkshochschulen (German adult education schools) had little prior knowledge. While they do indeed have interest in such applications, they still keep to formats known from their previous learning experience. The participants in the survey estimate the potential of e-learning applications for foreign language learning as positive, but only in combination with traditional non-virtual classes. The…
The increasing functional illiteratism among young adults is the background for the project „Gilgamesch“ – a cooperation of the university and the adult education centre in Munich. The learners are organized in small groups, the emphasis of the courses is on verbal improvement, cognitive ordering and handling of knowledge and on the development of individual strategies to overcome writing problems. The project’s theoretical and practical results will be transmitted to various institutions deali…
Zum Einsatz Neuer Medien in der Weiterbildung liegen inzwischen empirische Erfahrungen vor, die hier gebündelt werden. Die Lage präsentiert sich differenzierter und diffiziler als noch vor wenigen Jahren angenommen.
Further training (FT) is an important element of the modern knowledge economy. Based on expert interviews from four case-study regions, the paper analyses the relevance of markets, hierarchies, and networks as coordination mechanisms in FT, the strategies of providers, and the resulting performance of local FT service systems. We find increasing modularisation and digitalisation of FT services, which enables FT provision in less attractive markets but does not contribute to the value coproducti…
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…
The report examines the transferability of Howard Gardner’s approach »Five Minds for the Future« to the field of continuing education. Along the »Five Minds«, he points out their significance as a plea for holistic education. Thus, future-oriented education does not impart a definite canon of knowledge but a positive preservation of learning. This pretence is transferable to continuing educational institutions which already include various holistic topics and forms of learning in their programm…
This article describes the attempt to reveal the most suitable methods of learning for learners of the German language without previous knowledge of the Latin alphabet (Literacy DaZ Courses). Seven different methods of learning are compared in four different courses so that each syllabus will be mediated in one course with method A and in another with method B and so on. The method of teaching/learning will be switched with each new syllabus. The article focuses on the critical description of t…
In Germany numerous instruments exist for the documentation of individual activities of lifelong learning in formal, non-formal and informal educational contexts. Under the heading of »education passport« alone there are 48 different activities. A systematical and comprehensive approach to the recording, documentation and evaluation of knowledge, skills and competences is lacking up to now. The authors of the DIE project BIBER plumb the chances for a convergence process, which however faces pro…
