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Biographical Orientations for Older People in Adult Education In times of demographic changes and an increasing flexibility of biographies, adult education is in need of adjusting its repertoire. General and highly standardized programmes alone do no longer fit the heterogeneity of its target groups. The article is based on two empirical studies – one focuses on individual management of work path, the other shows the importance of structuring time and activities to elder people. With these, …
In the face of accelerated structural change (“transformation society“) in-company further education can no longer just rely on familiar forms of learning and teaching. It must evolve into a form of guidance for personal development, by which managers are directed towards continuous introspection (“culture of reflection”). The author shows that such phenomena can be empirically shown to exist at this moment in time, and outlines in which way they can be seen as pedagogical communication, by way…
Matthias Pfüller outlines the historical development of central and peripheral regions in the former GDR and former West Germany. Both qualities are found to be relatively persistent. Still, there have been successful attempts at bringing centre and periphery closer together, such as the FRG „educational offensive“ in the 1960s and similar efforts in the GDR. Since the 1990s, however, Germany’s inner dissimilarities have not been further reduced, but are rather on the increase. The author dou…
The current paper deals with cooperation under the perspective of governance from an organizational view. According to the variety forms of cooperation in the field of adult education, cooperation can be seen as a medium that adult educational organizations can use for their reproduction and coordination in different institutional environment. Based on empirical findings from a case study it can be shown that organizations initiate cooperation for collecting resources and legitimation. In this …
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,…
Biographical Learning as a Contribution to the Professionalization in Adult Education at University Level Biographical learning as a subject matter in the course of studies is a method to reflect upon and change individual learning strategies. One can describe such strategies both as an unconscious as well conscious reflection of biographies that strive for development. On the one hand, this is aiming at reflecting previous learning processes; on the other hand, this shall serve to develop a…
Didactics – more than the art of teaching? The contribution gives an overview of the historical terms of didactics. With the background of changing paradigms, drawn is the entry of the didactical term into adult education and its development since the 1960s. One focus of the consideration is on the didactical change from “teaching“ to “formation of learning contexts”, which was influenced by the discussion on constructivism. Concluding, the author elaborates on the state of research on didac…
In view of the demographic change the investments in education for elderly population are becoming increasingly more important. At the same time the educational system’s endeavours of repair are rather targeted at the very young. How can the educational investments be divided usefully between the old and the young? By showing examples of Scandinavian countries, the author elucidates a double strategy of high educational investments for the phase of youth and in adult life. The countries have su…
The author describes the emergence of the „virtual organisation“ concept as a tendency towards customization of products on the one hand and the development of a suitable technological basis on the other hand. Networking is discussed as a necessary but not sufficient prerequisite. First and foremost, the process of virtualisation requires changes in the organisational structure of companies that may go as far as a redefinition of the relationship between employees who, if forced into a role of …
Virtuality is not the essence of computer-based learning environments: any learning environment contains elements of virtuality in so far as it concerns itself with representations of reality. Even though the difference between computer-based and traditional settings in this respect is one of degree rather than of substance, conditions at the extreme end of the virtuality scale call for a change in learning arrangements. The authors explore the consequences for learners – self-direction, critic…
