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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…
The author looks at two forms of learning in virtual environments: learning with hypermedia and learning by confrontation with virtual objects and „persons“ (simulations). For hypermedia, research has found a rather wide discrepancy between media-specific learning potential and actual outcome, which, especially for beginners, tends to be rather small. - Many empirical studies on learning in simulated reality have shown that simulations can indeed be conducive to learning, but that this is not a…
“Reflections on Self-Education” is dedicated to Rolf Arnold on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Like hardly any other representative in the field of continuing educational science, over the past decades Rolf Arnold has provided impulses for the reflection on adult teaching and learning e.g. based on his contributions to constructivist education, interpretive paradigms as well as empowerment didactics. His approach has developed continuously and is now regarded as systemic-constructivist educa…
Methodogical deliberations on network analyses The network analysis as an empirical examination method for gathering social relationships is presently gaining increasing dissemination in different branches of study and fields. In the contribution network analysis basic approaches are the framework for reference and analysis for research works in the field of adult education are illuminated. In doing so a special focus is placed on the development of adequate examination concepts. Concluding …
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…
Taking demographical development as a starting point, Turek identifies functions of political education. It should help to avoid the »clash of generations «. Demographical change, however, is only one of several trends: the change from modern industrial society towards a transnational technological society calls for a new »contract across generations«. Political education initialises a future-oriented selfremodelling of society and thus becomes an investment into its human resource…
The field of education policy, in particular adult education policy, is gaining importance in recent international-comparative research on education and adult education. In comparative politics, education policy is also a young but increasingly established issue. The close connection of education policy to the discipline of comparative politics, as well as theories used in that discipline, provide a well-founded research approach on education policy, which should be considered by international-…
Justice and justice competence: Discourse and practice for a critical political education Most societies accept justice and social justice as principles. Their inherent norms and values are dependant on the historical context as well as on political and individual concepts, and are thus negotiable. Within the context of a European Grundtvig-Project, "Political Participation through Social Competence: Curricular Development for Courses on Democratic Citizenship" the article discusses the idea…
Adult educators often have to work with a small budget; at the same time, they are committed to educational ideals. By examining the mission statements of German adult education centres (Volkshochschulen), the article shows how this tension between the ‘guiding institutions’ of education and cost-efficiency is reflected in the values of these education providers. The analysis shows that while adult education centres do refer to ‘education’ in their mission statements, they also mention, each in…
