Research
We explore how adult education can be made inclusive, digital and effective.
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Digital tools, specialist portals and data – for teachers, researchers, students and interested parties.
Institute
We offer research, transfer and infrastructure for lifelong learning.
Thinking in statistical patterns is a core competence of the responsible citizen, who is capable of making informed health decisions. At the same time, a lack of statistical skills as well as non-transparent communication of risks undermines the ideal of an enlightened citizen. Thus, educational programmes are responsible for imparting basic concepts of statistical thinking as well as equipping citizens directly and via mediators to enable informed decisions.
The mature adult who participates voluntarily in free educational programmes is a basic assumption, which equally often supports theories and practices of adult education as it is empirically challenged. Neither supply nor demand is consistently characterized by voluntariness. Up to a certain degree, programmes and participation are mandatory. The assumption that responsible adults do not want to, should not and cannot be taught is also considered to be problematic. The article reveals good rea…
The article outlines the internet development since the 1990s and points out three substantial alterations: 1. »The user becomes the author«, 2. »Private issues become public«, 3. »Everybody is an expert«. On this basis, options and boundaries of adult education on Web 2.0 are assessed.
Within vocational training, small and medium-sized enterprises are confronted with various problems and challenges. Such enterprises began to initiate and organize specific continuation education programs within networks and other forms of cooperation in order to overcome these problems. This article evaluates such business networks on the basis of an empirical qualitative study focusing on the requirements and preconditions for effective cooperations.
Das Buch zeichnet Struktur und Wandel organisierter Weiterbildung seit der wohlfahrtsstaatlichen Bildungsreform der 1970er Jahre nach. Insbesondere geht es um die Wirkungen zentraler Modernisierungsstrategien wie der Institutionalisierung, der Professionalisierung und der Qualitätssicherung der Weiterbildung. Dazu wurde ein regionales Panel von Weiterbildungsanbietern mit Hilfe von Programmanalysen über einen Zeitraum von drei Jahrzehnten erfasst. Eine solche längsschnittliche Vollerhebung erla…
The authors take the model of reproduction contexts, which has been developed by Josef Schrader in order to systematize the adult education sector, as a point of departure to discuss the possibilities of its empirical transfer. Based on the re-analysis of structural data of adult education institutions the problems of transfer of a theoretically developed model are explored. They conclude by outlining impulses for further discussions.
As a priority of education policy Lifelong Learning implies flexible individual learning pathways in different settings. Within the demographic change and the demand of higher skills higher education qualifications become increasingly important to reach employment, why higher education institutions need to open up against new target groups. This article focuses on further education offered by higher education institutions and intends to give a picture of the current demand and supply. Empirical…
Mit RUHR.2010 stellt Deutschland dieses Jahr die Kulturhauptstadt Europas. In diesem Ereignis gipfelt die über die letzten Jahre wachsende Popularität von Museen und Kulturveranstaltungen. Aber Kultur ist mehr als Kulturbetrieb. Unsere Gesellschaft produziert unter den Einflüssen der Digitalisierung, Individualisierung, Migration und Globalisierung stets neue kulturelle Codes. Beide Phänomene stellen Anforderungen an die Erwachsenenbildung. Unser Land braucht eine kulturell sensible Erwachsenen…
The following report offers an insight on the theoretical and empirical issue of cultural adult education. It is understood as an institution for the refinement of the aesthetic senses which, according to Welsch, can easily become anesthetic – a situation of suspended sensitivity. A second empirical approach presents the current provisions systematized by three “Portals of Participation“. Cultural educational provisions may be attributed to the “systematic-receptive type“, the “independent-crea…
This article presents the findings of a research project on structure and change in continuing education in Bremen, set out as a longitudinal analysis of selected years between 1979 and 2006. At the level of the continuing education system as a whole, the author identifies a certain structural stability evident from the fact that despite a growth in the number of market-oriented providers from 1996 to 2006, their competition – providers under public law – retained its structural influence on th…
