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Weaving the ‘carpet of memories’: a zigzag movement between association and knowledge This article presents a didactical strategy in the form of »zigzag learning« which works on the basis of a constant linkage between free associative learning elements (sporadic learning) with a logically structured content (systematic learning). A »carpet of memory« is woven in this zigzag movement which is propitious for learning efficacy. The strategy is presented using an example from school biology cla…
Learning at the workplace – an “intimate” event The author takes the example of two female employees with a background of migration to show how strongly adults’ motivation to learn and their learning decisions are influenced by personal, deeply private motivations, even when they are pushed into learning by an external influence, as is often the case in companies. The theoretical basis on which the author interprets the case examples in the light of the “intimacy of lifelong learning” is th…
God’s people as a learning community Biblical foundations of lifelong learning The article presents the around 2.500 year-old roots of a concept of lifelong (religious) learning which is being developed in the book Deuteronomium of the Hebrew Bibel. Learning is considered an existential self-realization of God’s people which encompasses not only ethics, but also history and constitutional law. With respect to the history of people’s duty to learn in Judaism, the author evaluates perspective…
The contribution assesses the consequences for adult education emerging from the running GATS negotiation round. Initially the present situation of the regulations are described which apply for the EU since 1994 and which restrict liberalisation to privately financed educational services. Since 2002 the USA and Brazil are demanding further steps to be taken by the EU. The possible consequences are estimated of the discontinuation of – among others – the subventions reserve for special areas of …
Interest and Learning This article presents an overview of the so-called educational-psychological theory of interest and demonstrates its relevance for the processes and results of learning. Following this theoretical approach, interest behaviour can be described as a relation between person and object. It is accompanied by self-determination, positive emotions and a strong personal relation to certain objects or actions. Advantages of interest-motivated learning appear in improving cogniti…
Further education demands with planers and tutors in further education Empirical results of a survey in Berlin and Brandenburg Against the background of an individual, organisational and structural level of normatively formulated professionalization claim, the author of this contribution goes into the question of how pedagogically acting protagonists in institutions of further education estimate their own demand for qualification and further education. For this she reverts to the results of…
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…
"Further education for all" as a theory problem On pedagogy and its partial areas The policy metaphor "further education for all" poses a challenge for further education processes in adult education and the special education. It puts aspects of disability and disadvantage from the edge into the centre of the theory problems. The question is how further education and special education (can) deal with the altered public problem horizon. It is analysed how the two pedagogical partial areas cho…
Organisation psychological profit for adult education using the example of "quality" In this contribution organisation psychological theory concepts and empirical methods are used for the current problem of educational institutions of providing a "quality proof" – in the sense of the implementation of quality management systems -, in order to maintain the continuity of their promotion. Before, the organisational psychology is sketched in its extension level, its methods and its reception beh…
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…
