Research
We explore how adult education can be made inclusive, digital and effective.
Services
Digital tools, specialist portals and data – for teachers, researchers, students and interested parties.
Institute
We offer research, transfer and infrastructure for lifelong learning.
The study Competencies in Later Life (CiLL) provides for the first time representative data regarding the competencies of older people between the age of 66 to 80 years in three different domains: literacy, numeracy, and problem solving in technology-rich environments. It is shown that there are significant differences between people with different qualification, but also between people of different birth cohorts. Despite major qualification differences between men and women, there are no signi…
In PIAAC the assessed basic skill problem solving in technology-rich environments connects two different competences: problem solving and dealing with media. Based on a closer examination of this construct and related concepts the comparison of the terms shows overlaps as well as differences which also come into effect in their operationalization. A comparative analysis of the PIAAC instruments with instruments to assess media literacy, media competence or digital competence illustrates the dif…
The article provides an insight into the first results of the PIAAC study and links it with mixed-method and qualitative-empirical approaches as well as the development of competencies in life course. For this purpose, it shows two studies which focus an individual development approach in contrast to the quantitative assessment approach of PIAAC. The aim is to present advantages and disadvantages of different research perspectives.
The author presents findings of the project »S-Mobil 100«, which is aimed at supporting the mobility of senior citizens with new technologies. In addition, it outlines the learning process of the elderly in handling new technologies.
Mit PIAAC liegen repräsentative Daten zu den Kompetenzen der 16- bis 65-Jährigen vor. Dabei sind die Kompetenzbereiche „Lesekompetenz“, „Mathematische Kompetenz“ sowie „technologiebasiertes Problemlösen“ unabhängig voneinander zu betrachten. In diesem Themenheft sollen einerseits die in PIAAC erhobenen Mediennutzungskompetenzen in die deutsche und internationale Diskussion um Medienkompetenz und media literacy eingebettet werden. Andererseits kann und muss die Problemlösekompetenz Erwachsener a…
This article discusses the question how knowledge may be used for new or alternative learning decisions and in how far the post-modern understanding of “knowledge” is involved in this process. More precisely, it is discussed how organisations and individuals use knowledge as a result of learning in general and with respect to continuing learning decisions and how expectations and evaluations regarding the use of continuing education are placed in cultures of learning. The argument is based on l…
Since Francis Bacon, the concept of knowledge has been related to the question of power. In the beginning, this interrelation was applied to scientific knowledge, nature and its controllability. Since the era of enlightenment this problem has been applied to questions of social power. Marxist theoreticians then exposed the emergence and distributions of and the access to knowledge as related to the class struggle. Finally, it was Foucault who opens up for a new and experimental perspective.
Due to the increasing blur of learning boundaries, the need arises for re-defining the concept of learning space. Based on an understanding of learning space, which refers to the local circumstances within organized education programs, the article initially aspires to include the debate on learning space in the discussion of informal learning, before it then focuses on the relation between time and location and the significance of virtual learning spaces. The article itself does not re-define t…
