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.
Vocational continuing education is becoming more significant in modern employment biographies. A growing range of work-based study programmes and the recent opening tendency for persons holding vocational qualifications attracts attention to universities as providers of continuing education. Still, academic formats play a comparatively small role in the market of continuing education. The report explores the reasons for the low acceptance of academic continuing education. For this purpose, 72 p…
Transnationalisation processes of enterprises lead to extended needs of qualification and knowledge. There are no corresponding concepts and learning culture designs. Knowledge as a category and as a realistic interpretation of demands is not well enough developed as part of these arrangements. Entrepreneurial interests hide learning needs, this becomes obvious in findings of working cooperation analysis in contexts of cultural diversity. This article explains one part of an analytical access t…
The contribution introduces experience orientated learning places such as museums, science centers, zoos, theme parks, but also Brandlands and Urban Entertainment Centers. These learning places complement formal learning and offer room for self-controlled and strong emotionally established learning. Requirements for such hybrid basic approaches are formulated by education and entertainment. These assessments rest upon the results of a research project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education…
»Die Gefahr ist, dass die Wirkung der Piaac-Studie verpufft, weil sie zu viele Adressaten hat und sich jeder hinter dem anderen verstecken kann. Wie schlau die Deutschen wirklich sind, wird sich daran zeigen, ob sie dieser Versuchung widerstehen.« So schrieb DIE ZEIT am 10. Oktober 2013. Die Ergebnisse der beiden Studien PIAAC und CiLL bilden eine wesentliche Grundlage für bildungspolitische Entscheidungen im Weiterbildungssektor. Wie wird dies von Wissenschaft und Praxis wahrgenommen? Welche…
In recent years, “popular education” has become a highly relevant topic in the international debate. At the same time, research efforts on this subject matter have been increasing. The concept of “popular education” is understood as different from or marginalized by dominant discourses and institutions. This issue of REPORT will raise awareness for both the historical origins and the current discussions of popular education in adult education. The articles collected will evaluate if such concep…
This article presents the results of a recent online survey of graduates of the Austrian Academy of Continuing Education. Methodically, the survey’s results on benefit items are interpreted and answers to open questions are analyzed by qualitative content analyses. Empirical findings are subject to an interpretation using concepts of professionalization and the political agenda of validation of informal and non-formal learning. An important finding is, that WBA enhances individual professionali…
Positive learning experiences in childhood, adolescence, as well as during employment have a favourable effect on learning in old age. From a gerontological perspective, the significance of school education and of professional qualifications attained later in life for educational behaviour in the post-employment phase can be explained with the continuity theory. To evaluate the relevance of one’s educational biography, a representative survey was conducted. 500 individuals at the age from 50 to…
Foundation of a family as a predetermined breaking point? On the interaction of parenthood and participation in adult education and continuing education Within the context of an empirical longitudinal research project, the processes and turning points of the continuing education practise are documented and discussed in a gender-typical context of life. The survey proves the gender-typical change of the (continuing) education behaviour of men and women when they become fathers and mothers: The …
Die gerechte Gestaltung des Bildungssystems wird von Politikern, allen voran Bildungsministerin Schavan, immer wieder als zentrale Herausforderung der Gegenwart verstanden. In diesem Zusammenhang hat das BMBF jüngst gemeldet, dass die öffentlichen Bildungsausgaben 2010 erstmals die 100 Milliarden Euro überstiegen haben. Es ist nur eine der Fragen dieses Heftes, ob die öffentlichen Ausgaben für Weiterbildung mehr Gerechtigkeit schaffen. Wir fragen grundsätzlicher, was Bildungsgerechtigkeit überh…
The relation between sustainability and widening access to adult learners in higher education is both well comprehensible and highly vague. Accordingly, and following the arguments of Seghezzo (2009) and Foster (2001), the paper aims to complement academic discourse on widening access of higher education by showing the benefit of using the concept of sustainability not merely as an operational measurement index or a learning topic content-wise. Rather, a different understanding of sustainabilit…