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We explore how adult education can be made inclusive, digital and effective.
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Teachers’ knowledge about teaching methods is an important facet of adult education teachers’ pedagogical/psychological knowledge (PPK). The authors examine whether and how this knowledge is correlated with the educational background and the teaching experience of N?=?212 adult education teachers. The results point to a positive correlation between the amount of further training concerning the topic teaching and learning and the knowledge about teaching methods. Moreover, teachers with a focal …
The question how to improve the short-term as well as the long-term success of continuing vocational education and training (CVET) is of great importance for companies. Currently, however, evaluations in practice are still often only of a summative nature. Based on a practically applicable model and empirical data from participants in a wide range of CVET courses (N?=?477), this paper presents various factors organisations can use to affect the subjective success of CVET, both in the “learning …
Further training (FT) is an important element of the modern knowledge economy. Based on expert interviews from four case-study regions, the paper analyses the relevance of markets, hierarchies, and networks as coordination mechanisms in FT, the strategies of providers, and the resulting performance of local FT service systems. We find increasing modularisation and digitalisation of FT services, which enables FT provision in less attractive markets but does not contribute to the value coproducti…
This article aims at analyzing the consequences of using educational monitoring data for adult education research. Refering to the Statistics on German “Volkshochschulen” (Adult Education Centers) the advantages and challenges that the usage of educational monitoring data brings for research purposes are shown. This is made explicit by focussing on the research project “Governance structures and educational performance profiles in adult education organizations” (GLOW) and discussing the empiric…
Learning a language is an indispensable prerequisite for participating in both public and working life. Adult education, also in Germany, is currently facing a great challenge in the area of language teaching: In addition to language teaching for migrants and refugees, a key problem is the alphabetization of German and non-German speaking functional illiterates. This paper looks at the conditions for successful language learning by the adults here in focus in organized teaching and learning set…
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-…
The paper raises the question of how inclusion, in the sense of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, is operationalized in institutional learning settings for adults. It presents findings of a qualitative pilot study. Based on a relational theory of space, the findings elicit a conceptual model of the architecture of inclusion at public places of learning for adults. The model illuminates the way social space is constituted in and by the actions of professionals, and th…
The so-called Q-sorting operation is an unknown research method, hardly known as a pedagogically-oriented research method, typically used to compile complex responses and attitudes from a subjective perspective. The following article examines the question whether the Q-sorting methodology might also be implemented as a practical collection instrument to evaluate teacher beliefs in the context of professional development for educators. In particular, it will be examined whether an index formatio…
