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The author starts out from a review of the relationship between language didactics and other fields of research giving inspiration to it (learning psychology, linguistics, second language acquisition research, anthropology), exploring whether constructivism might be one of these fields. He criticizes that in order to explain constructivist perspectives on learning, constructivists tend to use „instructionalism“ as a background against which to position their own ideas, „instructionalism“, howev…
10% of German adults are estimated 1995 by OECD to be on a very low level of literacy, about 30% are on a low level. The author explores definitions and dimension of basic education. Restrictions exist for discussion in the lack of University research and the fact that illiterates form a part of the population described to be on a low level of literacy. But basic education is the prerequisite for independent, self-organized learning and the basis of general education. Therefore concepts to inte…
Was leisten virtuelle Welten für das Lehren/Lernen? Chancen und Grenzen virtueller Bildung und Vorausschau auf mögliche zukünftige Entwicklungen für die Erwachsenenbildung sind die Themen dieses Heftes. Der Medienphilosoph Sandbothe erläutert im DIE-Gespräch das zukünftige Verhältnis von virtuellen und realen Welten. Daran schließen sich Fragen an wie: Wozu ist Virtualität gut (Thiedecke)? Was sind die Ergebnisse lernpsychologischer Forschung hinsichtlich virtueller Lernumgebungen (Reimann) und…
The dissertation analyses the contribution of a social space research perspective to the understanding of (non-)participation of groups of less well-educated individuals in organized further education. Both, the theoretical as well as the methodological framing are defined by a social space perspective. In a substudy of the project “Learning in Social Quarters – Significance of Social Space for Further Education”, at the German Institute for Adult Education – Leibniz Center for Lifelong Learnin…
The German Adult Education Centres (VHS) consider themselves as further learning institutions for all whose aim it is to address the population at large. However, the data basis on the extent to which socially disadvantaged groups are reached is restricted. The present contribution investigates to which extent persons with a low level of school education are represented among the participants of the Adult Education Centres in Berlin. The investigation is linked to previous results of the resear…
Learning along biographical and career changes Based on a biographical sample from adult education centres (VHS), this article discusses the concept of research on learning environments. The factors for success will be evaluated together with reflections on how to prepare for an executive position in such institutions. This will allow for extracting conditions for learning in certain biographical settings. The challenge for learning is seen as a result of the individual’s changing reception…
Sites and trajectories of learning disconnected from schooling and traditional training are discussed against the background of a new scientification of work related to the shift towards an information technological mode of production. This scientification is rooted in a new relation of theory and practice at work. Accordingly, workers play a new strategic role in work processes: they have to optimize procedures, define and search for reasonable objectives, reflect on methods and strategies of …
Like a fabric made of different threads, adult education waives multiple places and reveals different paces whose influences may be complementary, contradictory and antagonistic with each other. The spaces and times that shape people’s life are rarely static or constant. They evolve and fluctuate. Every day, throughout their existence, people have to learn to adjust, coordinate and move through material, natural, social and symbolic environments that keep evolving. The aim of this paper is to e…
Following Piaget and recent research on psychodynamics, the author establishes theses on distinctively suitable adult learning. She recapitulates essential theses from her book »Zur Konstruktion des Erwachsenen« (On the Structure of Adults) and refines them with regard to autonomy as a learning incentive. The author believes that learning processes, which are characteristic for adults, occur mainly when old structures are overcome and learning procedures are modified. The learning incentive is…
