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Intergenerational learning can be considered as a chance for institutions of adult education. Besides explicitly planned courses for different generations, intergenerational learning opportunities also take place incidentally in the educational work in seminars and courses, when the participants belong to different age groups. In both cases, the question arises how to arrange those courses didactically in order to support intergenerational learning processes. Based on systematic considerations …
Based on considerations of the signaling theory and the reputation approach this study examines whether a relationship between employer-provided continuing vocational training and the success of establishments to recruit external qualified staff, can be demonstrated. The empirical analysis is based on a survey of establishments in Germany carried out in 2011. The results of a multivariate analysis show that establishments with continuing vocational training are more successful in recruiting qua…
First results from the PIAAC survey, which was conducted in 25 countries, will be published in October 2013 by OECD. PIAAC collected information about adult competencies through representative data from a background questionnaire and from assessments of three competence domains. In Germany exists an additional study called "Competencies in Later Life" (CiLL), which is designed for people (aged) between 66 and 80 years. This article presents the context of the study, the process of data collecti…
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…
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…
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.
The following article focuses on the debate on organizational learning from an adult-educational point of view. In most approaches to organizational learning the members of an organization are regarded as the main drivers of organizational learning processes. However, such approaches do not systematically incorporate important presumptions of learning-theory, although this promises to create a better understanding of adult-educational experiences within organizations. Hence, the article present…
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…
