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Learning from other countries? International perspectives on participation in continuing education at schools of higher learning This article adopts an international comparative perspective to identify the conditions favouring or impeding participation in university continuing education and seeks to answer the question of what we can learn from other countries. To this end, data selected from seven countries through secondary statistical analyses is presented and systematically compared to t…
This article discusses the Federal German “Orientation course“ and different prototypes for “naturalisation tests“ in the German Länder in the context of comparative integration policy. Integration courses and naturalisation tests have at the same time become a policy tool for promoting integration in a targeted manner in various countries which attract immigration. Following a presentation of the context and the presentation of instruction material in the orientation courses, the authors inter…
Subjective learning substantiations for the study of pedagogy with the field of study of andragogy Insights into a qualitative study Why do people decide for a pedagogical/andragogical study? Which ideas, desires, expectations or also fears do they connect with the choice of this learning- and education path? The learning substantiations for the pedagogical study are the first step towards a path to profession and professionalization. This is why in a regional, qualitative study at the ch…
The results from the PISA study and the future of adult education The results of the PISA study have made it clear how urgent the individual as well as the society as a whole depends on a secure system for after school learning and a secure system for lifelong learning. In the contribution perspectives of the development of the qualification demand on behalf of the employment system are scetched with a view to globalization tendencies. In front of this background it is necessary to filter th…
Eero Pantzar presents the outlines of the development of adult education in Finland from the early beginning in the 19th century up to today. Popular education was seen as one of the necessary preconditions for the growth of general welfare, economic development and the individual’s personal growth. The first decades of the nation’s independence (1917 -) saw a strong boom in liberal adult education. This was most clearly indicated by the growing number of institutions and organisations providin…
This paper brings into focus the discourse on competences and reviews critically the potential of large-scale assessments. The measurement of competences in adulthood is a step towards a deeper understanding of the development of competences during the life course, although only domain specific and not general competences are taken into consideration. Based on the current research, the debate on competences will be reflected and the central points in the field of modeling the constructs of skil…
This paper deals with a new approach in the promotion of literacy, which focuses on social integration. This approach has been inspired by a concept of adult education aiming at integration and by social work oriented to the life world of the addressees. These concepts are being adapted to the work with functionally illiterate persons. The approach discussed here includes different forms of action promoting literacy: both learning and consulting, and also institutional cooperation in networks. …
Justice and justice competence: Discourse and practice for a critical political education Most societies accept justice and social justice as principles. Their inherent norms and values are dependant on the historical context as well as on political and individual concepts, and are thus negotiable. Within the context of a European Grundtvig-Project, "Political Participation through Social Competence: Curricular Development for Courses on Democratic Citizenship" the article discusses the idea…
What kind of continuing education is appropriate for me? More and more potential continuing education participants are turning to adult education institutions with this question. They often expect help in planning their educational and/or professional career. The ProfilPASS is the best known qualitative approach to educational and professional counselling in Germany; it is also used in some parts of Austria. The ProfilPASS is a portfolio used exclusively by qualified ProfilPASS counsellors to h…
Consultancy in transition Interfaces of school and study as well as of study and job Setting out from the point of a teaching insight, which understands study as a job biographical phase, study entrance as well as study withdrawal as central interfaces of this phase achieve increasing significance. At the universities increasingly practical initiatives at these interfaces can be observed; certainly hardly any empirical studies exist that take a closer look at the need of the students at thi…
