Research
We explore how adult education can be made inclusive, digital and effective.
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Digital tools, specialist portals and data – for teachers, researchers, students and interested parties.
Institute
We offer research, transfer and infrastructure for lifelong learning.
Inter-organizational cooperation is understood as a possibility to react on the needs of low skilled adults through the conception of adequate offers. The conception and implementation of new second chance qualification offers that provide a vocational qualification for adults does not only require organizations in the educational system. Also further partners are needed to combine different services across system boundaries that correspond to the educational and to the economic system. The sys…
The article summarizes the results of a case study in which two further education courses at universities are comparatively analyzed. It is examined how the knowledge transfer is linked to the governance of the courses. It can be shown that there is instrumental knowledge transfer in connection with managerial governance in the one study course whereas the other study course is distinguished by reflexive knowledge transfer and academic self-governance.
Initial results of the Level One Survey Germany (leo.) show that functional illiteracy affects 14.5 percent of working-age population (18–64 years of age). This translates into 7.5 million people who lack functional literacy skills in Germany. We will first introduce the method and design of the study. We will then explain the decisions taken in order to obtain the estimate of the dimension of functional illiteracy. These decisions were carefully taken, and they have contributed to a rather con…
Proceeding from the educational policy objective of achieving greater participation in continuing education, this article presents a set of instruments with which the learning and educational behaviour of adults can be measured statistically. Taking the example of data selected from the Continuing Education Reporting System (Berichtssystem Weiterbildung (BSW)) and the Adult Education Survey (AES), the potential for analysis and the generation of knowledge offered by statistics on continuing edu…
A video-study of language courses in adult education analyses the transformation of a learning side into a pedagogical space. The definition of pedagogical space is linked to the theory of social space. Space is thus viewed as an arrangement and perception between human beings and social goods. This recasting of social space as a pedagogical space specifies social space to include two additional elements: the representation of knowledge and pedagogical media. For this study, the transformation …
Literacy as a social practice in a district. An ethnographic theory for basic education practice In German-speaking countries, the theoretical discussion on literacy work is characterised far more by a focus on deficits than is the Anglo-Saxon debate. This article narrows this theoretical gap by adopting Barton & Hamilton’s ethnographic research approach to local literacies for an empirical investigation into literacy practices. The project presented here studies how and why reading and wri…
Serving oneself. The new voluntary work and the role of full-time educationalists People’s own learning and development motives play a more important role in the “new voluntary work” than before. This article relates subjective descriptions by volunteers of the learning motives underlying their commitments and adopts a profession-oriented theoretical perspective to relate these to a strategy of support for volunteers by full-time educationalists, referred to as learning and development supp…
Personal and organisational educational counselling The need for support in the search for tailor-made educational programmes is growing along with the ongoing individualisation of educational pathways. Counselling of individuals and organisations is gaining importance in this context. This issue focuses both on new theories as well as educational policy developments, devoting attention to current challenges in various fields of action: the training of vocational counsellors, research of coun…
The authors explain their model of transferring self-directed learning elements from the context of projects to their daily work as adult education teachers in the Volkshochschule des Landkreises Gießen (adult education school). They focus on usability and investigate the learners' view on self-directed learning. Their results: If resources are used wisely, the implementation of self-directed learning is possible and learners appreciate it.
Diese Expertise begleitet den disziplinübergreifenden Diskurs der Arbeitsgruppe „Lernforschung“, welche vom DIE 2004 einberufen wurde. Die Expertise prüft, präsentiert und reflektiert den Stand der empirischen Erforschung des Lernens in der Disziplin Erwachsenenbildung. Für den Zeitraum von 1990 bis 2004 werden in kurzen Skizzen rund 50 Studien vorgestellt, die sich auf systematisch erhobene und methodisch kontrollierte Befunde stützen. Ihre Gegenstände reichen vom Lernen in Institutionen über …
