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The inheritance of Paul Röhrig as a subject for historical research in adult education The article presents the types of sources and texts found in the estate of Paul Röhrig (1922–2007) and after an introduction to his biography and work, outlines positions on topics of art historical research that can be elaborated on this basis. The approaches to a systematized history of the study of adult education in the West German post-war years which arise from this will be outlined in an account wit…
This article discusses the consequences of increasing access of non-traditional students to higher education (HE) in Sweden for society, individuals, and HE. The findings are based on a recently finished European Research Project called Access and Retention: Experiences of Non-traditional Students in Higher Education (RANLHE) with seven countries involved. First, an introduction about opening access to HE is presented, followed by a review of Swedish HE policy. Next is a presentation of the RAN…
The author has collected self-reports of functional illiterates and questioned them on their “joy potential“. Three qualitatively set up analyses of the 1990s serve as sources. The contribution shows that the participation in literacy courses can cause a significant increase of self-confidence by overcoming experiences of deficit. The experience of attention and support is seen as encouraging and it contributes considerably to take over responsibility for one’s own life.
Adult education for people without school graduation or graduation from vocaltional training Report on a study for the OECD Germany participated in the partial undertaking “adult learning of the low educated and low skilled” within the OECD-programme “Thematic review on adult learning: The second round”. The contribution describes the decrease of the level of qualification of the younger population and from this it names the resulting requirements to adult education.
The study Competencies in Later Life (CiLL) provides for the first time representative data regarding the competencies of older people between the age of 66 to 80 years in three different domains: literacy, numeracy, and problem solving in technology-rich environments. It is shown that there are significant differences between people with different qualification, but also between people of different birth cohorts. Despite major qualification differences between men and women, there are no signi…
In PIAAC the assessed basic skill problem solving in technology-rich environments connects two different competences: problem solving and dealing with media. Based on a closer examination of this construct and related concepts the comparison of the terms shows overlaps as well as differences which also come into effect in their operationalization. A comparative analysis of the PIAAC instruments with instruments to assess media literacy, media competence or digital competence illustrates the dif…
The article provides an insight into the first results of the PIAAC study and links it with mixed-method and qualitative-empirical approaches as well as the development of competencies in life course. For this purpose, it shows two studies which focus an individual development approach in contrast to the quantitative assessment approach of PIAAC. The aim is to present advantages and disadvantages of different research perspectives.
