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Inclusion – An Organisational Challenge. Steps towards Inclusive Adult Education. Part 1 The report evaluates the option of offering inclusive adult education at adult education centres on a larger scale. The compatibility of the new policy statement in adult education centres and the principle of inclusion are pointed out. Implications of the concept of inclusion are presented, which lead to the conclusion that inclusion can only be implemented with a comprehensive organisational developmen…
Receptive or hostile to continuing education? Course tutors caught between the pressure to conform and resistance This article presents the results of a qualitative dissertation. The author has investigated the acceptance of adult education teacher training courses among part-time and freelance teachers based on the example of the initial adult education teacher training qualification offered by the North Rhine Westphalia VHS (adult education centre) regional association. For the issue of a…
This study starts from a dilemma which has been observed in adult basic education. On the one hand the use of assessments is regarded as supportive in order to determine in detail the learning needs of adults. On the other hand it is to be expected that persons with experiences of performing inadequately show justified anxieties or resistances in connection with test situations. I have chosen a research approach, which follows Holzkamp’s concept of a subject-scientific learning theory (1995), b…
Working in small groups can be regarded as constitutive for learning with cases. Using the example of case-based “train the trainer courses”, this contribution focuses on cooperative learning processes in small groups regarding the contents of the conversation and discussion structure as well as the effects on the competence development of individual adult learners. The presented results provide an insight of the processes of situated, problem-based learning in small groups which are common in …
The increasing functional illiteratism among young adults is the background for the project „Gilgamesch“ – a cooperation of the university and the adult education centre in Munich. The learners are organized in small groups, the emphasis of the courses is on verbal improvement, cognitive ordering and handling of knowledge and on the development of individual strategies to overcome writing problems. The project’s theoretical and practical results will be transmitted to various institutions deali…
Unity, difference, transitions On the way to a meta theory of the communication formats adult education, consultancy and therapy In theoretical substantiations of adult education the reconstruction perspective is too narrow arranged and adult education is forwardly regarded separately from structurally similar intervention forms. Similarities and transitions between adult education, consultancy and therapy are being neglected with negative consequences for the theoretical subject constituti…
This paper draws on three data sources – a national survey from Germany of adult literacy and numeracy skills (leo. – Level-One Study), the OECD’s Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competences (PIAAC), and case studies of workplaces in England – to argue for a greater focus by policymakers and researchers on the literacy demand experienced by adults. We consider the heterogeneity of the population of adults deemed functionally illiterate by large-scale national and internatio…
Didactical shift of epoch? Needs for clarification for the further development of didactical thinking, with regard to a DFG-supported research This contribution deals with the question, what science should clarify, explore and do in order to tackle a possible stagnation of didactical thinking (and therewith also its practical possibilities of impact). In spite of the fruitful provocation with which the didactical discussion has been revived in the last decade, especially from sides of cons…
Dohmen berichtet über neue Entwicklungstrends und Zukunftsperspektiven der Erwachsenenbildung in der USA.
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…
