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We explore how adult education can be made inclusive, digital and effective.
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Die konstruktivistische Erkenntnis, dass der "lernende Erwachsene" ein Konstrukt bleiben muss, die Tatsache, dass empirisches Wissen über Teilnahme und Nicht-Teilnahme an Weiterbildung zu gering ist und viele Aspekte mehr rücken die Teilnehmenden in das Zentrum des Interesses. Diese Ausgabe der Zeitschrift REPORT greift das Thema aus der Perspektive wissenschaftlicher Zugänge auf und nimmt gleichzeitig Empirie und Theorie in den Blick.
Working at companies in old age – problem or opportunity? Company strategies for dealing with demographic change Demographic change usually confronts companies with a double challenge. Enterprises have to work with ageing staffs, while a veritable “war for talent” is underway to attract young skilled staff. This article explores the different strategies German enterprises are adopting to meet this challenge. At the same time, it distinguishes between tried-and-proven staff strategies whic…
The article focuses the question whether workforce literacy strategies in research and policies may tend to exclude relevant fields of literacy, which have emancipatory chances for participants, but which regularly fail in including low qualified or literate adults, namely the area of basic civic education. The relevance of basic civic education will be discussed using contemporary theories, which point at a crisis of democracy and explain this by the spread of income and capital and its legiti…
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. …
It has recently become widely accepted that reluctance to learning in adults may be explained by features inherent in the (presentation of the) subject matter, which may be perceived by the learner as being unsuited to his or her needs. A successful learning environment, the argument goes, must meet certain standards: for instance, learning should be active, self-directed, situated and constructive. Reluctance to learning in explained as a negative reaction to the absence of these standards. Th…
Strategies for the strengthening of networking work Selected results from the context of the programme of the Federal Ministry for Education and Research “Learning culture and competency development” A large number of publications on the subject matter of network are engaged with the conditions of the initiation as well as the management of networks. An issue that has so far been neglected in research however poses the question of the strengthening of networking work. The initiation of netw…
The article describes the project „Deutscher Bildungsserver“ which is working as a meta-server to supply users with an information system of relevant data in the field of education, adult and further education. The internet is offering big quantities of information and the chance to build up complex documents. Both make it more difficult to select and evaluate information. The „Deutscher Bildungsserver“ incorporates information critically bringing it into an order making it easier for users to …
Competing for Third-party Funds. Development strategies for adult education providers. Which strategic opportunities are available for adult education providers which would like to successfully attract sponsors on the third-party funds market? This article distinguishes four concepts according to an organisational theoretical perspective which are widely accepted in practice and only partially combined: (a) „flexible specialization“: the purpose is to increase the reaction period of content-bas…
