Research
We explore how adult education can be made inclusive, digital and effective.
Services
Digital tools, specialist portals and data – for teachers, researchers, students and interested parties.
Institute
We offer research, transfer and infrastructure for lifelong learning.
Theoretical references in professional adult education and vocational training To the extent that social sciences are dependent on the terms with which they are formulated also adult education underlies the impacts of terminological decisions, that can be encountered this way or another way. The usage of the term intervention is such a decision, it stands in the centre of this contribution. By interpreting the empirical results of research on self-learning competences as well as by theoretic…
Didactic transition between education and working life This article examines the orientation of vocational training towards “learning areas” in the context of the larger thematic topic of “occupation and education”. The pivotal question around which the whole topic revolves is whether and in what ways the concept of “learning areas” can contribute to a constructive change in the dialectic between education and occupation. It is with this in mind that the relationship between education and p…
The didactical gap in the “didactical self choice” In adult education didactics are closely conglomerated with learn theoretical concepts without clearly naming its own questions in content. This becomes especially obvious in the newly research on e-learning. After the failure of the technically possible, the call for didactics has become loud. When one regards the pertinent publications, one finds remarkably many which take their didactical foundation from the learn theory and therewith ha…
Knowledge and experience can be understood as pivotal didactic variables not only in age-based learning environments but also in intergenerational learning cultures. This article focuses these two concepts and analyses them with regard to their function and relevance in intergenerational learning cultures. The theoretical and empirical findings of a triangulative study will support the argument. By presenting a theoretical and practical dichotomy concerning the use of knowledge and experience i…
In the past, continuing higher education at university level has been a marginal phenomenon in Germany, both within universities and the context of adult education on the whole. Internationally though, adult education has gained significant importance / relevance in recent years. While implementing the objectives of the bologna-process, German universities are undergoing a far-reaching transition. In addition, the rules of market economy will apply for universities increasingly. This very devel…
Adult education is a field that is strongly shaped by tensions between scientific and political demands. The development of competencies as well as the idea of continuing to learn throughout the whole life are topics that have been debated in science and policy for many years and are still of great importance today. This dissertation deals with the relationship between science and European education policy in adult education by analyzing scientific journal articles and political documents from …
The German Adult Education Centres (VHS) consider themselves as further learning institutions for all whose aim it is to address the population at large. However, the data basis on the extent to which socially disadvantaged groups are reached is restricted. The present contribution investigates to which extent persons with a low level of school education are represented among the participants of the Adult Education Centres in Berlin. The investigation is linked to previous results of the resear…
Political Adult Education and its Crises Political education is often attested as being somewhat critical. As was the case of the twentieth publication of REPORT in 1987 in which the main focus – even though at the time it was not identified as such – was on this theme. The issue commenced with a contribution from Horst Siebert; this contribution shall now be the starting point to explore the highlights on the development of the past years and to determine its positioning. This will ensue in…
None
Further education networks from the view of the sociological neo-socialisms The contribution analyses chances and perspectives which are opened up by applying the theory of sociological neo-institutionalism to network research carried out within the field of adult education. The theory is understood as complementary to those network theories and concepts which are referred to within research already. In a first step basic assumptions and concepts of the sociological neo-institutionalism are …
