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.
After the federal elections, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research has taken on a new organisational structure. For the first time, its activities in further education are now bundled together in a seperate department (»Lifelong Learning, Further Education«), thus enabling the ministry to »speak with one voice«. On top of this, the superior department is »University, Further Education«, which shows that the two are considered as equivalent from the organisationalpolitical viewpoint.
So far in the field of continuing education research the management concept is and has been primarily focused. Therefore the research is still centred on directing structures and objective processes. Thus, this article concentrates on leadership, i.?e. the superior’s intended influence on the coordination of organisation members. Based on a contrastive case comparison, it analyses the enhancement of hierarchical and non-hierarchical forms of action coordination triggered by the superior’s leade…
A variety of investigations are concerned with examining competencies of professionals in fields of adult education, neglecting the question what characterizes the activities they perform in order to organize learning situations. By analyzing an opening sequence of two different adult education lessons, the author shows, how microethnographic approaches of analyzing videotaped face-to-face interaction offer new insights in how participants ordinarily deal with challenges of establishing and sus…
Didactics – more than the art of teaching? The contribution gives an overview of the historical terms of didactics. With the background of changing paradigms, drawn is the entry of the didactical term into adult education and its development since the 1960s. One focus of the consideration is on the didactical change from “teaching“ to “formation of learning contexts”, which was influenced by the discussion on constructivism. Concluding, the author elaborates on the state of research on didac…
Natural Sciences as a Constitutive Element of Modern Adult Education Imparting natural scientific knowledge to a socially broad audience was already quite common in manifold forms before adult education as such was really constituted in the last third of the 19th century. Some of the questions raised when natural science spread in the 18th and 19th centuries are still or again relevant in the 21st century. This paper tries to demonstrate that notion in a summarized form on the basis of an ex…
Der demografische Wandel wirft Fragen auf, die auch für die Weiterbildung von Bedeutung sind. Führende Alternsforscher stellen in diesem Buch Ergebnisse ihrer Forschung vor, die multidisziplinär mit Methoden der Psychologie, Soziologie und Erziehungswissenschaft arbeitet. Das Buch präsentiert den internationalen Forschungsstand und diskutiert Möglichkeiten, den Alterungsprozess gesellschaftlich und persönlich zu bewältigen.
Similarly to Austria and Switzerland adult education competencies could be recognized cross-provider in Germany. Within a joint research and development project the DIE and different associations of adult and continuing education develop basics for a correspondent method for teachers. The authors focus on preceded feasibility studies and needs assessments of the DIE. These show an overwhelming approval of the target group to initiate such activities, but also see risks as well as opportunities …
Lerntheorien sind eine wichtige Grundlage für alle, die sich professionell mit Lehren auseinandersetzen. In jüngerer Vergangenheit entstanden viele Theorien, die über den Behaviorismus und Kognitivismus hinausweisen und Lernen als menschliche Aktivität in einem sozialen Zusammenhang begreifen. Dadurch eröffnen sich lerntheoretische Bezüge zu Interessen, Gemeinschaften, Gefühlen, Arbeitsplätzen u.a. Auch wird die Vorstellung überwunden, Lernen sei primär für Kinder und Jugendliche bedeutsam. So …
Designing consultancy Research on consultancy for adult education and extracurricular youth education? Besides a scientific debate, the following contribution is about facing the challenge of the action competence consultancy in the context of making pedagogues professionals. The aim is to modify and design existing interdisciplinary knowledge for consultancy in the context of adult education. How consultancy in the practice of adult education can be analysed interdisciplinary and which po…
