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European countries, North America and Japan are strongly affected by demographic change and ageing populations. In these countries a discourse emerged about using the potentials of older people and the role of lifelong learning in this process. This text focuses on international results of further educational participation of older people and outlines concepts of learning in later life in Germany.
Given the current debate over qualifications and skills of teachers in adult education, the continuing education programme “Basic qualification for literacy and basic educational work” developed within the framework of the joint project ProGrundbildung seeks to professionalise adult education teachers who work in or who want to work in the field of literacy and basic education. The authors present the concept of continuing education and discuss the data on personnel structure, motives for under…
A video-study of language courses in adult education analyses the transformation of a learning side into a pedagogical space. The definition of pedagogical space is linked to the theory of social space. Space is thus viewed as an arrangement and perception between human beings and social goods. This recasting of social space as a pedagogical space specifies social space to include two additional elements: the representation of knowledge and pedagogical media. For this study, the transformation …
In adult education, fields of activity have lost their strict boundaries: administrative employees also perform pedagogical work – such as counselling, for instance – and full-time pedagogical employees also have to handle administrative work – e.g. in project management. Both qualitatively and quantitatively, administrative employees play an important role in the pedagogical functioning of institutions of adult education, although this factor is often neglected in both research and measures of…
The following article focuses on the debate on organizational learning from an adult-educational point of view. In most approaches to organizational learning the members of an organization are regarded as the main drivers of organizational learning processes. However, such approaches do not systematically incorporate important presumptions of learning-theory, although this promises to create a better understanding of adult-educational experiences within organizations. Hence, the article present…
Es ist nahezu ein Allgemeinplatz, von der Pluralität der Lernorte zu sprechen und mittlerweile Konsens, die Vielfalt der Orte des Lehrens und Lernens sowie deren Eingebundensein in gesellschaftliche Strukturen und Funktionen zu akzeptieren und wissenschaftlich zu verorten. Es gibt eine diszplinübergreifende Übereinstimmung darin, dass es neben den traditionellen Orten institutionalisierten und organisierten Lernens eine Vielzahl von „offenen“ und „freien“ Lernorten gibt. In jüngster Zeit gewinn…
Vienna’s adult education centres have developed a frame curriculum which focuses on the eight European key competences in continuing education with consideration of national and European educational strategies as well as the European Qualification Framework. The report focuses on the frame curriculum’s key elements and its contact points with the National Qualification Framework – taking the programme area of art and culture as an example. Cultural awareness and artistic competence as a key com…
How can the performances of continuing education become more influential in the German Qualification Framework (DQR)? The author presents concrete recommendations derived from a cross-provider work group: presentation of key competences across all levels; classification of qualifications acquired in continuing education to individual levels (example of level 6). With regard to the inclusion of non-formal and informal competences in continuing education, the author refers to the potential of EU …
This article provides an overview of the debate on learning environments and learning locations within adult education research; the authors use a historical review of main research topics in order to understand current learning environments and recent theoretical and empirical discussions. The term of learning environments or learning locations has been introduced into research on adult education in the 1970ies; since this time, each following decade can be characterized by several specific re…
Due to the increasing blur of learning boundaries, the need arises for re-defining the concept of learning space. Based on an understanding of learning space, which refers to the local circumstances within organized education programs, the article initially aspires to include the debate on learning space in the discussion of informal learning, before it then focuses on the relation between time and location and the significance of virtual learning spaces. The article itself does not re-define t…
