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Based on data collected in the OECD project »Social Outcomes of Learning (SOL)«, empirical research findings and resulting policy recommendations were generated in the report »Improving Health and Social Cohesion through Education«, which are presented in this shortened and translated version. Due to the overall sparse empirical evidence of benefit research, future research forms and necessary methodological approaches are outlined.
The Author presents a shortened version of the report »The Social and Personal Benefits of Learning: A Summary of Key Research Findings« by the »Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning (WBL)«. The wider benefits of early childhood education as well as school, university and adult education are examined. The wide range of positive educational benefits contains crime prevention as well as a reduced nicotine consumption or increased tolerance.
The report includes a slightly revised version of a lecture held during the opening ceremony of the German Continuing Education Day in Berlin in 2012. The author focuses on the day’s central idea: surplus value of continuing education and pleads for the use of the benefit concept, which includes the individual’s perspective, as well as the concept of profit with regard to the social and organizational perspective.
Jyri Manninen presents empirical data on the »wider benefits of lifelong learning« collected in Finish adult education institutions (adult education centres, folk high schools, university summer schools, study and sport centres) in 2007. To present the results, a model concept on the wider benefits of learning was developed, which includes a quintuple classification of the term »benefits«: 1. »relevant benefits for the learning process «, 2. »direct benefits«, 3. »skills and competences«, 4. »a…
The article describes how community learning, a special form of adult education in Ireland, generates benefits for both the individual and the society. The authors’ elaborations are empirically based on the reports »At the Forefront«, »Community Education: More than just a Course« and »Sowing the Seeds of Social Change«, conducted by the Irish National Adult Learning Organization (AONTAS).
