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For various reasons adult participation in lifelong learning does not measure up to expectations tied to the agenda of lifelong learning. The article suggests that adults relate learning activities to their conceptions of life stages. Therefore, participation in institutionalized continuing education must rather be linked to life-stage-dependant decisions based on sociocultural patterns than to the acceptance of lifelong learning in general. Specifically in the stage of professional life, these…
This article discusses the question how knowledge may be used for new or alternative learning decisions and in how far the post-modern understanding of “knowledge” is involved in this process. More precisely, it is discussed how organisations and individuals use knowledge as a result of learning in general and with respect to continuing learning decisions and how expectations and evaluations regarding the use of continuing education are placed in cultures of learning. The argument is based on l…
Starting out with deliberations on the relationship between the course of life and the constructed biography of an individual, this article intends to elucidate the contexts of learning as they are treated in various (inter-)national studies, by focusing on the individual’s course of life. To clarify which methodological design is most appropriate to study processes of (lifelong) learning and education, it then seems necessary to highlight a particular methodological approach. This leads, ultim…
This article describes the attempt to reveal the most suitable methods of learning for learners of the German language without previous knowledge of the Latin alphabet (Literacy DaZ Courses). Seven different methods of learning are compared in four different courses so that each syllabus will be mediated in one course with method A and in another with method B and so on. The method of teaching/learning will be switched with each new syllabus. The article focuses on the critical description of t…
This article about European networks as support for lifelong learning starts with an attempt to define the differences between European projects and European networks. The European Association for the education of Adults (EAEA) is put forward as an example of a European network. It focuses on the association’s mission statement, its aims and activities and how it can support adult learning in Europe. In this way it also demonstrates how these networks can reinforce transnational cooperation and…
Serving oneself. The new voluntary work and the role of full-time educationalists People’s own learning and development motives play a more important role in the “new voluntary work” than before. This article relates subjective descriptions by volunteers of the learning motives underlying their commitments and adopts a profession-oriented theoretical perspective to relate these to a strategy of support for volunteers by full-time educationalists, referred to as learning and development supp…
This article reflects how preparation time for the 2006 World Cup in Germany was packed with daunting learning tasks and learning expectation and education metaphors. A distinction is made between two levels: first of all, with respect to the population at large, the expectation of being a model host inculcating the ideals of friendliness towards foreign nationals and a service mentality. Daunting learning and educational tasks associated with the narrower field of the national football team, i…
The article reveals the effects of GRUNDTVIG learning partnerships between 2008 and 2012 and points out the most significant contents. The project’s future remains uncertain despite the increasing number of applications for GRUNDTVIG learning partnership. A continuation within »Erasmus for all« or »YES EUROPE« is possible.
In the view of cultural history, andragogy precedes pedagogy. The task of the andragogy is the social distribution of cultural innovations. The passing on of such innovation to the following generation is the task of pedagogy. Andragogy and pedagogy have been carried out over thousands of years in the mode of informal learning. With the dawn of literacy, formal learning emerges which then institutionalizes forms of schooling for the young generations. Institutions for andragogical formal learni…
This contribution suggests a reconstruction of didactic behavior in the context of adult education. Didactics is perceived as a specific kind of practice that can be analyzed with respect to its immanent significances. Thus, criteria of adult education didactics can be identified. These criteria are not only empirically found aspects concerning the conditions of success. Incorporated challenges concerning disciplining, impositions of teaching and authority matter as well. Notwithstanding adult …
