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.
The paper reviews developmental-psychological research on the (in-)stability of adult personality aspects. Big Five personality traits as well as surface characteristics are addressed. Hereby, the direction and the extent of change are compared for various personality aspects, and the influences on personality changes are discussed. Finally, conclusions are drawn for the field of adult education.
Cognition, emotion and mental self-regulation: on the nascency and solution of inner conflicts The contribution provides a short overview of several results on nascency and solution of inner conflicts which in the frame of a research programme on mental self-regulation in learning processes of adults were gained. The author was head of the project and she draws practical conclusions for adult education.
Exploring the inner aspect of learning. Methodological considerations for investigating life-long learning This article sets out research methods required for qualitative research aimed at understanding the inner aspect of learning. The aim is to make qualitative single case studies more relevant with regard to issues of education policy and social analysis. For this purpose, the following measures are proposed. (1) Close reading and reflexivity: Precisely studying the source texts sheds lig…
In diesem Essay wird die Konjunktur der Evaluation als zentrales Mass von Bildungsmanagement und Qualitätssicherung kritisch hinterfragt und verschiedene Evaluationstypen unterschieden. Danach gibt es: "Systemevaluation zum Zweck von Spar-, Abbau oder Umbaumassnahmen; immanenten Evaluation und Forschung zum Zwecke der Steuerung pädagogischen Handelns: Evaluation zu Legitimationszwecken, Evaluation in betrieblichen Transferprozessen zur Begleitung und Sicherung von Bildungsverwertung." Gege…
In zehn Porträts ausgewählter EB-Pioniere von Weitling über Zetkin und Luxemburg bis Strzelewicz werden die Anfänge der Erwachsenenbildung in einem Zeitraum von mehr als 100 Jahren erzählt. Durch diese besondere Auswahl, die Quellentexte und die (teilweise erstveröffentlichten) Fotografien öffnet sich der Blick auf die Geschichte der Erwachsenenbildung und ermöglicht neue Interpretationen.
Religion and adult education The combination of "Religion and adult education" has conspicuously various facets, especially in practice. Religious adult education will be presented by means of examples of Christian, Islamic and Jewish adult education. But Religion is also subject matter of secular adult education and for that reason it will be considered separately in this context. An additional focus will be on the inevitable reference to religious aspects of intercultural adult education b…
"Adult education students" as subject of the participation research After a short introduction into the questions and methods of a research project of participation research at the further education Danube University Krems, a partial result for motivation structure is sketched.
This article presents the results of an empirical research project in which participants in continuing education and employees were surveyed about their learning times. The survey indicated that (1) continuing education is co-financed on a large scale through the devotion of private time. (2) Individuals show flexibility and commitment in creating their own learning and continuing education times. (3) Times can no longer be clearly assigned to “learning” and “working” even from a subjective poi…
How to relate Natural Sciences to Adult Education Drawing on an intensive debate on the improvement of scientific literacy going on in Germany for more than ten years, this article deals with possible contributions of adult education. Starting with the marginal supply of science courses for adults, I focus on typical didactical arrangements and concepts. Based on an empirical study, exemplary didactical concepts are analysed regarding aims, topics, course type, and audience. The results are…
The authors explain their model of transferring self-directed learning elements from the context of projects to their daily work as adult education teachers in the Volkshochschule des Landkreises Gießen (adult education school). They focus on usability and investigate the learners' view on self-directed learning. Their results: If resources are used wisely, the implementation of self-directed learning is possible and learners appreciate it.